Daily sandwich loaf
I've been baking this bread on a regular basis for almost 4 years (several a week). It has long become our go-to sandwich bread. My clients (read family) only like crusty bread - even in their sandwiches - this loaf combines a good crust with a smooth crumb. It's got whole grains, is a bit chewy, but isn't dry or heavy. I also make this as a pure sourdough, in which case, it's very different: crustier and larger holes. Below recipe is for baker's yeast version.
Ingredients Weight in grams (Volume in brackets)
Bread Flour 200
Whole Wheat flour 150
Whole Rye flour 150
4 tbsp seeds (I usually use half sesame, half flax)
Water 375
Instant yeast 3.1 (1 tsp)
Salt 6.375 1 tsp
Date syrup (Silan) 21.5 (1 tbsp)
Olive oil 13.5 (1 tbsp)
Starter 50 (1/4 cup) - I add this even for commercial yeast version (I think it adds flavour, but maybe it's my imagination).
Combine ingredients, except for salt (first dry, then wet). Mix well, then autolyse for 20 min. Add salt. Knead for 10 min. (or dough cycle in bread machine for 20 min.). Bulk rise until doubles (approx. 1 hr. for room temp. of 25 deg. Celsius), then punch down and fold, repeat bulk rise until it doubles. I preheat oven for at least 45 min. at 250 Celsius with a pizza stone. Put in loaf pan and proof for 10 - 20 min. until top just starts to rise over edge of pan. Bake @230 Celsius deg. (less for convection oven) for 45-50 min (until internal temp. is 200 deg. F). Produce steam for first 10 min. of bake. Turn out loaf directly onto pizza stone for last 20 min. to get good crust and colour all over. Cool on rack for 2 hours.
Meir
of sandwich bread. Just love the color that has has to taste fine since brown food tastes real good. It must be the date syrup helping to color it so magnificently. I'd eat that every day for lunch too! Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Nice baking.
looks beautiful, Meir, despite the low resolution pic. i'd say i like how you catered for crust lovers and sanwhich loaf lovers alike! good job!
dabrownman - date syrup has similar properties as molasses, but with thinner consistency (and lighter taste). Dark colour is also due to maximum baking time (1 step short of burning...). Mebake and dabrownman - thanks for the compliments. I added a better photo that does this bread more justice.
Meir
This loaf looks fantastic and healthy too! One query .. I have never heard of date syrup. Is there a substitute I could use. I have molasses (which is not used much in Oz.) Is it too heavy, could I use golden syrup or treacle perhaps? Not knowing the properties of date syrup makes it a little difficult to know. Thx for any info
Sondra from Sth Aust
such as light molasses, golden syrup, honey, even maple syrup. Date syrup is popular in the Middle East, where they grow dates; I like it, since it is light-to-medium consistency (depending which brand you get), supposed to be healthy for you, less sweet and sticky than honey, and gives a nice dark colour.
Meir
Meir
Thx for that info. I am definitely going to try this bread asap.
Sondra
The dough should be wet and sticky, but eventually be able to form a smooth ball. I either put in the bread-machine to knead only or hand-knead with a wet, plastic dough scraper, since dough will stick to your hands. Try not to add flour to make it comfortable for hand-kneading; rather use whatever method you can to manage without.
Good luck!
Thx for the heads up.
Sondra