The Bread Topic (2014 –2015)

Franci · April 16, 2015

Straight into the oven, I already proof after dividing and forming a round.

kayb · April 16, 2015

Anyone have a great recipe for white sandwich bread they'd care to share? My favorite white bread is a bit soft and crumbly to stand up to a healthy-sized sandwich. The master loaf from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day is the wrong texture, and tastes dry when used in a sandwich. I'm trying one tomorrow that promises moistness and a soft texture, yet sturdy, but if anyone has a go-to, I'd surely love to try it as well.

radtek · April 16, 2015

I use Julia Child's french bread master recipe as a basis but use a loaf pan. I put a little non hoppy beer into the liquid component. I think it is important to use 100% bread flour and allow the dough to rise three times. I have a stand mixer. Follow her folding technique.

This won't be crumbly at all and will make a great classic sandwich. And only gets better as it stales toast-wise. Grilled cheese too.

**ElsieD** · April 16, 2015

I have a great sandwich loaf recipe but it is made in the Thermomix. I suspect that you could easily adapt it so if that interests you, I will post it.

CatPoet · April 17, 2015

Bethsedabaker: If you are going to make crisp bread to you wheat intolerant friend, you can use beer, since most beers do contain wheat unless you find a pure barley or rye beer, a wheat intolerant friend told me that last night.

Anyway I made a soft wheat and semolina loaf yesterday and it is lovely.

kayb · April 17, 2015

Thanks, radtek and edemers. Any suggestions appreciated. I have the loaf from Cooks Illustrated's New Best Recipes rising as we speak; we shall see how it does. I will say that I was very impressed with the texture of the dough after kneading it in the KA for 10 minutes.

I have grandchildren here this weekend -- 4, 2 1/2 and 2 -- and they'll go through it for grilled cheese sandwiches whether it's any good or not!

AlaMoi · April 17, 2015

this is one of our favs - it's sturdy without being "hard"

bethesdabakers · April 18, 2015

Bethsedabaker: If you are going to make crisp bread to you wheat intolerant friend, you can use beer, since most beers do contain wheat unless you find a pure barley or rye beer, a wheat intolerant friend told me that last night.

Hi CatPoet

Most British beer is made with barley malt - it's more coeliacs who have to be careful with beer because they usually contain gluten. Besides, some men seem to be able to turn their intolerances off when it comes to alcohol!

Mick

CatPoet · April 18, 2015

Bethesdabakers, well not all people are as bad as my friend who cant even eat in my kitchen due to me baking with wheat. I hope you try the other recipe too but remember to roll it thin as a table cloth.

Anna N · April 18, 2015

A fine example of "just because you can doesn't mean you should"!

It is what comes of your best friend being in France and you are left with only Mr. Google to talk to. It began with a search to understand the appeal of an Instant Pot, that led to a post on bread cooked in a pressure cooker which led to a search throughout my house for an appropriate vessel that would fit my pressure cooker. Coming up empty-handed I returned to Mr. Google who led me down the garden path to bread cooked in a rice cooker. That is my story and I'm sticking to it.

What looks like uncooked dough is in fact white cheddar cheese which settled for some reason.

Anna N · April 20, 2015

Second recent attempt at English muffins. This is a Peter Rinehart recipe and was much more successful. I do not think my electric skillet was maintaining the suggested 300°F so next time I will tweak the temperature. I cooked these in widemouth mason jar lid rings which worked rather well but one must be careful not to overfill them.

Anna N · April 21, 2015

While the dough for the English muffins was maturing I was also in the process of making Rose Levy Beranbaum's white sandwich bread. This is one of the two loaves that the recipe made. It is perhaps the most complex recipe I have ever used for simple white sandwich bread. It starts with a sponge, requires three risings and takes close to 13 hours from start to finish. It makes lovely bread but considering that I do this twice a week I am not sure it will become a standard.

kayb · April 21, 2015

Reporting in on the sandwich bread dilemma -- I think the CI recipe may have nailed it.

Taste is excellent. Texture is soft, but not crumbly. It's sturdy enough to stand up to a healthy stack of fillings. And it's relatively simple.

The recipe called for a 10 x 5 loaf pan, which I did not have, so I made it in two 8 x 4s. It was a tad flat, not a problem unles you are using pre-sliced cheese, in which case you'd have to trim a piece of cheese to fit, which also is not a problem since you can eat what you trimmed off. But I might up the proportions a bit next time to have enough dough to make two conventionally shaped loaves.

Thanks to all for your input and suggestions. I've stowed them for future use.

Anna N · April 23, 2015

I surprised even myself today. This is a repeat of the Rose Levy Beranbaum bread. I got up early early so had plenty of time for its three rises and it did get high praise. These two are for my adult son who loves sesame seeds. Apparently I need to improve my aim.

radtek · April 23, 2015

I quit scoring my bread pan loaf too. Slashing hasn't been needed and it looks better IMO.

At what temp and interior temp are ya'll baking to for these loaves?

radtek · April 27, 2015

One pound loaf wheat bread with flaxseed meal baked yesterday. Five hours 75F, three rises- final in the pan. Baked at 350F for 50 minutes turning once midway. Added too much beer which gives it that overproofed patina unfortunately but the bread doesn't taste that way thankfully!

Once cooled I ate some with gorgonzola.

I'm looking for some "taller/deeper" loaf pans. Found some pullman types that are 4" but are too narrow overall- close though. Ideally I'd like to find a pan in the range of 9-10" long x 5" wide x 4" tall/deep. Any sources/ideas?

kayb · April 27, 2015

My big loaf pan is 11" long, 5" wide, but only 3" deep. I just looked and it has no markings at all on it, but as I recall, I bought it at TJ Maxx, which periodically has nice cookware at good prices.

Anna N · April 27, 2015

One pound loaf wheat bread with flaxseed meal baked yesterday. Five hours 75F, three rises- final in the pan. Baked at 350F for 50 minutes turning once midway. Added too much beer which gives it that overproofed patina unfortunately but the bread doesn't taste that way thankfully!

Once cooled I ate some with gorgonzola.

I'm looking for some "taller/deeper" loaf pans. Found some pullman types that are 4" but are too narrow overall- close though. Ideally I'd like to find a pan in the range of 9-10" long x 5" wide x 4" tall/deep. Any sources/ideas?

A little confused here. Since the standard American loaf pan and 9 x 5 x 3 and your bread should go dome at least an inch above that ....

So what am I missing?

radtek · April 27, 2015

Well obviously I'm not looking for a standard pan- I've already got one of those. :wink: And it's only 2.75" deep.

I'd like to bump the recipe(s) up a bit in volume and have a taller loaf without the overhang where the dough starts to rise above the top. I can do this already with my standard 1# pan but the resulting bulge and lip makes the bread slice too long for the toaster's slots. Then I have to put the slice in sideways and flip it halfway through.

Perhaps I could place some baking parchment around the edges and have it as the guide form above the top of the pan?

Anna N · April 27, 2015

Well obviously I'm not looking for a standard pan- I've already got one of those. And it's only 2.75" deep.

I'd like to bump the recipe(s) up a bit in volume and have a taller loaf without the overhang where the dough starts to rise above the top. I can do this already with my standard 1# pan but the resulting bulge and lip makes the bread slice too long for the toaster's slots. Then I have to put the slice in sideways and flip it halfway through.

Perhaps I could place some baking parchment around the edges and have it as the guide form above the top of the pan?

Thank you for explaining that though I don't understand why you are getting the overhang. I doubt that parchment paper will solve your problem given the strength of bread dough.

JohnT · April 27, 2015

Radtek, if your dough starts to "overhang" as you put it, there is something wrong. Your dough may rise but should not spread over the edges of your pan. It may be that you are over-proving or your dough is over hydrated and cannot hold its shape. If you really want an abnormal size pan, get a metal workshop to bash one out for you. I had a local metal workshop make me a whole bunch of 12 x 10 x28cm pans to bake farmers loaves in. Made out of aluminium, they are brilliant and cost a fraction of the price of the domestic ones available in retail shops.

ETA : that's 4.75" W x 4" H x 11" L

Edited April 27, 2015 by JohnT (log)

cyalexa · April 27, 2015

I quit scoring my bread pan loaf too. Slashing hasn't been needed and it looks better IMO.

At what temp and interior temp are ya'll baking to for these loaves?

I hope others will comment as well.

By trial and error I have learned that the 100% whole wheat bread I make in a loaf pan is best if slashed along its length and baked to an internal temp of 206F. I don't make white bread in a loaf pan as we generally use WW for sandwiches. For bread not baked in a loaf pan, I am kind of enamored with pbears cheater method. I usually bake white breads to about 202F.

Edited April 27, 2015 by cyalexa (log)

CatPoet · April 27, 2015

A really yummy wheat loaf, it made by first cooking part of the water, the fat and some of the flour to like a start of a petite chou dough, the bread comes from a weird French and Swedish booklet, front missing. The French guy does all the Wheat recipes and the Sweden all the rye ones. This called Mon Petite. It is still a normal size loaf but hey it is in French it must be posh!

radtek · April 27, 2015

So, I decided to bake another loaf even though it wasn't needed. More of a study in my experiment playing out the idea of a girdle for my loaf.

Cut 4" of parchment paper. Oil pan and insert paper. Place dough in pan. Rise. Bake. Seems to work for me- the recipe was expanded by 25% or 4oz of bread flour.

Removed the paper halfway through the 55 minute bake:

The results were what I wanted, though a proper pan would be preferable.

Anna N · April 28, 2015

I am happy that the parchment worked for you even if somewhat surprised.

I made three loaves of bread yesterday. The first one stuck to the pan

Most annoying as I believed I had greased it adequately!

Then I decided to try one of the Cooks Illustrated "best of" white breads

Much better.

But my granddaughter had asked for a loaf of crusty bread so I baked her a Ken Forkish "Saturday" loaf.

Watching this young lady slice up a loaf of crusty bread and eat it sans anything makes the whole day worthwhile.

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