I recently found Eric Rusch's Spelt Sourdough at his breadtopia.com site, and gave it a try (http://www.breadtopia.com/spelt-bread-recipe/). I loved this recipe, and since my wife prefers spelt over wheat, I decided to try tweaking it for our everyday sandwich loaf. I've been around on it a few times and think I've come up with something pretty good as an adaptation of Eric's wonderful hearth loaf formula:

For each loaf:
Dry ingredients
530 g spelt flour 100%
10 g salt 1.9%
1 T. Vital Wheat Gluten (this could be omitted for people with wheat gluten problems, but I find it helps the rise)
1-2 T each sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds

Wet ingredients
350 g water 66%
3T (64 g) honey or molasses, or a mix 12%
1/4 c. starter (I have a spelt starter @100% hydration)
(I sometimes augment this with a pinch or two of commercial yeast)

I mix this in two-loaf batches, let the mixed dough rest for an hour, then do 4 stretch-and-folds before putting the dough in the refrigerator for the night. In the morning I degas the dough a bit (to get fewer big holes) as I form the loaves, place them in 4.5 x 8.5 inch loaf pans, cover and let rise until they're 1.5 times their original size (this can take as long as six hours on some days). I score the loaves lengthwise (which you can see in the picture), then bake 1 hr. at 375° F to an internal temperature of 200°.  My family loves the flavor and texture of this bread, and with the seeds it's a little homage to Dave's Killer Bread, which is made here in Portland, Oregon. :-)

As you can see from my photographer daughter's picture, we couldn't quite wait the full hour before cutting into this loaf, but it should give you an idea of the crumb.

Thanks, Eric, for this terrific bread recipe!

Toneweaver (Brent)

Organic Whole Wheat Bread with Walnuts and Raisins. This is a recipe by Hamelman (Bread a Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes). I substituted pecans for walnuts and golden raisins for regular organic raisins. I made this for my children.  It is full of goodness, from whole wheat, walnuts, to raisins. They enjoy it for breakfast with organic butter and honey as I write this. :) I find myself more and more baking using recipes from this book. And so far love all the breads I tried.

It is a beautiful bread for breakfast. We, as family love  to spread butter and honey on slice of this bread. 

The crumb:

bemonkey

I have been working on perfect my technique with BBA's basic white bread sandwich loaf recipe, variation 3. I have had some excellent results, but I have constantly had an issue where after shaping and proofing in the bread pans, the dough doesn't seem to properly stick to itself internally all the time and I get some slices that are flimsy or even fall apart along the line where the loaf was shaped. This hasn't happened to EVERY loaf, but the vast majority that I have made, I'd say 6 of 8 that I have made. The shaping instuction from BBA is to form a boule, rest 20 mins, flatten into a square, fold the sides in so that you have long rectangle, and then roll it up, sealing after each turn of the dough. This method works very well for getting the loaf into the right shape for the bread pan and when they bake up they look great, taste great, have great texture... just this weird issue. I included some pictures to help see what I am talking about. The first I put red dots to follow the very obvious swirl pattern in the crumb of the bread (this loaf was over-proofed a little too, but this happens on loaves that were proofed appropriately too), and the second I lifted the split to show that it isn't even just the line, it isn't even attached to itself. I could understand this happening if, maybe, I used some fflour while shaping and the surface of the dough dried out too much, but I'm not. As per BBA's instructions, all my rests, rises, and fermentations are done with a light misting of spray oil and covered with saran wrap.

In my ongoing adventures with Peter Reinhart's Crust and Crumb, I decided to try one of the sandwich loaves. However, PR only presents a 100% white and 100% whole wheat in this book, and I really wanted to do a half-half. So did a  biga starter today using 2 cups white and 1.5 cups whole wheat flour, figuring I'd use the white sandwich loaf recipe and adapt it using around 40% ww flour. Any advice on this?

Cheers

Lisa

I was eating a bowl of Cream of Wheat for the first time in ten years. That is the only inspiration for this loaf. I think a souerdough starter would work well with this recipe. 

Whip up a 75% hydration Biga with 2 c bread flour, let it chill in the fridge 24 hrs. For the final dough, combine 1.5 c bread flour, 1.5 c ap flour, .75 c farina, 2 tbps kosher salt, 1.5 tsp instant yeast, the biga torn up, and about 1.5 c water. Mix with paddle until combined, switch to hook and knead for 5 min. Let dough rest 2 min, then knead another 3 min. Transfer to large oiled bowl. Stretch and fold every 20 min for an hour. Shape into loaves and refrigerate for 12-24 hrs. Bake at 450F for 15 min then 400F for 20 min.

This makes a killer mozzarella and tomato sandwich!

There are, of course many variations of the perfect sandwich loaf. Probably every bread-baking culture has its version. And probably a lot depends on the kind of sandwiches the people of the culture like to eat. So, for instance, Jewish sandwich bread, at least those breads from Eastern Europe, tend to be heavy on the rye flour, sometimes with caraway and always smothered with something like corned beef and onions. In France the perfect sandwich bread is a baguette-like roll called 'pain ordinaire', or ordinary bread. This is no ordinary bread, however. It is typically loaded up with a good hard, sharp cheese and washed down with strong coffee. 

This bread is Italian in origin, at least from its herb content, but the style is definitely French. A hybrid of sorts. The original contained some coarsely ground black pepper, which I have omitted since I know my customers. Personally I like food with a little heat, but my house mates.... not so much. Anyway, this bread, because of the added herbs and spices is great for sharp cheeses, or pickled or cured meats (cold cuts, corned beef, sausage) and even crispy veggies. Or a combination. It has a fairly close crumb, which could be more open if you leave to rise a little longer. The crust is only a little chewy. But I actually like it the way it is, since the density helps hold the contents of the sandwich. Enjoy!!

Here's What You'll Need:

4 cups AP flour

3/8 cup uncooked corn meal (coarse - polenta)

2 tsp. granulated garlic

3 tsp. dried parsley

3 tsp. dried oregano

3/4 Tbs. yeast

2 tsp. salt

about 1 1/2 cups warm water

Here's What You'll Need To Do:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients, including the herbs and the yeast together and mix thoroughly.

2. Add the water mixing as you pour it to form a rough dough.

3. Knead this mixture on a lightly-floured tabletop for about 10 minutes until it becomes quite smooth. It will be a little tacky, but smooth, and not at all sticky. Adjust the flour and/or water as needed to get the right texture.

4. Place the kneaded dough into a lightly-oiled bowl, turn to coat, then cover and let it rise in a warm place until doubled. This will take 1 1/2 to 2 hours. You may stretch and fold the dough halfway through if desired to develop the gluten more fully.

5. Form into a loaf shape and place into a prepared loaf pan. Let the dough rise again until it is about 1 inch (2 1/2 cm) above the lip of the pan.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 F (175 C) for about 45 minutes. In a convection oven, bake at 300 F (150 C).

6. Cool on a rack.

This was very easy and tastes better than your average sliced bread... It looks cool too!

Ingredients: (for white dough)

• 2 cups bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups water

Ingredients: (for beet dough)

Do the same as the white dough in a seperate bowl, replacing the water with beet juice. To obtain beet juice, I shredded 3 pounds of fresh beets, loaded the shreddings into a mesh bag, and squeezed  out the juice. I recovered about a cup, so I added water to make 1 1/4 cups. 

Instructions: (remember you are making TWO doughs)

1. Add all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) into two bowls and stir with spoon for about 15 seconds.
2. Add water to one bowl and beet juice to the other bowl. Stir for about 1 or 2 minutes.
3. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
4. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 16 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top when done rising.
5. Generously sprinkle flour the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much flour, it won’t hurt it).
6. Slowly pour the dough from each bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
7. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
8. With you hands, gently stretch each dough out to a rectangle shape.
9. Lay the beet dough on top of the white dough.
10. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
11. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seam side down).
12. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1 to 1.5 hours).
13. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
14. Place bread in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
15. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.

There is a delicious flavor from the beets...somewhat salty, a bit savory, and a smidge of sweet. The deep cherry red color emitted from the crust, but inside it lost the red component and is a boring brown. I think I'll try the beet dough on the outside next time.

Does anyone know why this happens?

For some reason I wanted to make a loaf with a purple swirl... probably because purple is not a standard bread color, and I am not a standard bread man. 

I tried this recipe and it turned out good. Just divide the recipe in half, and make two seperate doughs. For one of the doughs, replace the water with an equal amount of liquid from boiled red cabbage. I took a head of red cabbage, shredded it, then cooked it with 2 cups of water in a large pot for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid out, let it cool, and use it to make the purple half of the dough. 

Ingredients: (total for both doughs)

• 4 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/4 cups water

Instructions: (remember you are making TWO doughs)

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) in the large bowl and stir with spoon for about 15 seconds.
2. Add water to the bowl and stir for about 1 or 2 minutes (it won’t look that good but that doesn’t matter).
3. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
4. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 16 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top when done rising.
5. Generously sprinkle flour the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much flour, it won’t hurt it).
6. Slowly pour the dough from the bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
7. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
8. With you hands, gently stretch each dough out to a rectangle shape.
9. Lay the purple dough on top of the white dough.
10. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
11. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seam side down).
12. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1 to 1.5 hours).
13. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
14. Place bread in the oven for 30 minutes.
15. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.

This weekend has been a smorgasbord of baked goods.  Friday afternoon i mixed together a poolish with the intentions of making poolish baguettes the following day.  I let the poolish sit out until it was nice and bubbling then retired it to the refrigerator for the next day.  I removed the poolish from the refrigerator and brought it to room temp while I prepared the main dough. 

I was working off of Peter Reinhart's poolish baguette recipe from BBA.  I sifted the wheat flour to remove the bran, i'm not sure if my sieve was fine enough to remove all the bran but it removed a large proportion of it.  I'm going to be a bit lazy in my blogging tonight and just post a few pictures, which will not include crumb shots because the crumb turned out piss poor.

I had to find something to do with the left over bran i sifted from the wheat flour.  I decided to make bran muffins, which I have never made before but thought i would try.  The recipe was a crap shoot a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  I used a small portion of wheat flour to AP added some sugar some molasses, yeast, and buttermilk and an egg.  I topped the muffins with oats and baked them in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick came out clean.  I can't say I've ever had a bran muffin so I have nothing to compare them to, they seem to taste fine.  

I caught an episode of Diners Drive in's and Dives earlier this week, Guy Fieri happened upon a restaurant that featured cranberry and wild rice french toast.  The two ingredients seem like such an odd combination to me and I had to try it.  I pieced together a recipe and made a large sandwich loaf with a smaller free form loaf to go with it.  Needless to say, I can't wait for breakfast in the morning, I just wish I had some fresh maple syrup to go with it.  

As if this wasn't enough for one day, I decided to make sandwich loaves for the upcoming week.  The loaves are basic white loaves from The Bread Bible.  I don't eat a lot of white bread but this will have to do this week until I can make some whole grain loaves.  

Nope, not done yet.  The poolish baguette recipe calls for 7 ounces of poolish, which leaves a substantial amount for another application.  I am tossing around the idea of making a poolish pizza crust tomorrow, although I am still uncertain about a recipe at this point.  I have also decided to start the bread baker's apprentice challenge tomorrow.  I have already made quite a few of the recipes in the book but I will chalk that up to practice.  At any rate, I have the soaker for Anadama bread sitting on the counter top now, another post to follow.

Happy Baking,

-Matthew 

White Sandwich loaf before pre-shape

White sandwich loaves final proof

Finished sandwich loaves

Crumb Shot

C

Mixture of the day's bake

Crumb shot of cranberry wild rice bread

So I went looking yesterday for a sourdough sandwich loaf...I am embarrassed to say we've been buying San Francisco Extra Sourdough sandwich bread at the grocery store for awhile and it's up to $4.00 per loaf! I make a pretty passable sourdough boule so why not sourdough sandwich I thought? I went looking for a recipe and found one here on TFL. I think it's an adaption of  Susan's Farm House Loaf (also another favorite from this site) adapted for sourdough starter. Mixed up the prefermement last night and baked

today. Here's the link to kjknits adaption (back in '07 I think!): http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3715/sourdough-sandwich-bread. I had good results/not so good results:

Nice spring right?

Woops ... Check the Other Side:

Just a wee bit of a blowout - two or three years ago this wouldn't have bothered me so much - today yep - gotta do better next time...

Nice crust crackle:

Crumb:

Although it wasn't in the instructions next time I will definitely slash before baking. It will still make great sandwiches and toast. Flavor is good though I think it could use a bit more salt next time.

Trish