Sweet Hawaiian Bread

Sometimes I surprise myself. 

 I have never had any luck at all with bread. Honestly, I made a banana bread once that could have been used as a weapon--it was bad! However I seemed to have turned over a new leaf or should I say, loaf! 

Although I must admit, I owe it all to my KitchenAid stand mixer. Ever since I bit the bullet and jumped on the KitchenAid bandwagon, I've managed to produce loaf after loaf of super tasty bread. I'm also happy to report that after a few "mushroom clouds" I've finally managed to get my bread to actually look like bread! 

I really hope this is not just a fluke!

Here's a recipe I adapted from Allrecipes "Amish White Bread" but I'm calling it Sweet Hawaiian Bread because I think it tastes exactly like those sweet Hawaiian rolls we all know and love except in loaf form. 

Start with 2 cups of warm water, 

2/3 cup of sugar, 

and 2 packets of active dry yeast. 

Let those ingredients foam up in large KitchenAid bowl. 

Am I the only one who is totally weirded out by yeast? 

It's kinda creepy, am I right?

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt 

and 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.

Attach the dough hook and mix at the lowest speed. 

Next Add 6 cups of bread flour, 

a half cup at a time. 

Alternate between speeds 1 & 2. 

This process seemed to take forever. 

But boy was it worth it! 

Now I'm certainly no expert but after adding all the flour, 

the dough seemed a little dry to me. 

So I added a splash of coconut milk. 

This may have been the secret ingredient!

Take out the dough, knead it by hand a bit,

and form a big dough ball.

Oil the bowl 

and roll the dough ball around in the oily bowl.

Then seal the bowl up with plastic wrap 

and drape a towel over it. 

Since it was a pretty cold day, 

I tried this trick I read in one of the reviews: 

Turn on the oven for about 30 seconds, 

just long enough to warm it up,

then turn it off and 

let dough rise in the oven for an hour. 

After the dough doubles in size, 

punch it down and 

knead it a bit more by hand. 

Divide it into two ovalish loaves 

and place in greased/floured loaf pans. 

Let those babies rise for 30 more minutes. 

Then bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now eat your delicious sweet bread!

I served the bread with bbq chicken, mashed potatoes & corn 

and my family gobbled it all up!