Can anyone recommend a really solid recipe for great sandwich soft white bread please ? I’ve been baking sourdough (Dutch oven, Tartine basic technique) for 18 months now and (after much trial and error) getting decent results, now able to play with blends etc, and I personally love that kind of bread the most. But I’d like to be able to make a really nice white sandwich loaf - because others in my family and friends prefer that kind of bread. I’m open to whether it’s pure yeasted, or has a sourdough element, or uses a pre ferment of some kind, or has fat/sugar incorporated, but just a recipe or two that experienced people here know and love (tried and tested) for this type of bread. Thanks for any thoughts.
Here’s one I use for my grandchildren. It always works, and it’s basically off of the Gold Medal flour bag…
Ben’s Soft White Bread
594g (2-½ cups) very warm water (120-130°F)
25g (⅛ cup) shortening
57g (¼ cup) unsalted butter, softened
41g (3-⅓ Tbsp) sugar
950g (6-¾ cups) bread flour
17g (1 Tbsp) salt
19g (5 tsp) yeast
In a mixer combine all ingredients and mix on low speed one minute. Increase the speed and knead the dough about 10 minutes or until smooth and springy. Place dough into a greased bowl and place in a warm spot to rise for about 40 minutes, or until about doubled.
Grease two 9”x5” bread pans. Preheat oven to 350°F.
Divide dough into two equal pieces. Flatten each half into a rectangle, then fold the rectangle into thirds like a letter. Flatten into a rectangle again, and then roll tightly and pinch ends and seams shut. Place each loaf into a pan, cover lightly and put into a warm place for about 30 minutes to rise.
Bake loaves 35-40 minutes until loaves are a deep golden brown. Remove from oven and after 5 minutes remove loaves from pans and set on a wire rack to cool.
Note: For a softer crust, butter the loaf tops immediately after taking them out of the pans, then cover with plastic wrap until cool.
I use emerge exact recipe from Tartine (country loaf) and the sandwich tin comes out just as well.
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A belated question Robert - how do you shape for a tin? And do you use steam in the oven at all?
Have you ever tried a Hokkaido milk bread? It is made from regular milk, has butter and a bit of sugar. I’ve posted my bake of this wonderfully silky soft bread as a sourdough loaf but you can easily find yeasted versions as well.
My blog post of the recipe and my bake is here.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68408/semolina-milk-bread
I made up this recipe myself based on Benny's bread above and some other inspiration, and was really-really pleasantly surprised with the result. Nice mild flavour, a light touch of sweetness, and a pleasant slightly yellow hue to the crumb from semolina. You just might want to reduce the hydration a few % to make the holes a little smaller if you prefer.
I just made a version of the bread a few days ago again (using yeast and CLAS instead of the starter), and it's really nice again. I made it as a large free-standing loaf instead of putting in pans, and also split off two small buns to serve as burger buns, and they were spot on for that purpose too.
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Brizzle, I’m with Benny.
Take a look at THIS POST.
Doesn’t get any softer than this.
Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions! I’ll get to work and report back.
I shape it as I would a batard. A little steam is essential to get the rise and shine I am after.
roberto
Much as I love a super crusty, multi grain sourdough (and I really, really do) sometimes only a sandwich loaf will do. I've tried many sandwich loaf recipes and methods, none of which satisfied. I'd previously been reluctant to bake with Tangzhong because it seemed so very odd, but I was getting desperate, and Benito's recipe looked reliable so, last week I gave it a go. What a find! Light, soft, tasty, toasts well. Me and Benny's Hokkaido milk bread are going steady now.
So glad you baked it and liked it. Did you post your bake in your blogs? You should if you haven't yet.
Benny