My regular sandwich loaf -- Great bread!
Merry Christmas fresh loafers! This has been my go to recipe for sandwich bread for some time now. It freezes well sliced and each loaf keeps me for 2 - 3 weeks in sandwich bread. The recipe is a version of Peter Reinhart's recipe for soft sandwich bread and rolls from Artisan Bread's Every Day. I use a natural yeast, a sweet levain at 100% hydration. The current levain is at least three years old.
To finish the loaf, I brushed with an egg glaze and then scored the top, finally getting a good score and a nice grigne. It tells me I judged the proofing right. It is nice to get a great bake in a relatively new kitchen and new oven and at a new altitude and humidity. I am figuring it out.
May all of your Christmas dreams come true and happy baking!
Ski
Comments
Merry Chistmas to you, too, Brian, and, as the Germans say, "einen Guten Rutsch" (= a smooth glide) into the New Year,
Karin
Recipe to follow.
thank you for sharing Ski - this looks wonderful! would you mind sharing the recipe ?
150 grams sweet levain starter @ 100% hydration. I feed the stock starter 3 times before raising a loaf
675 grams strong bread flour
375 grams whole milk, scalded and cooled
78 grams honey, dissolve in the milk
1 egg beaten and added to cooled milk
1/2 Tablespoon active dry yeast
85 grams melted, unsalted butter
shy 1/2 Tablespoon salt
There was about 1,520 grams of dough and I scaled the pan loaf to 908 grams as per Reinhart. Made a lovely loaf!
Mix well and let rest 10 minutes. To develop the dough, I did 4 sets of stretch & folds with 10 minutes rest in between. I proofed until the dough had doubled, then shaped for a loaf pan. I let proof for an hour then turned on the oven to 350F. When it reached temperature, I set the timer for 15:00. When the oven was hot, I brushed egg wash on top of the loaf, then slashed with a lame. Baked 20:00 or so with steam, removed the steam, turned the loaf pan and finished for about 20 minutes. You want the internal temperature above 185F I went to above 190F and had a good result. Nice balance of crust and crumb.
Happy baking! Ski
Hi Skibum,
Your bread looks great. Have you tried converting this recipe to being a sourdough loaf?
If you have, would you be able to pass that recipe on as well.
Thank you.
My sweet levain starter is like a 'sourdough' starter. I prefer a sweet starter over a sour starter.
Happy baking, Ski
Like DBM would say: Looks grand, Ski!
Why are you baking less now? Because your neighbor has a bakery???
Wishing you a great year of fantastic baking ahead!
Yippee
Yes, my neighbor does indeed run a bakery. I bake less because I have discovered loaves that can be baked and then frozen successfully for several weeks. I do a loaf of this sandwich bread every 21/2 - 3 weeks. Ditto for a loaf of pulla. A full loaf of either goes a long way at a couple of slices a day!
Happy baking! Ski
rolls and Joe Va's sandwich thins too! What ? No snow so you have to bake? I didn't think I would see a post from you till Spring skiing was over:-)
Happy Holidays Ski
I didn't think I would see another post from you. I haven't seen you post here in a while. I hope you are okay. Way too cold to ski as these past few days have been below 0F. It has warmed up to a balmy +4C this morning.
For the longest time you were one of TFL's most prolific posters. What happened? Nice to see you back posting.
Happy baking! Ski
for a few months until my A1C was back to the right number and I lost some weight. Now all is well and I;m back to posting again.
Glad to have you back and happy you are feeling better. I'm sure a lot of fresh loafers also missed your posts and comments.
Happy baking! Ski
Ski - is this a SD starter refreshed frequently so it isn’t sour or a different beast altogether? I am intrigued - I don’t like sour bread either. Last night started my raspberry yeast water again, but am keen to learn about sweet levains too
a great bake Ski,
Leslie
Sourdough, or natural yeast starters or levain attain a sour taste with a low hydration, say 60 % in my memory. I believe temperature is also a factor in getting a sour taste. I believe higher hydration, (100%) and cooler temperatures result in a sweeter levain.
For my sweet levain, the master rests in the fridge until two days before a bake. I then take 40 grams of the master levain and add 80 grams each water @ 90F and strong bread flour. Next day or once doubled, I do a second starter batch, just like the first. The third starter is just the same, natural yeast starter fed 1:1:1, starter. water and flour. Once doubled the levain is ready for baking. I always leave a bit of starter, so it can be replenished for the next bake.
Perhaps my best 'secret' to a great natural yeast levain is to use water that has absolutely NO chlorine. I start with Britta filtered water and microwave it in a pyrex jar to drive off chlorine. I then place the glass container in sunlight for at least 5 minutes as this will kill off any remaining chlorine and leave you with pure water.
So, as I understand it, low temperatures and high hydration equal a sweet starter and room temperatures and lower hydration yield a sour starter. Since I have refreshed my starter in this manner, I have have had no sour taste, hence my sweet levain label. Hope this helps.
Happy baking! Ski
I am building my levains in a similar way but with probably 1 less refresh and using room temperature water (bottled and no chlorine in it!) so maybe I will see what happens if I follow your method next bake.
happy baking
Leslie