Susan:Honey Bran Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe

A Whole Grain Loaf Even Diehard White Bread Fans Will Love

I'll admit that things have improved somewhat over the past several years, but for the most part bread still doesn't get the respect in the United States that it deserves—especially the poor sandwich loaf. Is there anything more depressing than a sandwich that is packed full of amazing stuff yet held in place by two totally disappointing slices of something that barely deserves to be called bread?

In a perfect world, both the filling and the bread would be wonderful, but I, for one, would much rather have a so-so filling surrounded by superior bread than the other way around. Bad bread can ruin even the best sandwich, and good bread can make it.

We're a very bread oriented household here on the farm, and we take our sandwiches seriously. I took it as a compliment when a houseguest once said, after polishing off one of the homegrown lamb salami sandwiches I'd packed for us to eat while out running errands (I never leave the farm without food), "I'm so full. Your sandwiches are like a meal!" but at the same time part of me was thinking, Well, yeah. It was lunch.

Boring Old Tuna? Not on this Bread

A sandwich shouldn't be something you're forced to eat—it should be something you want to eat. And it doesn't have to be expensive or fancy to be fabulous. Start with nice ingredients and you'll end up with a very nice sandwich. Plain old peanut butter and jam? A perennial favorite around here. But the bread is freshly baked, the peanut butter and jam (reduced sugar—you can taste the fruit!) are organic, and the mandatory ice cold glass of milk served alongside came straight out of a happy Jersey cow who lives six miles down the road. In fact that's what I had for breakfast this morning. Open faced on one slice of lightly toasted Honey Bran Whole Wheat.

Lunch? Leftover roast chicken (locally raised on pasture and organic grains) topped with soft and sweet slices of roasted onions (both heated ever so slightly), a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground pepper, a thick smear of mayonnaise (I've always been a Best Foods/Hellman's girl), and plenty of lettuce. More of the Honey Bran Bread. Maybe toasted, maybe not. Make the bread, make the sandwich. Make a meal.

Crusty, freeform artisan breads are popping up all over, but the sandwich bread section at most supermarkets still remains a disappointing (and sometimes frightening) place. How can ingredients with 22 letters belong in a loaf of bread? And why is Oroweat not spelled Orowheat? Is it like creme and cheez, which don't contain cream or cheese?

The sandwich solution? Set aside a couple of hours every week or two and bake your own loaves. It's easier than you think, tastier than you can imagine, and costs less than the storebought equivalent—that is if you could actually find a storebought equivalent. You'll have friends and family singing your praises, and your sandwiches will never be the same. All because of a simple loaf of bread.



Susan's Honey Bran Whole Wheat Bread
Makes 3 large loaves, about 36 ounces each

When it comes to baking bread, my motto is If you have friends or a freezer, never bake just one loaf at a time. It only takes a few more minutes of work to bake two or three loaves, and homemade bread freezes beautifully.

This is a variation of my popular Farmhouse White, which is the kind of simple, scrumptious loaf people tend to imagine apron-clad grandmothers baking. Farmhouse White is also almost foolproof, which makes it a great beginner's loaf. I realize that in these health conscious days white bread isn't for everyone, but if you've had disappointing, doorstop-like whole grain baking experiences in the past, you might want to bake up a batch or two of the basic recipe first and then start making it healthier.

Farmhouse White is open to an infinite number of interpretations, and this is my latest favorite variation. It also makes wonderful dinner rolls and burger buns. It's not 100% whole grain and uses white whole wheat flour, which means it's a lighter, easier dough to work with and also rises beautifully, while still offering plenty of whole grain goodness, especially with the 2 cups of bran tossed in.

You don't have to weigh your ingredients when baking bread, but a digital kitchen scale really does make baking and cooking a whole lot easier. It's also nice to be able to weigh your dough as you're dividing it into loaves (or rolls) so you know they're the same size. I am loving my new Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Scale: it weighs up to 11 pounds, lets you pull the display out from the base so you can weigh really large bowls (so cool), and was recently voted #1 by America's Test Kitchen, the people who publish Cook's Illustrated magazine. Can you say incredibly useful, under $50 holiday gift?

Bake your bread in 8" x 4" pans if you want the rustic look of taller loaves with mushroom-shaped tops (like in the photo above), or 9" x 5" pans if you prefer shorter, more square-shaped slices (like the tuna sandwich photo). I can't say enough good things about these Chicago Metallic commercial loaf pans. For the price of a few loaves of bread they're definitely worth the investment—and come with a 25-year warranty. What they call a 1-pound pan is basically an 8-inch, and the 1-1/2 pound pan is equivalent to a 9-inch.

As always, I urge you to seek out local and organic ingredients whenever possible. I've found that organic flour makes a big difference when baking bread, and it often only costs a few more cents per loaf. Look for organic flours and brans in the bulk section of natural food stores.

If you don't have bread flour for this recipe, just use more all-purpose flour. Increase the honey to 1/2 cup for a slightly sweeter loaf. I like to bake all my breads, including those in loaf pans, on a baking stone, as I find it bakes them more evenly and gives the bottoms a nicer crust (and it also simulates the ceramic deck in the 7-foot wide bread oven in my someday-bread-bakery-to-be), but it definitely isn't necessary.

4 cups / 1 lb-4 oz / 568 g all-purpose flour
2 cups / 10¼ oz / 290 g bread flour
1 cup / 4¼ oz 122 g oat bran
1 cup / 3¾ oz / 109 g wheat bran
1½ Tablespoons / 1/8 oz / 17 g instant yeast
2 Tablespoons / 30 ml canola oil or melted butter
1/3 cup / 3-5/8 oz / 102 g honey
5 cups / 40 fluid oz lukewarm milk (about 85 degrees F)
4 cups / 1lb-5 oz / 604 g white whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons / 30 ml salt

Mixing and fermentation
In a very large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, bread flour, oat bran, wheat bran, and yeast (I use a wooden spoon). Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the canola oil, the honey, and then the milk. Mix well, then continue to stir vigorously, slowly adding 1 cup of the white whole wheat flour at a time, until you've added 4 cups, or until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. This should take a few minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 or 7 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface.

Place the mixing bowl over the dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. This rest period is called the autolyse. (You can read more about autolyse in the sidebar on my Farmhouse White recipe post.)

Remove the bowl, flatten out the dough with your hands, and sprinkle about half of the salt over it. Begin kneading the salt into the dough. After a few turns, sprinkle on the rest of the salt and continue to knead for 5 to 7 minutes, until the salt is completely incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.

Place the dough in a large plastic straight sided container with a snap-on lid. With masking tape or a felt tip pen, mark the spot on the container that the dough will reach when it has doubled in volume. Set it somewhere that is preferably between 70F and 78F for about one hour. Ideally, the dough should also be between 70F and 78F. It's easy to check the temperature of your dough and ingredients with an inexpensive instant read thermometer.

When the dough is ready to be shaped, you should be able to push a floured finger deep into it and leave an indentation that doesn't spring back. Unless your dough is rising in a straight-sided container, it can be difficult to judge whether it has "doubled in size," which is the guideline most recipes use. I find the finger poking method to be more reliable.

Shaping and final rise (proof)
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, flattening gently with your hands to break up any large air bubbles. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.

Shape the dough into loaves and dust the tops with flour. There are dozens of ways to do this; instructions on how I like to shape my sandwich loaves can be found in this post. Place loaves seam side down in greased loaf pans (I've become addicted to baking spray—so convenient.)

If desired, an hour before baking, place baking stone in the oven and heat to 375 degrees.

Cover the loaves with a damp tea towel and let them rise for 45 to 60 minutes. The dough should rise well above the rim of the pans, and when you lightly poke it with a floured finger it should spring back just a little.

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow if tapped (you can carefully pop one out of the pan and put it back in if it's not quite done). Remove immediately from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf, as it continues to bake while cooling. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Make sure loaves are completely cooled before sealing in bags.

Still have more flour left?
Check out all the other sandwich bread recipes on A Year In Bread.

© Copyright 2008 AYearInBread.com, the bread baking blog where on more than one occasion we've happily eaten sandwiches (on homemade bread of course) for three meals in one day.

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Sandwich Loaf Bread Recipes on A Year in Bread

Susan's Farmhouse White - A Classic Sandwich Loaf

Welcome new visitors and hello old friends! Just in time for back-to-school, here are links to all the sandwich bread recipes we've posted so far on A Year in Bread. What could be better than sending your kids (or yourself!) off for the day with a lunch that includes a scrumptious sandwich made on homemade bread? We certainly can't think of anything.

But what, you ask, about new recipes, promised recipes, and the fact that nothing whatsoever has been happening around here lately? Well, Beth and I have been dreaming and scheming, plotting and planning - and baking of course! - and should hopefully be back to posting regularly again soon. (I know, I know, you've heard this from us before, but this time we really mean it. I hope.)

In the meantime, why not try some of these breads out and let us know what you think. Don't forget to check the comments section of each post for answers to questions about the recipes and responses from other bakers.

Susan's Farmhouse White (for the quintessential BLT or PBJ)
Beth's Potato Bread (certified kid-friendly)
Kevin's Sour Cream Bread (wonderfully rich)
Beth's Honey wheatBerry Bread (miles above the storebought version)
Susan's Whole Grain Cottage Cheese Bread (good tasting and good for you)
Kevin's Sandwich Rye (hello, Reuben!)

Bored by perfectly shaped slices? These freeform loaves can all make heavenly sandwich fare:
Parisian Daily Baguettes (ready to devour in under 4 hours)
Italian Rosemary Raisin Bread (I love it toasted and topped with sharp cheddar & apricot jam)
Susan's No Knead Italiano Bread (great for grilled cheese)

Still not sandwich satisfied?
Beth says her Onion Cheddar Breadsticks dough makes "absolutely great loaves. Just divide in half and shape into loaves instead of breadsticks." And my Oatmeal Toasting Bread has received rave reviews both on and offline. Have a sweet tooth? Don't miss Beth's Cinnamon Spice Pecan Swirl version.

© Copyright 2008 AYearInBread.com, the bread baking blog where we know that a sandwich makes a meal, and bread makes the sandwich.

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Susan: Whole Grain Cottage Cheese Bread

The best way to master a skill, be it bread baking or brick laying, is to study under someone who has more experience than you do. Over the years I've found that the most helpful information these people can divulge usually falls under two categories: useful and unbelievable. Useful, as in, "How great! I never would have thought of that." And unbelievable, as in, "I can't believe anybody would be so stupid as to actually do that."

While I do have my useful moments, the majority of my experiences fall under the unbelievable category. And besides being stupid, I also tend to be quite stubborn. Stick around. You can learn a lot from me and my mistakes.

Take, for instance, this priceless piece of knowledge that I picked up while working on this month's bread recipe:

If you're in the middle of creating a totally new whole grain bread for a rapidly approaching deadline because at the last minute you suddenly decided that writing about the tried and true, previously posted recipe you'd planned to write about felt a little like cheating, don't decide after the loaves have already proofed in the pans for 45 minutes that you really need to dash to the post office to mail something out, especially if it only took an hour for the dough to double in size while fermenting, the post office is 10 miles away, and you know it can take 10 minutes just to get from the farmyard to the blacktop at the top of the driveway.

You see? Even when I read that paragraph I immediately think, "I can't believe anybody would actually do that." And yet for some idiotic reason I did.

But wait. There's more. Too stubborn to admit that there was anything wrong with my recipe except for the fact that I let the loaves proof so long that they only rose about three millimeters once in the oven, the next day (this would be the day the completed recipe and accompanying article were officially due) I proceeded to make up another batch of the exact same dough, despite the fact that I was pretty sure it called for too much cottage cheese, and may have had a few other problems.

This time I stayed home and closely monitored the proofing process, but the same thing happened. Despite doubling in size in less than an hour during the fermentation, the loaves hadn't risen much above the tops of the pans after proofing for an hour, and then they hardly rose in the oven. In a way this was a good thing, because by not messing with any of the ingredients I learned that the recipe itself is somehow to blame for the disappointing results.

The other good thing is that this bread, despite being on the short side, has, as my farmguy, Joe, put it, "a hell of a nice flavor." He also pointed out that it isn't really that short; I just tend to make very big sandwich bread.

This bread is dense but not brick like, and although it does contain white flour, as far as sandwich breads go it's really quite good for you. It's made with oat bran and wheat bran as well as whole-wheat flour, and the cottage cheese and milk add protein and calcium. The interior crumb is pleasantly moist with a nutty chewiness, and the cottage cheese gives it a very subtle tang. It makes hearty toast, and I shaped an extra hunk of dough into some fantastic burger buns. I think it would also make tasty dinner rolls.

But since I'm still not entirely happy with the recipe, what I'm going to give you here is the original recipe it's adapted from, which I created a year ago while looking for something to do with an outdated carton of cottage cheese. Although I didn't have a chance to bake it again this week, I know this recipe works because I have photographic evidence of the taller, beautiful loaves it produced (that's it in the top photo). And I even took detailed notes while making it.

I've included the new version in the sisdebar in case you desire a slightly shorter, somewhat denser, and definitely healthier loaf.

If, however, you don't completely trust either version of this bread (or me), I can safely recommend my Oatmeal Toasting Bread, which the three of us had originally decided I should write about this month. It's one of my favorite sandwich loaves, and I, along with many other people (including Beth), have successfully made it numerous times. Just don't ask me to divulge any of the unbelievable things I did during the several years I spent tweaking the recipe. There's only so much humiliation a girl can take at one time, no matter how much she wants to help others become better bakers by avoiding her mistakes.

Susan's Whole Grain Cottage Cheese Bread
Makes 2 loaves, approximately 1 1/2 pounds/680 grams each (56 ounces/1.6kg of unbaked dough). You can also use this dough to make rolls, buns, or freeform loaves like the 12 ounce/340 gram (round pictured above.

Ingredients US volume | Metric Volume | US weight | Metric weight
all-purpose flour 2 1/2 cups | 625 ml | 12 1/2 oz | 354 g
old-fashioned oats 1/2 cup | 125 ml | 3 3/8 oz | 53 g
oat bran 1/4 cup | 60 ml | 1 1/8 oz | 32 g
wheat bran 1/4 cup | 60 ml | 3/8 oz | 11 g
instant yeast 1 Tablespoon | 15 ml | 10 g
granulated sugar 1 Tablespoon | 15 ml | 13 g
canola oil 1 Tablespoons | 15 ml | 16 g
milk (or water) warm 2 cups | 500 ml | 16 oz | 454 g
cottage cheese 1 cup | 250 ml | 8 oz | 227 g
whole-wheat flour 2 1/2 cups | 625 ml | 13 5/8 oz | 387 g
salt 2 1/2 teaspoons | 12 ml | -- | 12 g

Mixing and fermentation
In a very large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, oats, oat bran, wheat bran, yeast, and sugar (I use a wooden spoon). Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the canola oil and then the milk and cottage cheese. Mix well, then continue to stir vigorously, slowly adding 1/2 cup of the whole wheat flour at a time, until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 7 or 8 minutes, adding a sprinkling of all-purpose flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface. Depending on your flour, your weather, and about 45 other variants, you might not need to add any more flour.

Place the mixing bowl over the dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. This rest period is called the autolyse.

Remove the bowl, flatten out the dough with your hands, and sprinkle about half of the salt over it. Begin kneading the salt into the dough. After a few turns, sprinkle on the rest of the salt and continue to knead for 7 to 8 minutes, adding a small amount of flour if necessary, until the salt is completely incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.

Susan's Whole Grain Cottage Bread: The Extra Version
This version came about because I have a More More More tendency when it comes to cooking and food. I wanted to cut the original recipe in half because it made 7 pounds of dough and I thought that might scare some people away, but it seemed silly to only use half a carton of cottage cheese. One half cup of cottage cheese per 28-ounce loaf hardly seemed worth the bother. I decided that extra cottage cheese, along with extra oat bran, oats, and wheat bran would make a better, not to mention healthier, bread.

Follow the recipe above, making these changes and decreasing the rising times as needed. You'll end up with about 69 ounces of dough.

1. Substitute bread flour for the all-purpose flour.
2. Double the amount of oats, oat bran, and wheat bran.
3. Double the amount of cottage cheese.

I've come up with some ideas about why this version isn't rising in the oven, but I haven't had a chance to test my theories. Since A Year In Bread is a learning experience, I thought I'd go ahead and mention them.

I do know that the extra cottage cheese doesn't make the dough too heavy to rise, because during the first rise (fermentation) it easily doubled in size both times I made it. But doubling in size took much less time than the original version (the dough was the same temperature), so it's possible the extra milk sugar may be causing the dough to rise more quickly at first, and that the yeast is already exhausted by the time the loaves are finally placed in the oven. But I don't notice any change in rising times when I make Farmhouse White and substitute 4 cups of milk for the 4 cups of water, so I'm thinking that's not it.

I also used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, assuming the extra gluten in the bread flour would help offset the lack of gluten in the extra oats, oat bran, and wheat bran. It shouldn't have, but maybe that substitution did something? The increased amounts of bran and oats shouldn't have made the dough too heavy; I bake other similar breads with more that this in them, and they come out fine.

I've seen whole wheat bread recipes that call for just one rise; after kneading the dough you shape it straight into loaves. This would assure a nice height to the loaves, but without that second rise the resulting flavor, crumb, and texture aren't as nice. It would be interesting to try it, though.

Keeping both rises but letting the dough only increase in size by half or two-thirds during fermentation would be another option.

A shorter proofing period is another possiblity. I was afraid to put the loaves in the oven when they were barely up to the edge of the pans, assuming there wouldn't be any huge bloom when I put them in the oven, but if the yeast had some extra energy left they might really poof up.

This is what I love and hate about baking bread. The possibilities are endless!

While I love my antique wooden dough bowls and still use them for mixing doughs, I've started letting my doughs ferment in clear, straight-sided plastic containers with snap-on lids. Besides not having to cover the dough with damp tea towels or plastic wrap to keep the tops from drying out, the containers make it easy to tell when the dough has doubled in size; simply mark the height of the unrisen dough on the side of the container with a felt tip pen (it comes off when scrubbed with a sponge). For home baking, the containers don't need to be very big, and you can find inexpensive ones for sale almost anywhere.

Set your container of dough somewhere that is preferably between 70F and 75F (21 - 24C) until it has barely doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes. You should be able to push a floured finger deep into it and leave an indentation that doesn't spring back.

Ideally, the dough should also be between 70F and 78F (21 - 26C). It's easy to check the temperature of your dough and ingredients with an inexpensive instant read thermometer.

Shaping and final rise (proof)
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, flattening gently with your hands to break up any large air bubbles. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. I flatten the dough into a large rectangle, use my bench scraper to cut up the dough, and then check the weights on my kitchen scale.

Shape the dough into loaves and place them seam side down in well-greased loaf pans. If desired, before you place the dough in the pans, brush them with water and roll the tops in oats; or you can put them in the pans, brush them with water, and sprinkle them with oats, but this doesn't work as well. There are dozens of ways to shape loaves; see this post for the method I use.

I use 8-inch x 4-inch pans; 9-inch x 5-inch pans will give you wider, shorter loaves. I can't say enough good things about these commercial loaf pans from Chicago Metallic. For the price of a few loaves of bread, they're definitely worth the investment. They also work great for baking beer bread. Note that what they call a 9-inch x 5-inch 1-pound loaf pan is what I call an 8-inch x 4-inch pan. The actual size of the pan is inbetween the two. Chicago Metallic also makes what they call a 1-1/2 pound loaf pan. I'll be using these same pans in our wholesale bread bakery once we have it up and running, only they'll be the 'strap version,' where four pans are strapped together so you can move them in and out of the oven at once.

I usually grease my pans with canola oil using a silicone pastry brush, but lately I've been using Trader Joe's Canola Baking Spray, which is, according to the label, "a unique formula developed for the exacting needs of home bakers. This superior coating provides an even, consistent coating of canola oil and flour for all baking pans." I figured for 99 cents I'd give it a try, and I love it. Unfortunately I've run out, and they've been out of stock for months.

Heat the oven to 375F (190C).

Cover the loaves with a damp tea towel and let them rise for about 45 to 60 minutes, or until the dough slowly springs back a little when you lightly poke it with a floured finger.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow if tapped. Reduce baking time for smaller loaves, rolls, and burger buns. Remove immediately from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Make sure loaves are completely cooled before sealing in bags.

Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread baking | farmgirl susan | cottage cheese bread | sandwich

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Kevin: Sandwich Rye Bread Recipe

A few years ago I made a sourdough rye bread using wild yeast that I captured and cultured. I made a decent bread from it, albeit rather tough and coarse, but I already had a sourdough culture I was caring for and decided I didn't need twins in my life. Nevertheless, I do love a good sour rye bread for sandwiches and so I eventually got around to coming up with a good sandwich rye.

The trick with rye bread is that rye is low in glutenin. Gluten is a combination of two primary protein molecules, glutenin and gliadin. Glutenin provides stretchability and gliadin provides plasticity. In the presence of water, glutenin in particular can bind to other glutenin molecules at each end (forming even longer chains) and to other molecules in the center. By kneading dough you encourage the glutenin molecules to make these links and thus you get bread dough's ability to rise. Gliadin molecules, in turn, enable the glutenin to maintain it's shape. This combination of glutenin and gliadin is what we usually mean by the single word "gluten."

A couple of other key factors affect the way bread rises. Acid weakens the gluten bonds, which is why sourdoughs are often denser breads than yeast breads. On the other hand, salt strengthens the bonds.

Because rye flour is low in glutenin it doesn't stretch well and so pure rye bread tends to be dense and heavy — and sourdough rye particularly so. This means that to make a good sandwich-type bread with an open, generous crumb using rye the rye needs to be an ingredient rather than the primary flour.

I did some research and found a bread machine recipe that I decided to adapt. Based on what I knew and what I desired I came up with the following recipe.

This is the least pure recipe I've made, by which I mean that I include a couple of additives in the bread: sour salt and wheat gluten. Both of these are natural products — or at least occur naturally.

Sour salt is actually citric acid, which is the acid found in lemons, limes, and other citrus fruits. I like a slightly acid flavor in rye because it complements both the rye flavor and the caraway seeds that, to me, are essential in a good sandwich rye. You could simply add lemon or lime juice but I didn't want the flavors associated with the juice, instead I wanted the pure taste of acid on the tongue. Wheat gluten is what it says, gluten extracted from wheat (ideally without any melamine, so stay away from Chinese wheat gluten). The wheat gluten would enable me to bump the proportion of rye flour and still get a good sandwich loaf.

Sandwich Rye
Makes 1 loaf.

Ingredient US volume Metric Volume US weight Metric weight
rye flour 1 c 235 ml 5 1/8 oz 146 g
bread flour 2 1/4 c 530 ml 11 1/2 oz 330
instant yeast 1 tsp 5 ml -- --
wheat gluten 1 1/2 tbsp 22 ml -- --
citric acid (sour salt) 1/4 tsp 1 ml -- --
caraway seeds 2 tbsp 30 ml -- --
molasses 1 1/2 tbsp 22 ml -- --
butter melted 1 tbsp 15 ml -- --
table salt 3/4 tsp 4 ml -- --
water 1 c + 2 tbsp 2.6 dl 9 oz 256 g
Egg Wash:
egg 1 -- -- --
water 1 tbsp 15 ml -- --

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the yeast, gluten, citric acid, caraway seeds, rye flour, and 2 cups (530 ml) of bread flour. Add salt and mix in. (Note, the salt is added after mixing the original ingredients to minimize it's direct contact with the yeast, which it can kill).

In a measuring cup, mix together water, molasses, and butter using a small whisk. With the motor running at low speed, pour liquid into dry ingredients. Once moistened, switch to the dough hook and finish blending. The dough should be moist and sticky, add just enough additional flour, a tablespoon at a time, to have dough clear the sides of the bowl. Increase speed to medium and knead for eight minutes. (Note, dough will clear sides but stick to bottom, scrape it up with a rubber spatula every couple of minutes.)

Scoop dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly a few times then form into a ball. Place the dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking oil, spritz top with oil, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk — about 1 1/2 hours.

Gently deflate dough, scoop onto a lightly floured surface, fold a few times, and allow to relax for about five minutes. Shape dough into a loaf and place on a piece of parchment on your peel or on a baking sheet. Lightly spritz tops with oil and cover with plastic. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. In the meantime, heat oven to 400F (200C) and place rack in center position. (Note: it's important to give the oven a long preheat before baking, particularly if you're using a baking stone.)

Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl. Brush loaf with egg wash and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate rack front to back and continue baking 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. The interior should read 190F on an instant read thermometer.

The bread makes a great ham sandwich. And I've made buns for bratwursts using it — a perfect flavor match for the brats with a dollop of mustard and some onions and peppers.

Technorati: Food recipe bread rye bread sandwich sandwich rye

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Beth: Honey wheatBerry Bread Recipe

He’s as sweet as Skamokawa honey
Just like honey from the bee.
Tupelo Honey, with apologies to Van Morrison

Sometimes it is, as the kids say, all about the boy.

We all know people who have done odd things for love: run up multi-thousand phone bills, changed names and careers, moved to a city they would never have considered otherwise, or tried to replicate a mass-market loaf of bread.

Um, yeah.

Although Kevin once referred to me as one of the technicians here, I am truly a member of the magical improvisation class – hence the kitchenMage name. It’s just that I study theory natively and, having been in the kitchen since I was tippy-toe to a flour bin, I have learned many aspects of theory well enough to look technical even while making it up as I go along. (note to kids: this is a handy skill, useful in many areas of life: cultivate it)

Sure, I use recipes... every now and then. Sometimes I even use the same amount of the various ingredients as the person who wrote the book. Not always, though — I often use recipes only to provide a rough outline, which I gleefully color outside of. Truth be told, I have had to force discipline on myself to solidify a recipe long enough to post it here.

As you might imagine, I am not a huge fan of deconstructed "famous recipes." I am not likely to buy most prepackaged food, why on earth would I want to go to the effort of creating my very own homemade version of that stuff?

But then there was the boy.

This person, who shall remain 'nymless, was raised on Oroweat Honey Wheat Berry Bread, developing a deep and abiding affection for the stuff. I can see why: as commercial sandwich loaves go, it's pretty good. Dense but not heavy, a hint of sweetness and a rich taste of grain, it is particularly good toasted with a smear of butter and honey. So while it just kills me to pay three bucks a loaf for sandwich bread, I did. For quite a few years.

Then Oroweat started making a fluffier version — wider slices, a bit more yeast, lighter color and flavor. Sold it in two-packs at Costco at a fairly reasonable price. Just one problem: it tastes like cheap, fluffy bread you buy in two-packs.

Now the old stuff — the good stuff — is hard to find and closer to $4 a loaf when you can lay hands on it. Clearly, something had to be done and about five years ago, I decided to. That's a long time to work on a single recipe, but it was worth it.

There is, after all, the boy. And he likes it.

kitchenMage’s Honey wheatBerry Bread
This recipe makes two large (slightly over 2 pound) loaves or ~18
US Volume metric Volume US Weight metric Weight
water 3 cups 800 ml 24 ounces 675 grams
Wheat berries 3/4 cup 175 ml 5 ounces 140 grams
Milk, room temp 3/4 cup 175 ml 6 ounces 170 grams
Whole wheat flour 1 cup 235 ml 4 1/2 ounces 125 grams
instant yeast 1 tablespoon 15 ml 3/8 ounce 12 grams
Honey 1/4 cup 60 ml 3 ounces 84 grams
Butter 1/4 cup 60 ml 2 ounce 56 grams
Bread flour 6 1/2 cups 1525 ml 29 1/4 ounces 820 grams
salt 1 tablespoon 15 ml 1/2 ounce 15 grams

Note: Each batch of wheat berries I get seems to cook in a different amount of time and absorb a different amount of water. This means that, more than many bread recipes, you may need to adjust the flour on this each time you make it. I add ~5 cups to start and then sprinkle more in as it mixes in the kitchenAid. Most of the time, I end up using ~6 1/2-7 cups, but your mileage, as always, may vary.

Preparing the wheat berries
Combine wheat berries and 3 cups of water in a medium sauce pan. Cover and set aside to soak for an hour. After an hour, leave pan covered and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until wheat berries are soft and popping open. The water level will be reduced by ~1/2 cup and the wheat berries will be fat and soft. Let cool and prepare for use in dough — see sidebar for more information.

Do you like your wheat berries smooth or chunky?

There are two distinctive states of wheat berries: smooth and chunky. You need to decide which form you want your wheat berries to take and prepare them differently based on your desired results.

On one end of the continuum, there is the nuts-and-seeds style of bread, with fairly intact wheat berries. While I like this effect occasionally, particularly when making rolls (add a smidge more yeast, too), the berries have a tendency to stick out of the dough and aren't what I usually want from this bread.

Totally opposite this is the Oroweat bread that set me on this quest. This bread, oddly enough, has no discernible wheat berries, something which I always attributed to superior industrial wheat berry smooshing technology — I think I pictured something involving oompa loompas — but now I know the truth. There are no wheat berries in their bread! In fact, the first ingredient is cracked wheat! Go figure.

Lacking superior oompa-loompa based technology, the easiest way I have found to smoosh these babies is with an immersion blender. A regular blender works reasonably well, but I was less impressed with the results from the food processor.
In any case, let the cooked wheat berries cool to body temperature, ~100F (38C) and then smoosh, or not, to your heart’s content.

Mixing the dough
In mixing bowl, combine wheat berries, milk, yeast and whole wheat flour. Mix until well combined, cover and set in a warm spot until bubbly, 20 - 30 minutes.

Add the softened butter, honey and 5 1/2 cups of bread flour. Mix until it forms a shaggy mass. Continue to add flour, a tablespoon or two (or more at first), until the dough stops readily absorbing it. Mix for another minute, two if mixing by hand. The dough will still be a bit rough. Cover and let rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

If you are using a mixer: Add salt. Use the dough hook and mix it on medium for ~5 minutes, adding more flour a tablespoonful at a time, if needed, until the dough is fairly smooth. Turn it out on a well-floured counter and knead for a few minutes, until the dough is like a baby's bottom — given the wheat berries, perhaps it’s a baby with diaper rash. (sorry)

If you are making the dough by hand: Add salt. Spread a cup of flour on the counter and knead for 4 - 5 minutes, adding more flour if needed. Knead until the dough is, um, ready as described, perhaps a bit too graphically, above.

Roll the dough in flour, put it in a clean bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter, divide in half and shape into loaves. Grease two loaf pans. Put the shaped loaves in the pans and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).

Preheat oven to 375F (175C). Bake bread for 45 minutes or until golden brown (~195F/90C internal temperature). Turn out of pans onto cooling rack for at least an hour.

Complete flickr set of kitchenMage's Honey wheatBerry Bread

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Beth: Potato Bread

When theKid was a young'un, I faced a challenge that I am sure is common to parental units across the country: white bread lust.

For reasons perhaps best explained by marketing, a lot of kids — even those who usually make sane food choices—seem to prefer bland, white bread. Sandwiches, toast, pretty much anything has to be white bread, but especially sandwiches. And kids eat lots of sandwiches. (hmmm, kids, sandwiches, Kevin, sandwiches... interesting....) Not very healthy and awfully boring. The white bread — not Kevin!

Then there was the cost of a decent loaf of white bread, which was simply exorbitant. Yet, even as a single mother on a tight budget, the affordable white bread in the shiny primary-color dotted bag was just too awful to contemplate. (The only thing I ever Wondered was who was buying that stuff!)

Whole Wheat Potato Bread

Potatoes have many positive effects on bread: yeast loves it, bread is softer and stays fresh longer, and bread dough with potatoes does not have to be mixed as long as bread without potatoes—amazing but apparently true! One of the more useful effects however, is an increased tolerance for whole wheat flour in the dough.

I used two cups of white whole wheat in one of my experiments and, with a few minor adjustments, I think this recipe would do nicely for anyone who wants a whole wheat take on this bread. As with all of bread baking, pay attention to the feel of the dough and adjust the ingredients where they seem to need it. Here is what you need to do differently, and why:

New first step: Mix the water, white whole wheat flour and yeast, cover and let it sit for ten minutes. This insures that the heavier whole wheat flour is totally hydrated before you start mixing the rest of the dough.

The white whole wheat flour absorbs more water, so add a little. I'd suggest a quarter of a cup. You may need to add a bit more when you are adding the rest of the flour, if it seems too dry to absorb all of it.

Let the bread proof until it is actually doubled in bulk. As you can see from the photo of the side by side white and white whole wheat loaves, I underproofed mine a bit. (I was nervous about it falling and it looked done. Oh well, live and learn.)

You can probably substitute more white whole wheat for white, although at some point you might need to add a little more yeast or a tablespoon of gluten if you have it around. The potatoes make this dough pretty forgiving.

Having sandwich bread that I was willing to eat, let alone feed theKid, meant making it myself. Fortunately, I knew how to do this, although, since I'd rather have my sandwich on a roll, standard loaves weren't in heavy rotation before then. Another saving grace was that theKid was not old enough to have kids at school telling her that homemade bread was, like homemade clothes, 'uncool.' Lacking a freezer to store a second loaf meant that I usually had to bake more than once a week, usually with the help of a toddler standing on a five gallon bucket of flour. Good times.

I started sneaking in bits of leftover cooked cereal, mashed potatoes, rice, and other things that seemed to have a complementary flavor and texture. This was surprisingly effective and had the bonus of helping me cut down on wasted food, which mattered a lot on my very tight budget.

Potato bread—soft, almost billowy, yet chewy enough to have some substance—was one of my favorites. Fresh herbs add a lovely depth to the flavor; rosemary and thyme are particularly good. This also makes wonderful dinner rolls; I like them with soup because they hold together well when dipping.

These days, I only bake bread for theKid when she makes the trek from theCity to evenTinierTown and it's been a long time since I had to sneak anything into her bread. I still love potato bread, though, and since I can never seem to make the right amount of mashed potatoes it's something I can make fairly regularly.

kitchenMage's Potato Bread
water | 2 cups | 475 ml | 16 ounces | 450 grams
bread flour | 5 1/2 cups | 1070 ml | 20 1/4 ounces | 570 grams
instant yeast | 2 teaspoons | 12 ml | 1/4 ounce | 7 grams
mashed potatoes | 1 1/4 cup | 350 ml | 8 ounces | 225 grams
butter | 2 tablespoons | 30 ml | 1 ounce | 28 grams
all purpose flour | 1 cup | 235 ml | 4 1/2 ounces | 125 grams
salt | 1 tablespoon | 15 ml | 1/2 ounces | 15 grams

Notes:
I based this recipe on mashed boiled potatoes with nothing added and used the water from the potatoes in the bread. If you want to do this, measure the water and raw potatoes then cook. When the potatoes are done, do not drain them, just mash them in the water. Then measure the mixture again and if it's not quite the same, add water until it is.

If you are using leftover mashed potato, you will probably need to add a little extra flour to make up for additions to the potatoes, such as milk or butter. You will have to judge this when you are making it.

In mixing bowl, combine water, potatoes, yeast and flour and mix until well combined. Add the butter and mix until it is integrated into dough. The dough will still be very soft. Cover and let rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Add the salt to the dough when you do the next step.

If you are using a mixer: Use the dough hook and mix it on medium while you sprinkle in the all-purpose flour a tablespoonful at a time. When the absorption of the flour starts to slow down, turn it out on a well-floured counter and knead until the dough is smooth and supple, but no longer tacky.

If you are making the dough by hand: Spread the cup of all-purpose flour on the counter and knead for 4-5 minutes, adding more flour if needed. Knead until the dough is, as Kevin would say, smooth as a baby's...um, never mind, we got labeled as an adult site by one of those net-filtering software things because I said "bread p**n" once. Geez.

Roll the dough in flour, put it in a clean bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter, divide in half and shape into loaves. Grease two loaf pans. Put the shaped loaves in the pans and let rise until doubled in bulk (about an hour).

Preheat oven to 375°f / 175°c. Bake bread for 35 minutes or until golden brown (~195°f / 90°c internal temperature). Turn out of pans onto cooling rack for at least an hour.

This last picture? Just a bit of truth in blogging. Just in case we put up a convincing front that it is all we just make a recipe up in fifteen minutes and bake one loaf and it is perfect and our kitchens are always clean. As if!

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Kevin: Basic White Bread

I've said before, and I'll repeat it here, I enjoy baking bread more than I enjoy eating it. I like bread, and I certainly appreciate good bread, I'm just not a huge bread eater — with one caveat. I'm a sandwich fanatic. In fact, Beth has occasionally referred to me as Pig Sandwich Boy in reference to my dual loves of pork and sandwiches.

There's a Web site named I Love Sandwiches that once had a poll on it asking what's the most amount of time you've ever devoted to making a sandwich? My answer was 36 hours. It took that long because it began with making a poolish from my sourdough starter and proceeded in due course to making the bread, allowing it to rise twice, baking it, and then letting it cool enough to slice for sandwiches. My friends, the true mark of a sandwich lover is when they begin by making the bread for the sandwich.

"There is an art to the business of making sandwiches which is given to few ever to find the time to explore in depth. It is simple task but the opportunities for satisfaction are many and profound…" ~ Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

Reputedly the sandwich is named for John Montague, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich. The story goes that he was gambling and rather than take a break from the table to eat he told his servant to bring him a piece of meat between two slices of bread so he could eat with one hand and play cards with the other.

Whether the tale is apocryphal or not, the name does seem to come from him. And I think it holds a key to what truly defines a sandwich: A sandwich is some filling, enclosed in bread, that can be eaten by hand. By this definition a so-called open-faced sandwich is generally not a sandwich because it requires at least a fork to eat. A pizza is not a sandwich, but in terms of utility a calzone is a sandwich just as an empanada or wrap or hamburger is a sandwich.

But whatever the definition, the classic sandwich remains a filling or fillings between two slices of bread. Whether it's a Rueben, a grilled cheese, a ham panini, a cubano, a mufaletta, a Bánh mi a hoagie, a Philly steak and cheese, PB&J, or a BLT they all share a common form and they're all delicious — especially when made with top quality bread.

Although sandwiches have a place in every season, they are particularly suited to summer. They're as heavy or light as the maker desires, they're tremendously portable, and they're quick to prepare (at least they are if you've already baked the bread), and almost everyone has a favorite sandwich. That's why when we were planning A Year in Bread we decided to start off the summer with that most basic of sandwich ingredients, white loaf bread.

My favorite recipe is from Beard on Bread by James Beard. It's made with sour cream which adds some tang to the loaf, but mostly produces an open crumb that makes the best damned grilled cheese sandwich you've ever eaten (recipe below). This bread recipe doesn't produce the huge lofty loaves that Susan's Farmhouse White does, but that's an issue of dough quantity and not how the bread rises. Besides, I find the smaller slices such loaves produce easier to make one-handed sandwiches with — which allows me to eat a sandwich with one hand while making my next loaf of bread, or make manageable sandwiches for kids.

Sour Cream Bread
Adapted from a recipe by James Beard.

ingredient US volume | Metric Volume | US weight | Metric
unbleached bread flour 4 1/2 - 5 c | 1050 - 1200 ml | 23 - 26 oz | 650 - 725 g
instant yeast 2 tsp | 10 ml | 1/4 oz | 4 g
granulated sugar 3 tbsp | 45 ml | 2 oz | 32 g
baking soda 1/4 tsp | 1 ml | --| --
salt 2 tsp | 10 ml | 1/2 oz | 8 g
warm water 1/4 c | 60 ml | 2 oz | 56 g
sour cream, at room temperature 2 c | 480 ml | 16 oz | 450 g

Thoroughly combine 4 1/2 cups (650 g) of the flour with the yeast, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Mix in the sour cream and water. You should have a wet, sticky dough, but you made need to add a bit more flour to make it manageable. Scrape out onto a lightly floured board.

Using a baker's scraper or a spackling knife, lift the flour and the dough, and fold the dough over. Turn it clockwise slightly and repeat the lifting and folding process until the dough is less sticky and can be worked with your hands. Add only enough flour to prevent sticking. (This entire kneading should take about 10 minutes, possibly longer if you are inexperienced). Shape the dough into a ball, place in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat it with the butter. Cover with plastic and let sit in a warm spot to double in bulk. (Note: The mixing and kneading can be done in the bowl of a stand mixer.)

Punch the dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead for a minute, then divide into two equal pieces. Butter two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf tins. Shape the dough into loaves and fit into the tins. Cover loosely and let rise again until doubled. Bake in a preheated 375F (190C) oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on top and bottom. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

It may, perhaps, seem foolish for me to post a recipe for a grilled cheese sandwich — after all you can’t get much simpler. And yet, a truly great grilled cheese is one of the best sandwiches on earth and they don't happen by accident. They are made deliberately with care given not only to the choice of ingredients, but to their proportion and the cooking method.

The Perfect Grilled Cheese

Take a loaf of bread with a crumb that's almost cake-like in appearance. In the recipe above the sour cream produces the open pores while the bread flour gives it the firmness it needs. Cut two 3/8 inch slices. I know, I know. Too much precision. But if the bread is too thin the cheese will melt too quickly and if it's too thick the cheese won’t melt quickly enough.

Spread each slice with a light coating of unsalted butter at room temperature.

Place one slice of bread, butter-side down in a cold skillet. Cast iron is best because it heats slowly.

Cut as much sharp cheddar cheese (I highly recommend Grafton Village 1-year- old cheddar but almost any sharp artisanal cheddar will do) into enough 1/8 inch slices to cover the bread. Again, this seems overly precise, but the goal is that the cheese is perfectly melted at exactly the moment the bread is properly browned.

Place the second slice of bread on the cheese and turn the heat to low medium. The bread should start browning in about 6 minutes and should be perfectly browned in 8 - 9 minutes. The cheese will be tacky enough to hold the bread together, but not truly melted. Flip the sandwich and cook until the other side is browned, about 4 minutes, and the cheese is completely melted.

With the right bread and cheese, the bread will actually absorb some of the cheese — a bit may even soak all the way through the bread to contribute to the browning on the second side.

I like to cut the sandwich into two triangles and then eat it with a few pickled peppers and a mug of hard cider. This, my friends, is absolute bliss.

For a collection of sandwich photos, click here.

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Susan: How To Shape Dough Into Sandwich Loaves

Note: This is a continuation of my article on making basic white bread, which you can read here.

There are many ways to shape a lump of dough into a standard sandwich loaf. The easiest way is to simply pat the dough into the shape of the pan and plunk it in.
Whichever way you choose to shape your loaves, the most important thing to remember is that the finished dough should contact the short ends of the pan so they can help support the dough as it rises.

One popular technique is "jelly-roll" style: Press the dough into a rectangle that is as long as the loaf pan and slightly less than twice as wide as it is long. At the narrow end, roll the dough tightly, jelly-roll style. Pinch the ends and seam to seal, turning the ends under if necessary. I've also seen a similar version where the dough is rolled out to 1/4-inch thick with a rolling pin. That is way too much work for me, but it would be interesting to see the resulting loaf.

I use the "log" method, and it comes straight from the pages of the absolutely wonderful book, Amy's Bread. Here it is, word for word, because if you're like me and have trouble thinking three-dimensionally, this isn't the kind of thing you want to try paraphrasing. (Amy, please don't sue me.) It does take a little practice.

"When shaping your loaves, the most important thing to remember is to be gentle with the dough. Your goal is to form an even loaf with a taut skin, while leaving some larger air holes inside.

Very lightly flour the work surface. Start by forming an envelope: Place the dough on the table. Press and flatten it gently with your fingertips to form a rectangle with a short side facing you, leaving a lot of air bubbles in the dough. [Susan's note: I press out any large air bubbles.] Fold the top edge down over the middle of the rectangle, then fold the bottom edge up. Give the dough a quarter turn and repeat the process, folding the top edge down and the bottom edge up again and overlapping the edges slightly in the middle so the dough looks like an envelope. Pat the seam to seal it. Now you have a smaller, tighter rectangle.

Form a cylinder: Starting from the top edge of the rectangle, fold the top third of the dough over itself with one hand. With the heel of your other hand, gently press the seam to seal it.

Fold the dough one third of the way down again and work from one end to the other to seal the seam. Try to keep the skin of the dough smooth and tight but not so tight that the skin tears.

Repeat this process one or two more times, until the loaf is a nice round log. Seal the final seam completely with the heel of your hand. Ideally your seam should be straight and tight with no openings or flaps of dough hanging out; with patience, this will become natural.

If any dough is protruding from the ends of the log, poke it back in with your finger. [Susan's note: I tuck the ends into the log and then pinch them closed; I find this makes a neater looking loaf.]

The plain log shape can be placed in a loaf pan or left on a cloth for a free-form second rise. From the log shape, you can make other cylindrical shapes."

If you're making three loaves of bread at a time, the best thing to do is shape each one using a different technique and see how they compare. I found that shaping mine into logs resulted in the best looking breads, and I've been shaping them this way for years. But I may find myself switching to a quicker method once our little wholesale bread bakery is up and running and I'm making dozens of loaves of bread at a time. It's probably time for me to do another round of experimenting.

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Susan: Easy Basic White Sandwich Bread Recipe

This bread, which I call Farmhouse White, is a staple in our house and we pretty much always have it around. I've been tweaking the recipe for 7 years and this is the result. It's great for just about any kind of sandwich, and brings peanut butter and jelly (another staple in our house) to a whole new level, especially if you treat yourself to some nice organic peanut butter and jam. It is wonderful toasted, smells heavenly while toasting, and makes the quintessential BLT.

This is the kind of old-fashioned, homey bread that a few people were lucky enough to grow up eating--and everyone else wishes they had. It is wholesome and filling and about as far from Wonder Bread as a basic white sandwich bread can get. I've watched people who claim they never eat white bread gobble this stuff up.

A lot of white sandwich bread recipes call for dry milk powder. Besides never having any around, I don't see the point of it. If you want more flavor, simply replace some or all of the water in the recipe with milk. For years I made this bread with water, and it was perfectly fine. Part of the reason I focused on a water-based recipe was because we'll be selling Farmhouse White when our wholesale bread bakery is up and running, and the cost of using organic milk (which is the only kind I would consider*) would be cost prohibitive. But since I recently found a local source for reasonably priced raw, whole milk that comes straight out of the cow and should be able to supply enough for our bakery, I've started making all my Farmhouse White with milk.

According to Joe Ortiz in The Village Baker (a wonderful book packed with interesting tips and techniques for bakers of all levels), making your bread with milk will not only give a richer flavor, but also "a deeper color to the crust and a softer body to the crumb." And when used as an additive to French bread, "milk also helps to provide some of the flavor of a lactic fermentation that happens naturally in a sourdough process." In The Breakfast Book, author Marion Cunningham states that milk, along with sugar and butter (or other fat) "give the loaves keeping qualities which help preserve flavor and moistness." Baking bread is a perfect way to use up milk that has gone a little sour.

This recipe makes three loaves of bread because in my opinion, if you have freezer space or friends, there's no reason to bake only one loaf of bread at a time. Bread freezes beautifully—and you won't believe how much your friends will love you if you present them with a freshly baked loaf.

There are all sorts of things you can do with this dough once you've mastered the basic formula: replace a few cups of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour (I like to use white whole wheat for a lighter loaf), toss in some wheat germ, sweeten it up with a little honey, add a cup or two of wheat and/or oat bran, or make it with homemade oat flour. . . . I've done all of these things and more, and one of these days I'll hopefully get around to writing about some of them. In the meantime, if you make this recipe your own, please let us know what you did in the comments section. And if you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you'll find links to where bakers have written about their own experiences with Farmhouse White.

Susan's Farmhouse White Sandwich Bread
Makes 3 loaves, approximately 1-1/2 pounds each

Ingredient US volume Metric Volume US weight Metric
organic all-purpose flour 4 cups - 940 ml - 1 lb, 4 ounces - 566 grams
instant yeast** 2 Tablespoons - 30 ml - 22 grams
granulated sugar 2 Tablespoons - 30 ml - 28 grams
canola oil 2 Tablespoons - 30 ml - 30 grams
warm milk (or water) 4 cups - 940 ml - 2 lbs - 908 grams
organic bread flour (approximately) 6 cups - 1,410 ml - 1 lb, 13-1/8 ounces - 825 grams
salt 1½ Tablespoons - 22 ml - 3/4 ounce - 22 grams

**To bake an even better loaf, you can reduce the amount of yeast to 1½ Tablespoons (or even 1 Tablespoon). This will make your dough rise more slowly, so you'll just need to increase the fermenting and proofing times. You can reduce the yeast in pretty much any bread recipe—a lot of bakers go by the formula 'half the yeast and double the rising time.'

Mixing and fermentation

Autolyse
Autolyse (pronounced AUTO-lees and used as both a noun and a verb) is a French word that refers to a rest period given to dough during the kneading process. When making your dough, mix together only the water, yeast, flour, and grains until it forms a shaggy mass. Knead it for several minutes, and then cover the dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. (I simply leave the dough on the floured counter and put my wooden bowl over it.) During this time, the gluten will relax and the dough will absorb more water, smoothing itself out so that it is moist and easier to shape. After the autolyse, knead the dough for several more minutes, mixing in any other ingredients such as herbs or nuts or dried fruit.

In a very large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, yeast, and sugar (I use a wooden spoon). Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the canola oil and then the milk. Mix well, then continue to stir vigorously, slowly adding 1 cup of the bread flour at a time, until you've added about 5 cups, or until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough; this should take several minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 or 7 minutes, adding more flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface.

Place the mixing bowl over the dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. This rest period is called the autolyse.



Remove the bowl, flatten out the dough with your hands, and sprinkle about half of the salt over it. Begin kneading the salt into the dough. After a few turns, sprinkle on the rest of the salt and continue to knead for 5 to 7 minutes, until the salt is completely incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.

Sprinkle flour in the dough bowl, place the dough in it, liberally dust it with flour, and cover it with a damp tea towel (not terry cloth, as it will shed lint on your dough). Or put it in a straight sided plastic container with a snap-on lid and mark the spot on the container that the dough will reach when it has doubled in volume.

Set the dough somewhere that is preferably between 70°F and 75°F until it has doubled in size, about 60 to 75 minutes. Ideally, the dough should also be between 70°F and 75°F. It's fine if your dough is cooler; it'll just take longer to rise and will end up even tastier. It's easy to check the temperature of your dough and ingredients with an inexpensive instant read thermometer.

When the dough is ready to be shaped, you should be able to push a floured finger deep into it and leave an indentation that doesn't spring back. Unless your dough is rising in a straight-sided container, it can be difficult to judge whether it has "doubled in size" which is the guideline most recipes use. I find the finger poking method to be more reliable, though lately I've been letting all my doughs rise in plastic containers.

Shaping and final rise (proof)
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, flattening gently with your hands to break up any large air bubbles. Divide the dough into three equal pieces.

Shape the dough into loaves and dust the tops with flour. There are dozens of ways to do this; for the way I like to do it, check out this post on how to shape dough into sandwich loaves. Place loaves seam side down in greased loaf pans. I like my sandwich breads to be tall, so I use smaller loaf pans. I can't say enough good things about these commercial loaf pans from Chicago Metallic. They call this size a 1-pound loaf pan, and it measures 8-1/2 inches x 4-1/2 inches and is just under 3 inches tall. For the price of a few loaves of bread, they're definitely worth the investment—and with a 25-year warranty. Chicago Metallic also makes this larger 1½ pound size pan for those of you who prefer a wider, shorter loaf.

Cover the loaves with a damp tea towel and let them rise for 45 to 60 minutes. When you lightly poke the dough with a floured finger it should spring back just a little.

If you let the loaves rise too long, they may not have enough energy left to rise once they're in the oven--and they may even collapse. I was always so afraid this would happen that for years I unknowingly under-proofed my loaves of Farmhouse White.



While the bread was still delicious, you can see that the dough had so much 'oven spring' that it basically blew apart the side of the loaf. I finally started letting the loaves rise a little longer and was rewarded with the more evenly shaped and visually appealing bread that you see in the top two photos.

Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow if tapped. Remove immediately from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Make sure loaves are completely cooled before sealing in bags.

Update: I've started baking all of my pan loaves on a heated baking stone (in order to simulate the ceramic hearth deck of my 7-foot wide commercial deck oven in the someday-bread-bakery-to-be), and the results have been wonderful. The bottoms of the loaves are nice and evenly brown, and I think that extra initial burst of heat makes the loaves end up even taller. Just like with pizzas and freeform loaves, you need to preheat your stone so that it's nice and hot when you put the bread in. Since Farmhouse White bakes at just 375°, 30 to 45 minutes is usually enough.

A note about milk: I personally believe that if you are only going to buy a few things that are organic, milk and butter should be two of them. Not only will you be assured that you are helping the environment while not consuming things like bovine growth hormones (or formaldehyde which is in some commercial milk!), I find that organic milk tastes better than conventional, and the cows who produce it are much likely to be happier and healthier animals who, among other things, haven't been fed genetically modified grains, and are most likely grass fed. You can read more about the benefits of drinking organic milk, including how it's been proven to actually be more nutritious, here and here. Of course I highly recommend baking your bread with organic flours, too!

© Copyright 2007 AYearInBread.com, the bread baking blog where experimenting with new recipes is a way of life, but somehow we always find ourselves coming back to our beloved Farmhouse White—especially if it's BLT season.

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