April 1, 2007 - 1:46pm
Plain Ol' wheat sandwich bread
There was a comment in the "you know you're a bread baker" thread about feeling like you're "cheating" when you make a yeasted dough.
But... there's something awfully nice (and FAST!) about a comforting loaf of sandwich bread
This a recipe adapted over the years from "Beth's Basic Bread Book". I vary the wheat/white percentage based on my mood, today was about 60% wheat flour. It has milk, honey, an egg, and some butter/oil (oh and salt and yeast!). Perfect for a PBJ with homemade grape jelly!
Share
If that's cheating who needs morality? Is that a 'plain old' knead-10-minutes-rise-til- double-punch-down-etc. type of loaf? Do you use a sponge or add gluten, or add folds or anything?
Would you share your recipe? I'm always looking for big high rising healthful bread for my husband's sandwiches. He works in construction and when lunch time comes he likes a big sandwich!
Wow, I like the looks of those.
I meant that spending 4 hours in the kitchen - as opposed to feedings and overnight risings - felt like "cheating". I didn't mean the bread was inferior! Of course any bread is beautiful - like yours!
I think we got that about the 'cheating', spsq. Anyone who's spent 15 minutes amongst the sourdough people here gets a pretty good notion of what 'devoted' really means. I do think you're a little too generous in your final comment, though. If you think ANY bread is beautiful, I'm prepared to offer evidence to the contrary, I'm afraid. We're not talking puppies, here.
I knew what you meant--I was just teasing! :)
I feel the same way, as if by not planning my baking 3 days ahead and just "throwing together" a sandwich loaf it isn't as good, somehow, ha ha.
Dare I say sometimes I get tired of crunchy crust and just want something soft and good for PBJ? Or today's lunch---Peanut butter toast!
I don't know what it is about internet forums, but it seems to bring out people's hypersensitivity! On another forum that I frequent, the slightest miswording gets everyone all worked up. It's funny, but I was worried that I had offended people here -after all, we're all obsessive about bread....
p.s. On the subject of cheating, sometimes I throw some dough into my breadmaker - just to have enough to fill the oven when I'm trying a new bread. I let it rest for about 15 min, then it rises ONCE and goes in with the others. It's consistantly my best tasting bread!
Wheat Bread: Originally based on the "perfect whole wheat sandwich bread" recipe in Beth's Basic Bread Book.
I have weights and baker's percentages here, but you could convert to cups etc. pretty easily. One egg is about 2 ounces. It's a pretty forgiving recipe and I switch oil/butter and honey/brown sugar depending on what I have on hand. The original recipe was closer to 35/65 wheat/white flour, and I often make it 50/50 white and wheat.
WHEAT BREAD
Baker's % Quantity (pounds) (ounces) (grams)
Water 31% 0.68 10.8 307.4
Milk 25% 0.55 8.7 79.3
Honey 3% 0.07 1.0 29.7
Oil (or melted butter) 6% 0.13 2.1 59.5
Salt 2% 0.04 0.7 19.8
Yeast 2% 0.04 0.7 19.8
Wheat Flour 60% 1.31 1.0 594.9
Bread Flour 40% 0.87 14.0 396.6
Total 4.00 234.0 1814.4
As for instructions, I just do a straight-dough method. I warm up the liquids if it's cold out or if I'm in more of a hurry. Yesterday I did a 10 minute autolyse between about 5 minutes of mixing (before and after), which made for a pretty smooth and soft dough. First rise is about 1 hour, depending on dough and air temperatures. I divided in two, rested about 10-15 minutes, and then formed loaves. Final proof was fairly long--maybe an hour? I let them get about 2 inches above the top of the pan.
Bake 35-45 minutes at 375 degrees. Oh and I scored the top and brushed melted butter on gently before baking.
I will try and post the excel spreadsheet for this too if I can figure out how :)
Plus one egg per two loaves?
sPh
Sorry about that--the formula should have an additoinal line:
Eggs: 6% 2 ounces (59.5 grams).
It's 1 egg for 2 loaves. As with the other adjustments you could go up or down for this--depending on how you like it, or what you have on hand, and adjusting the other liquids as needed.
Neither the percentages nor the weights (in any scale) add up to the totals you have listed, even when you add in 1 egg...is something else missing from the recipe or are the amounts listed off? Appreciate it someone can give the correct total recipe. Here is what your totals are as given:
Percent: 169% (100% flours plus 69% everythign else?)
Pounds: 3.69
Ounces: 39 (clearly 1.31 lb of wheat flour doesn't equal 1.0 oz)
Grams: 1507
Are we working in baker's percentage or arithmatic percentage?
sPh
I'm sorry, the cut/pasting didn't work properly in the web page. It is baker's percentages, so it's supposed to be more than 100%.
It's not that fantastic of a recipe, as Floyd's example shows any regular honey wheat sandwich recipe is fine :) I'd recommend any of Beth Hensperger's.
Any suggestions on posting an excel spreadsheet? I know how to do photos, but my photo site doesn't support other file formats.
I made this formula this morning. I was careful to get the weights right in grams and it was bone dry. I had to add a fair amount of additional water just to get to a workable dough consistency. The yeast measured out at just under 5 teaspoons which seemed a little heavy but in the end it rose well and turned out OK but not as nice as floyds.
Eric
I don' t think my original recipe is correct due to formatting problems, please see this updated version:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=psShgnza0EI_jSTPxV-4yIg
Sorry about that!
this is not right. the milk is off.
Posted above is the corrected formula.
I was lamenting how I hadn't set out a preferment and wasn't going to get a chance to bake when I saw this post. It inspired me to whip up a quick honey whole wheat bread in time for dinner, which the kids loved. So thank you for the inspiration.
And what a nice photo! I happily ate mine all last week for lunch :)
Absolutely beautiful Breadnerd...you, Floyd, and JMonkey are the kings of beautiful sandwich loaves and are all inspiring me to try some next...thanks for the recipe! I may try to substitue yogurt for the milk as my doctor said I can try re-introducing yogurt back into my dairy-free diet - yay! I think Pumpkinpapa said he uses yogurt and kefir with good results in his sandwich breads.
with all these beautiful sandwich loaves!
i need practice!