White Tin Bread; using Hovis Super Strong White Flour and my Wheat Leaven

 Yields 2 large tinned loaves @ 1064g each

Method:

• The leaven was built with 3 elaborations. Thirty grams of stock white levain, was built as a liquid starter for 2 refreshments [equal flour and water], then a final refreshment to turn it to a stiff starter with a 60% hydration. The build time was just over 24 hours.
• From there, autolyse the flour and water for the final dough for 45 minutes. Note that the "Englishman's castle" was, yet again, snowbound, with the kitchen probe displaying a cruel 9°C. However, the multi burner was just being fired up, so the leaven was warm and active. Still, the dough water temperature used was around 40°C, and the final dough temperature was a mere 23°C
• The flour took up plenty of water, and then mixed very quickly with the salt and leaven added to form a well developed dough. Bulk proof time was just short of 2 hours, during which time, we had a somewhat worrying power cut. I was expecting to retard the dough overnight in the frozen and snowy Square where we live!
• Power restored, I set to scaling and dividing, cutting off 8 pieces at 266g. Mould these round and rest covered for 15 minutes. Then roll up and shape as for mini loaves, and place 4 pieces in each tin, as shown in the photos.
• Prove, fireside for 3½ hours
• Bake profile as follows: Preheat the oven for one hour minimum, to 250°C. Place the 2 loaves side-by-side on the hot bricks, acting as an oven stone. Pour boiling water onto the stones the roasting pot on the base of the oven for steam. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the loaves round and drop the oven temperature to 220°C for a further 20 minutes. Drop the heat to 200°C, turn the loaves around again, if necessary, and bake out a further 5 - 10 minutes.
• Cool on wires

Notes:

• I made this bread as an experiment, so I could offer useful feedback for my brother, David. He, and his wife, Lorraine, own a lovely Bed and Breakfast spot in the Yorkshire Dales. Dave has been making his own bread every day and offers this to his guests for both breakfasts and evening meals. He uses a breadmaking machine, on the long fermentation cycle. I believe he mixes a portion of wholemeal and "Granary" flour into the grist, along with this particular white flour I have used, and has been very pleased with the results from day one, until October time. Of course, this date is significant, as I estimate the problems he has subsequently encountered and complained about, to coincide exactly with the arrival of the newly harvested crops from 2010! My brother buys his flour online from Tesco, and, uses quite a bit, as a large-scale homebaker, I guess. He has been in touch with the technicians at Rank Hovis, who I actually know and have worked with. They are investigating his complaint, but I gather from his comments that his problem is inconsistency, rather than poor bread, every time! He's a bit lost on this, as am I. So, Alison and I are going to visit Dave and Lorraine on Tuesday, on our way to visit my Mum and Dad, pre-Christmas in East Yorkshire.
• The method used to "tin up" the dough pieces is known in the plant-baking industry in the UK as "four-piecing". I have discussed this with txfarmer in one of her posts, which you can see here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20669/sourdough-pan-de-mie-how-make-quotshreddablyquot-soft-bread#comment-143675 Basically, with the moulding turned round from the conventional one-piece, the gas cells become elongated in the opposite direction to those in the four-piece, where each piece has been turned through 90° on the single piece. The way the light reflects on the finished crumb gives an added whiteness and superior appearance to the finished crumb. See this explanation from Stan Cauvain: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EKGUPlEwP5MC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=four+piecing+bread&source=bl&ots=7Ux1YI9K9K&sig=hedWkGHVvbXoK_hMqrkvwvBcynE&hl=en&ei=AJsOTYyOGY6AhQfLv5S3Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=four%20piecing%20bread&f=false It's not that important a feature in the world of Artisan Bread, but it is of fundamental importance to the all-powerful plant bakers in the UK. That and a crumb with no holes, so your bread/toast doesn't drip butter, or, marmalade, onto your lap! These really are the priorities in the long ubiquitous loaf found the length and breadth of Britain. So, I'm trying to mimic this bread, but make it as "real bread" at the same time.
• So, what really matters to us then? Taste and flavour most likely!

Analysis:

• All four of us were really pleased with the bread in terms of its flavour. Granted, the dough had been entirely raised from the power of the natural leaven. However, my deliberate intention had been to make a bread which would have characteristics as close as possible to those of the conventional loaf, BUT, also be pleasing for all of us to eat. Since none of us particularly like "white bread" in this form, there was little point mimicking UK plant bread. So, the natural leaven was strong, but the multi elaborations were designed to create high yeast activity, but less bacterial fermentation, and thus a heavy reduction in any sour notes. Mission well-accomplished here.
• The final bread is not WHITE! Indeed, the ferment is quite clearly not white either. See attached photographs for detail. This is very interesting, as if Hovis were to do any benchmarking of my loaf, made entirely with their white flour, I suspect an immediate action plan may be needed. The end resulting whiteness of crumb in the British "sliced white" is of incredible significance, being one of the key signs of quality a large-scale baker would use to judge their bread. Culturally, this is a huge deal, going back to the invention of roller milling and the industrialisation of agriculture, and the use of world traded wheat. For Britain, this means going back to the latter part of the 19th Century; so white bread for the masses is very long established here, as in France, of course!
• Consideration should be given to the implications of a lack of whiteness. My baking mentor had been a Chief Executive at several of the large plant baking factories before he came into lecturing. His comments about the strong white flour we used during my time at College in Leeds were, of course, very telling. He was always keen to point out the little black flecks in the white flour, when carrying out visual inspections. "They are robbing us", is what he would say. You can imagine given his background, noted above, that he had deep suspicions of the miller! So, when he bought white flour in huge quantities, he really did expect it to be white.
• However, he really wanted his cake, and he wanted to eat it too! Flour which is not so white will have greater water absorbency. This is on account of the extra bran and germ content, which has not been removed so thoroughly as in very white flour. So, the up side of the greyer flour is greater water absorption, thus allowing a plant baker greater yield, the down side is a perception of lesser quality. A plant baker wants a very white flour with exceptionally high quality protein....somewhat like the All-Canadian "Special CC" I have the pleasure of using in College. This is milled by the same miller who mills for Warburtons, a huge and very successful plant baker in the UK. Indeed, currently the most successful of the plant baking triumvirate, and the one recognised by the buying public as producing higher quality bread. Interesting observations, indeed!

Well, we seemed to be guaranteed a White Christmas here in the frozen North of England.   Whatever the weather, and wherever you are, I'd like to wish all you good people at TFL a very Happy Christmas and a really great year in 2011

Andy