The Fresh Loaf

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My regular sandwich loaf -- Great bread!

Skibum's picture
Skibum

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

hanseata's picture
hanseata

Merry Chistmas to you, too, Brian, and, as the Germans say, "einen Guten Rutsch" (= a smooth glide) into the New Year,

Karin

Skibum's picture
Skibum

Recipe to follow.

nnehme's picture
nnehme

thank you for sharing Ski - this looks wonderful! would you mind sharing the recipe ?

Skibum's picture
Skibum

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

papasmurf2525's picture
papasmurf2525

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.

Skibum's picture
Skibum

My sweet levain starter is like a 'sourdough' starter. I prefer a sweet starter over a sour starter.

 

Happy baking, Ski

Yippee's picture
Yippee

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

 

Skibum's picture
Skibum

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

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

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

Skibum's picture
Skibum

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

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

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.

Skibum's picture
Skibum

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

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

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

Skibum's picture
Skibum

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

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

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