Confession
Forgive me , Bakers, for I have sinned.
My life is sort of complicated, but I saw a window of opportunity to get a starter going and bake a sourdough loaf last Saturday. I used Hamelman's method. Everything was great, but at the crucial time, I fed the starter instead of doing a build. Since I wasn't going to have an opportunity again for another month or so, the starter made some great pancakes!
But I need bread for lunch sandwiches during the week, I had limited time. What to do?
Go to the dark side of the force. I picked up a bag of Gold Medal Bread flour and followed the recipe on the bag for sandwich bread. Followed it to the 'T'. Two packages of yeast! Very wet dough, it was tough to hand mix. 40 minutes bulk fermentation. 30 minutes proofing in the pan. I'm telling you, that stuff blew up like a balloon. I preshaped the loaves and let them rest for 5 minutes, and they puffed up like crazy.
It's delicious. Slices nice. Made a great corned beef sandwich with it this morning. One loaf for this week, and another in the freezer. I might even make this again, Heaven help me.
Don't you let anyone tell you any differently. That is one awesome loaf. It beats store bought bread any day! I am sure it was delicious!
This reminds me of my mom's bread, which she has baked for her entire life. It is fresh, it is good!
This is NOT just an artisan boule site only! Bread comes in all shapes, types, sizes and ingredient list. What you made is one of the work horse loaves that fed a lot of people on a daily basis for many years. It demonstrates the beauty of wheat and why wheat became so popular as the main grain. Easy to work with and easy to make some daily deliciousness. It also demonstrates why commercial yeast became popular. People were struggling to just accomplish daily living and making daily bread easier was a blessing.
So enjoy your loaf and be proud of making a great food with authentic ingredients!
some of it.
Lovely loaf.
For your sin your penance shall be grilled cheese. Now go and bake some more. It looks good to me. I'm a big fan plebian practicality.
Great looking Loaf :)
Curious what team and time did you use?
Baked according to package directions, 425 degrees for 25 minutes. It came out at 197 degrees internal temperature.
I'm going to start playing around with this recipe. The Gold Medal Bread flour is almost $6 cheaper than KAF all-purpose for a five pound bag. Next try I'll add some whole wheat flour and see how that comes out.
I always use Gold Medal unbleached AP flour for bread and have great results. Their bread flour performs very well, also. I just prefer the less chewy texture of the AP flour.
Is this the recipe? I would substitute lard for shortening-it makes a lovely difference in the dough and the crumb. The butter adds great flavor in this kind of loaf. How about buttermilk or milk instead of water? Better yet-beer! A lot less salt and yeast and ferment longer? Additions like fruit, cheese, olives, meat, nuts, seeds.
Lots of ways to change a good base recipe. Have great delicious fun with this one!
Yes, that's the same recipe on the bag.
Lard is an interesting idea. It certainly makes the best pie dough. I used olive oil on this batch, though, as that is what I had.
My next try will have some whole wheat. As I play with this, decreasing the yeast and substituting milk for water is on the agenda. I'd also like to make a sponge for it at some point. It's quite delicious as is, so I'm interested in how these "improvements" will come out.
I was bored so cooked this up:
Gold Medal Bread flour 20 oz
Grist and Toll Hard Red Spring high extraction 8 oz
Brown sugar 1 oz
Salt 1 teaspoon
Lard 2 Tablespoon
Yeast 2.25 teaspoon
Water 20 oz
If my math is right, this is 71% hydration? Hand mixed for 10 minutes, real messy at first. It felt good and passed the windowpane test. Dough temp was 80 degrees. Bulk fermentation was only one hour, which was surprising, having cut back on yeast and salt. Proofed in the pan for 1 hour as well. Baked at 425 for 25 minutes, and the internal temp was 200 degrees.
Sure smelled good coming out of the oven. Tastes good, too, not bitter at all. A little discolored on the top, not sure that will go over too well at the county fair. Maybe next time I'll try some steam in the oven.
That is about the max I would add of WW without changing the method. Higher percentage WW needs some form of a soak or autolyse in order to wet the branny bits properly. Otherwise after baking, they will continue to rob the moisture from the crumb and the slices will become crumbly. That can happen on day 1 or 2 post bake.
Did you feel any difference with the lard? It can make the dough feel soft and more extensible but not weak.
The top looks like the final bench flour residue. Brush it off or even brush the loaf top with water or milk.
Brown sugar is very good but honey has a different (richer, to me) depth of flavor. I am not fond of the minerally taste of molasses but it does give a good color.
It looks like you reduced the salt percentage. I thought the original recipe was a bit high but that is all personal preference.
Another lovely loaf. Great post!
Clazar123, last night I baked two more loaves stealing, er, using some of your ideas. The honey is a nice change. They came out well. Thanks.
Clazar123, thanks for the tips. I have no experience with WW. I'll watch for it drying out early. The previous loaf kept quite well, for several days. I'm not sure about the lard effect. After 10 minutes of kneading it did have a great feel to it. Shaping the loaf was very easy. Brown sugar is what I have in the condo, I had used it for the original loaf and didn't want to make too many changes at once. I did reduce the salt to one teaspoon. The dough is very moist, there was no bench flour on the top. In the pan I covered it with plastic wrap sprayed with canola oil. Next batch I'll try brushing with water and hope that improves the look.
It tastes good with butter, for sure!
This morning, using ideas from clazar123, Mini Oven and thoughts that had been rolling around in my head, I baked a third sandwich loaf variation.
Last night I made a soaker/sponge of 8oz of the same Grist and Toll Hard Red Spring, 8oz of water and 1/8 tsp of instant yeast, Put it all in a bowl and stirred with a fork until everything was incorporated. Left it out on the counter overnight. This morning is was quite bubbly.
I then combined that with:
20oz Gold Medal Bead flour
12 oz water @ 115 degrees
1 oz honey
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbl lard
1 tbl unsalted butter
2 tsp yeast
Mixed by hand for 10 minutes. At the five minute mark I gave it a 5 minute rest and was amazed at the transformation. Bulk fermented for 1 hour, divided, scaled and shaped then 1 hour in the loaf pans. Then baked 27 minutes at 425.
The result is a loaf with a bit deeper flavor and a crustier crust. The crumb is similar to the previous loaves. The biggest change is the crust. I'm now wondering what adding some of the white flour to the sponge will do. It's been a fun project.
I am betting the taste will be more complex. Can't wait to hear. Lovely! Getting closer to the WW range I like
I've eaten my way through all this bread I've baked, I'll definitely try upping the amount of sponge/soaker. And increase the WW flour ratio. Right now my freezer is full!