Tartine, Basic Country loaf -- round or rectangle?
The above breads were made with the same recipe. As I have written before, I was looking for a good sandwich loaf. The trouble with the round bread is that it is a pain to cut into sandwich size pieces. The trouble with baking a "white bread" that I have had is that it is so soft that it is a pain to cut into slices without the bread crumbling.
The basic country loaf, when baked in a bread pan, yields a loaf that is both chewy and, as a result, super easy to cut without tearing the bread. In addition to being easy to cut (and you can cut it fairly thin because it holds together so well), the slices make great sandwiches.
I believe that the pan loaf used about 1/2 the dough or approximately 1000 grams. I did not weigh it, I just shaped it into a ball and then rolled into a log. That was not how I planned to do it. I planned to shape it into a baton and put it in the pan, but habit took over and I did it as if I were going to bake it in the combo cooker before I remembered I did not want two round loafs.
I need to take better notes of things like baking times and internal temperatures. I believe the rectangular loaf was taken out before it was as hot as the round loaf, but the thermometer came out dry and the crust was dark enough. However, the bread is more dense and not as hollow sounding as the round loaf.