Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Thu 23 March 2017

I have been making bread in various forms for several years, but only recently got into the keeping and using of a sourdough starter. The one I'm using right now is quite old (from the 70s!) and is fed with Idaho spuds potato flakes and sugar. Crazy. But it makes some excellent bread with good flavor, so I'm not going to knock it. I decided to try my hand at converting a sandwich bread recipe I've used before to sourdough and I really think it's something special.

This recipe started from from http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-basic-white-sandwich-bread-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-166588

I don't want to shill too bad, but King Arthur flour is what I use and I recommend it for this recipe.

Makes Two Loaves

  • Active Time: 25 mins
  • Inactive Time: 45 hours
  • Baking time: 40 mins
  • Total Time: 46 hours

Note: A large part of this recipe is inactive. My recommendation is to start the levain before you leave for work in the morning, then come home, autolyse the dough, and rise + shape. Then you can let it rise in the fridge overnight + the next day, take it straight from the fridge after warming the oven, score, and bake. This means a minimum of timing problems and fresh baked bread right after you get home!

Ingredients

  • 600g levain:
    • 2 cup liquid starter
    • 200g AP flour
    • 200g water
  • 2 tablespoons (50g) unsalted butter
  • 1.75 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons (25g) white sugar
  • 1 scant tablespoons (16g) fine grain sea salt or table salt
  • 800g AP flour + additional for kneading
  • Oil (I use olive oil, feel free to use whatever you have that is relatively neutral tasting)
  • pie pan, or other small oven-safe container

Equipment

  • Wooden spoon or plastic spatula
  • Kitchen scale set to grams
  • Measuring spoons and cups
  • Glass or plasic 1 Quart / 1L container
  • Large glass or plastic bowl, 1 gallon / 4L or larger
  • Small microwave-safe container
  • Plastic wrap or kitchen towel
  • 2 standard loaf pans (8" x 4"). I recommend USA Pans here, but any heavy aluminium coated pan should work
  • Pizza stone on the bottom-middle rack of the oven

Instructions

Levain Preparation (5m active, 8h total)

  1. Microwave 200g of water for 20-30 seconds. The goal is 80-90F.
  2. To start the levain, mix the 1 cup of starter, 200g of AP flour and 200g of warm water in the quart/liter container
  3. Cover the container loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap, and store in a warm place out of the sun for 8 hours. You should see it start to grow after a few hours, and more than double its size by 8 hours.

30 Minutes before levain is complete, autolyse your dough (5m active, 30m total)

  1. Melt the 70g of butter in a small microwave-safe container
  2. Warm the milk to 80-90F, 30 seconds in the microwave should do it.
  3. Weigh out 500g of AP flour and place in a large bowl.
  4. Add in the 85g butter, 1.5 cups milk, and 25g sugar to the bowl. Mix with your hands or the wooden spoon until it comes together. Place plastic wrap or a kitchen towel on the bowl and wait 30 minutes.

Kneading (10m active, 4 hours total)

  1. Turn the light on in your oven and set the rack to the middle-bottom.
  2. Add the last 300g of AP flour on top of the dough, then 600g of levain. Stir to combine into a loose mass.
  3. Add the 25g salt and mix with your hands a few times.
  4. Once the dough comes together in the bowl, turn it out onto a large floured work surface. I use a cleaned and dried countertop, but use anywhere you have plenty of space to work.
  5. Knead the dough, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from being sticky. The easiest way to knead is to pull the dough as far as it will go without breaking, then fold in half. Turn the dough 90 degrees, let it rest 5 seconds, and do it again. The dough is ready to rise when:
    • The dough is tacky, but not sticky. It shouldn't leave anything on the counter or your hands when you touch it.
    • When formed into a ball, it doesn't immediately flatten out
    • The outer "skin" looks smooth with long lines in it (part of the gluten matrix forming)
  6. At this point, spray the bowl down with a little oil, place the dough in the bowl, and cover it with a towel or plastic wrap
  7. Place the bowl in your oven. If you leave the oven light on with the door closed, most ovens will get to be about 90F inside, which is perfect for rising bread. DO NOT TURN ON THE OVEN at this point.
  8. Wait until the dough has doubled. This will probably take 3-4 hours or so. Depending on how powerful your yeast is, this may take less or more time. Getting to the "double size" is the important part. If it takes less or more time, that is fine.

Shaping ( 5m active, 25 hours total)

  1. Remove the dough from the bowl and flatten it out on an unfloured surface
  2. Split the ball into two equal loaves. Using the scale is helpful here.
  3. For each half, form the dough into a ball and tighten the skin. A helpful 11 second video is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-xBTL_WZy8 . Keep the ball on the surface and spin it slowly in place with the sides of your pinky fingers touching it. This will cause the outside of the ball to get smooth and tight. Do this until it doesn't seem to be getting any smoother.
  4. If your pans are not silicone coated, coat them with a little oil. Otherwise, place the balls in each pan, tight skin side up.
  5. Cover the pans lightly with a towel or plastic wrap (very lightly!) and place back in the oven with just the light on.
  6. Let it rise for 1 hour in the oven, then cover it with plastic wrap and place the pans in the fridge.
  7. If the balls fill the pan and/or start to rise over the pan, skip the rest of the time and move to the next step.
  8. I recommend letting it sit in the fridge for at the minimum 8 hours, but 24 will develop a lot of sourdough flavor and have much more depth of flavor

Baking ( 5m active, 45m baking, 1h45m total )

  1. Remove the pans, still covered, and place on the counter out of drafts.
  2. Fill the pie pan about halfway with water. Roll up the old clean rags and fill the pan with them. Soak them completely and place at the bottom of the oven or the lowest rack.
  3. Turn the oven to 425F with the pizza stone in the bottom-middle position. Wait for 45 minutes to get the oven fully warmed up.
  4. Slash down the middle of each loaf with a very sharp knife or razor blade, about 1/2" deep all the way across.
  5. Place the pans side by side on the pizza stone.
  6. Throw a handful of ice into the bottom of the oven, below the pizza stone.
  7. Turn the oven immediately down to 375F.
  8. Cook for 20 minutes, then remove the pie pan. Beware, the steam when you open the oven will be HOT.
  9. Cook for 20-25 more minutes, or until the crust is dark brown. The inside temp should read 205F.
  10. Remove from the oven, remove from the pans carefully and place on a wire rack
  11. Cover the bread with a kitchen towel and let cool at least 1 hour before slicing.

Category: Food Tagged: bread cooking food sourdough

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