Soft Sandwich Bread questions
Very recently, a poster on this site recommended the Rose Levy Beranbaum recipe for soft sandwich bread and I am trying it today. I can't remember who it was, but I have a few questions, maybe someone else has made it. I have followed the recipe to a "T" and have used King Arthur flour. It calls for a sponge which I let sit out for the hour last night then put it in the fridge overnight. This morning early, I took it out and let it set for about 2 hrs to warm up then did the 2nd phase, sprinkled the next round of ingredients over it and let that set for 2 more hrs as per instructions. Then you add the butter, mix, let sit for 20 min., then add the salt. OK.... I kneaded it in my KA mixer for 10 min, it still was too wet. (I weighed all ingr.) So I hand kneaded it to a more workable stage. Now it is rising for 1.5 - 2 hrs. Then you letter fold it on the counter and let it rise for 1.5-2 more hrs. I'm thinking I might skip this rise, because then when you shape the loaves, another 1.5-2 hr rise. This bread better be real good! The lead-in instructions under "time schedule" say about 4 hrs for rising time. Well, I'll be baking sometime in the night at this rate. There was the overnight rise, the rise in the bowl before kneading, then 3 rises after that.
Has anyone experienced this recipe and did you have the same problems? Very long rises and very sticky dough, having to step outside the author's instructions. Then how was it? Thanks in advance for any input. Jean P. (VA)
Hi msbreadmaker,
With butter added at nearly 20% on flour, I suggest that trying to add water at over 62% on flour is a trifle ambitious, although not impossible to produce great bread I'm sure. Using milk powder will also further weaken gluten potential.
I would reduce water to 60%. So if you are following the recipe, that is 391g of water, as opposed to 405g in the recipe in the book.
Good luck next time with the recipe
Best wishes
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thank you for answering with the info you provided. What you said makes sense to me and I am going to write the water amount you suggested into the book. I thought at the time the butter requirement was very high, I started to leave out the 9th Tablspn, but I like to make any recipe directly as printed the first time before I make any changes. I did make the loaves and they are now cooling, I will get to test them shortly. I hope they are not too much like cake!
Best wishes to you as well. Jean
Many people find the Beranbaum books notorious for their mistakes and errata. (Search threads here on TFL.) I don't know if that's the case in this particular recipe, but you might Google around a bit, including checking the publisher's site or Beranbaum's site, to see if the recipe has been corrected or appended.
WOW! I will certainly do that, had not thought of that possibility, thank you for that suggestion.
I have made this rcipe many times without any problems. If so, let me know and I'll comment further. Also, here's a link to the corrections for the Bread Bible on the RLB website.
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/02/corrections_the_bread_bible.html
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your reply. The recipe in question (for me) was from the Bread Bible. As I was making it, there were a lot of rises, much more than the intro of the recipe indicated, it would take way more than 4 hrs. That's not a problem for me as I am an experienced bread baker. However, as I stated, I weighed all ingredients, used KA flour and followed the recipe as written. The dough, after 10 min. kneading in my 6 qt KA was still very wet. I thought about just going to stretch and fold, but after so much time spent already kneading, I decided to finish kneading by hand. I had to add significantly more flour (very slowly) because I wanted to be able to handle it when I shaped the loaves. This all took the better part of the day, even after overnighting in fridge. The finished result was ok.... but I was hoping for more. Maybe you have some hints for me and I appreciate your response. Jean
P.S. Tom, Thanks also for the link to the errata. I was able to find it on the internet, but I cannot get my system to print, either from what I had found on the net, as well as what you sent. Your link would be better as it only has the errata pertaining to the bread book. JP