First blog! Third loaf! Sandwich loaf attempt

So my virginal sourdough starter finally got big and healthy enough for me to actually use it last Friday. In a frenzy to use my new pet, I baked two loaves on Saturday. The first was a "traditional" idea of a basic sourdough loaf, with a lot of wholegrains. If I recall, the flour was about 50/30/20 between white, wholemeal and wholemeal spelt flour. It was on the low end of what I've learned to be acceptable hydration, mainly because I made the rookie error of spending too much time handling the bread and, worried about stickiness, kept adding more flour. In any case it turned out to be an ok, if somewhat flying saucer shaped, loaf of bread. I used it to make some fancy sandwiches and the other half was suitably impressed. You can see more here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45558/hello-london

However my next loaf was a bit of a disaster. Determined as I am to rid myself of supermarket bread forever, I knew I had to master the sandwich loaf. Whilst I'm never going to produce the same shape or texture as something mixed at mach 3 in a factory, with more chemicals than a mad scientist laboratory, I wanted something reasonably rectangular that I could put filling in and take to work. Needless to say, I screwed it up. Too much kneading early on, too much flour, not enough proofing- I'm not sure what I did wrong, but what I ended up with was "the brick". I'm guessing most of you have had this- a fine crumb, plutonium dense block better suited as an assault weapon than a food product. I did eat it, because it tasted good, however my other half made it clear she was not appreciating it's finer qualities.

Somewhat disheartened by the accidental creation of this new WMD, I was determined to bake something better. Setting out with a handful of guides, mainly from this site, I was determined to make something light, fluffy and big that I can slice and eat and would be even better shaped than the best supermarket loaf!

With that in mind, I decided to start out easy, and went with 100% strong white organic bread flour. A bit of a cop out. 500 grams of that went into mixing bowl A. At the same time I mixed 100g of my sourdough starter, which is about 70% wholemeal flour and 30% rye flour (100% hydration) into 400ml of water. I had heard "wetter is better" so much that I was determined to make a proper sloppy mess. Newly armed with a dozen recommendations about how to make bread rise, I added a little sugar, some olive oil, a splash of milk and the salt, then mixed everything together. The overkill method, but I couldn't face my partner's sad face if I turned out another weaponised loaf for her to eat for lunch.

Next I decided to be smart, and follow the stretch and fold method you all love. Not how my granny did it, but when a bunch of experts tell me something works, I do it. I sat the dough on an oiled bench whilst it autolysed (or however it's called) for half an hour, then stretched and folded it every half hour for the next couple of hours. At this point it was still spreading a bit, so i gave it a vigorous stretching and shaped it into a rough log shape. It stayed in that shape for another twenty minutes, so I declared it ready for proofing, gave it a quick shaping, and bunged it into the loaf tray to rise.

At this point, I realised my error. My loaf tray was too dinky for the job. Alas, it was designed for a more puny loaf, and my glorious concoction was already pushing the rim of the tin before it had a chance to rise. An hour later, only the surface tension of the dough was preventing it escaping. I decided that rather than leave it for three hours (or even overnight) as planned, it would just have to go into the oven as it is, before too much escaped.

Oven was heated, and the loaf went in, with a splash of water to create steam. Virtually as I watched, the dough went crazy. It rose a good three inches in about five minutes- probably the most oven spring I've ever seen, even with commercial yeast. As a result of this explosive growth, my finished loaf is incredibly top heavy, but a success. This weekend I will be heading down to the shops to buy myself a loaf tin suitable for such a star performing loaf. Hurrah for edible sandwiches everywhere!

Spite