Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Grease 2 - 9"x 5" loaf pans with either spray oil or by wiping a napkin or paper towel dipped in oil all over the pan. I like to also flour my oiled pan to ensure bread doesn't stick. Especially if I'm making a cinnamon swirl loaf.

Make sure your water is between 110-120 degrees to encourage your yeast to activate without over heating it. In the bowl of standing mixer add water, sugar, and yeast. Give the mixture a small stir. Cover and let sit for 5-10 minutes or until yeast mixture is bubbly and smells very yeasty.

Once the yeast is activated, add salt and oil to the yeast mixture and mix on low until incorporated.

Slowly incorporate flour into the dough mixture while mixing on low speed.

Once shaggy dough is formed and all of the flour is incorporated, knead on low-medium speed in standing mixture for 8-10 minutes until the dough is a smooth elastic ball.

Stop kneading and let rise for 10-20 minutes or until doubled in size. The warmer your kitchen is, the faster the dough will rise.

Punch down the dough, separate into 2 equal balls. Roll into a 9"-12" flat rectangle with your palms or a rolling pin.

Form dough into a loaf shape by rolling the short side into a tight spiral while folding the edges in at the same time. Pinch seam to hold loaf together. Plop into bread pan seam side down.

Cover with a towel and let sit 15-20 minutes or until doubled in size.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.

Remove bread from oven and let sit 10 minutes in pans to cool. After 10 minutes, run knife around pan edge to loosen loaves from pan and turn pan upside down to get the loaf out. Let loaves cool completely on wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.

For cinnamon swirl loaf: When rolled into a flat rectangle, slather with soft butter and then sprinkle a mixture of 3tbsp sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon over the rectangle leaving a 1" edge. Roll up as usual. You can also sprinkle with chopped pecans or raisins if you'd like.