The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

white loaf

Dave W's picture
Dave W

white loaf

I know this is going to be boring but!!!!!!! my wife wants me to make an ordinary white loaf, soft white, no sourdough!!!! not rustic, no crusty white bread,  but just like a sliced loaf anyone would buy! help please! (no i'm not going to go out and buy one!)

Cheers

Dave W

Susan's picture
Susan

Your First Loaf

Susan from San Diego

Janedo's picture
Janedo

As a sourdough, rustic bread lover, a couple of weeks ago I had lots of fun testing basic white sandwich loaf from The Bread Bible. It was good! There's something fun about going back to basics. But maybe that's my opinion because I haven't eaten sandwich bread in years. Nostalgia maybe?

http://myculinaryjournal.blogspot.com/2008/04/soft-sandwich-loaf.html

Here's a blog that has the recipe.

Jane 

edh's picture
edh

This is the recipe I've been meaning to try, but haven't quite got round to yet. It looks yummy!

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3149/soft-white-ish-sandwich-bread

edh

holds99's picture
holds99

Dave,

Sounds like you're looking for a good "direct" baking method recipe for a daily loaf using yeast instead of a pre-ferment..  I used to do a lot of direct baking before I found TFL.  Anyway, King Arthur's has numerous direct method  bread recipes (without pre-ferments) on their website.  Try this link.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landing.jsp?go=DefaultRecipeMain

You also might consider purchasing the King Arthur Flour's Bakers Companion baking book.  At 500+ pages it's very comprehensive on all sorts of baking; recipes, techniques, tools, etc.  It's a great baking book for any level baker.  Incidentally, Amazon's price, when I purchased my copy of KA Baker's Companion was considerably less than King Arthur's price.  Go figure.  Anyway, Good Luck.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

Dave W's picture
Dave W

Thanks everyone, looks like the weather over here in the UK is goint to be **** (not very nice)  tomorrow being a bank holiday !!!!!!!!, so looks like an all out assult on the oven and bread making.

Cheers

Dave W

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

Tomorrow, in the US, is Memorial Day..what is your bank holiday? Let us know how the assault goes!

fancypantalons's picture
fancypantalons

I've been using this Amish Friendship Bread recipe as the basis for my sandwich breads with a great deal of success:

 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Amish-Bread/Detail.aspx

Note, I've altered the recipe as follows:

1) Adjusted the ratios to get the hydration I wanted (IIRC, it was a bit dry the first time I made it).

2) Altered the recipe to use an overnight poolish.  No idea if it's really done much for the bread, but it works, and it's not much extra work.

3) *Significantly* cut back on the sugar.  The recipe calls for 1/4C!  I turned that down to 1 Tbsp per 700g loaf, which, to my taste, is just perfect.

With these changes, I get a nice, consistent sandwich bread that my wife really likes (she's pretty picky about her bread :), and I've been using it as a base for experimentation with other flours and grains, etc (I usually make it with 25% white flour and 60-70% whole wheat, and then fiddle with other ingredients for the rest, such as flax, rye, etc).

 

Marni's picture
Marni

I also have been using this recipe for a long time.  It stands up to all kinds of variations.  I have also cut back on the oil and sugar.  I have sometimes changed it to whole wheat or part spelt flour (not appropiate for this post!) I have to admit that my kids love it with most of the sugar- hey, they're kids!  I haven't tried a poolish, but make it using my KA and two rises.  I highly recommend it.

Marni

fancypantalons's picture
fancypantalons

Out of curiosity, how much have you dialed down the oil?  I've considered doing that, but I didn't want to damage the softness of the crumb.

Marni's picture
Marni

I have to admit I'm relaxed about measuring.  I would guess I only cut back about 1-1 1/2 tablespoons.  I just make it scant.  I have used half the sugar regularly.  I find this to be a very forgiving recipe.  Someone reviewed it and posted the equivalent to 18 T.  I think it is 3/4C +2T, I have no idea what the weight would be.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Marni

fancypantalons's picture
fancypantalons

Actually, that's quite helpful. :) If you're reducing it back that much, it suggests there's a lot of room for adjustment, so I can just play around with it without worrying that I'll totally mess up a perfectly good loaf.

Dave W's picture
Dave W

Well the weather did'nt turn out as bad as expected, so didn't get round to making the white loaf, that will be next on the list. But I did make a "sea weed bread" ! now I based the recipe on the Richard Bertinet seaweed bread recipe and instead of using 10g of dried seaweed I used 200g of fresh. Over here in the UK we get at this time of the year "Samphire" which is a type of seaweed that grows on the esturies, our local fishmonger actualy goes and picks it so is super fresh, its brilliant just done like spinach, rinsed off and then cooked for a minet or so in butter, served with a nice piece of salmon or such fish with new Cheshire potatoes and a chive butter sauce. (see you even get a recipe thrown in !) its making me hungry now. But, back to the bread. The only reason I used the Samphire was we had some left over (uncooked) as I as usual bought to much ! wondered what to do with it so there we are, use it in a bread I thought.

 250g white flour 250 whole wheat flour 10g fresh yeast, 5 g salt 350g or so of water at 20 degrees (i reduced the salt due to the seaweed) make the dough and add the seaweed towards the end of kneeding.

If I can manage to put a pic on here I will of the loaf.

Cheers

Dave W

Dave W's picture
Dave W

Just looked at the Amish bread recipe, what is Canola oil?

Cheers

Dave W 

 

fancypantalons's picture
fancypantalons

It's a type of rapeseed oil, extracted from a number of different cultivars, and first developed in my home country, Canada.  It's relatively tasteless, and fairly healthy.  I'm sure you can replace it with any oil you like, though.