White Yeast Bread

This is my all-time favorite bread recipe.

Approx.  5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
1/4 cup sugar
1 pkg. active dry yeast
2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1/4 shortening

Mix two cups of the flour with sugar, yeast, and salt.  Heat milk and shortening together over low heat until warm.  Stir into flour mixture.  Mix in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.  Knead on a lightly floured surface until dough is smooth and elastic, about 8-10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and turn over once to grease upper side of dough.  Cover and let rise in a warm place (80 to 85 F) until double in size.  Grease two 9x5x2 1/2" loaf pans.  Press dough down to remove air bubbles.  Divide in half.  Shape into loaves.  Place in loaf pans.  Let rise in warm place until double in size.  Preheat oven to 400 F.  Bake 20 minutes.  Remove bread from pan and cool on rack.  Yield: 2 loaves, 16 slices each, about 100 calories per slice.