Soft White Sandwich Bread

After the new year a goal of mine was to make more bread from scratch around our house, and to rely less on premade store bought packages. I ordered Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread Every Day. It's a lovely book and such wonderful things had been mentioned about this individual that I thought this would be a great place to start. Up until recently I, by my own admittance, have been fearful of yeast. It's such a fussy product when you first begin to work with it. Especially given that there are different kinds of yeast also, as in bread machine yeast can also be known as Instant Yeast. There are different kinds known as Rapid Rise, Active Dry Rapid Rise, this brand and that brand and not to mention the different kind of flours-Yikes. Each flour has something unique about them and gratefully each kind of bread is named for what it's better for e.g. cake flour, bread flour, all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour etc.

So in my journey in bread making there have been a number of failures as well as successes, as in any baker might concede to. I thought I was following everything in this recipe to a 'T.' I used exactly enough this, and kneaded it for exactly this many minutes and-Argh! Something would go wrong, often times my end result would look similar to banana bread in shape and density, not a soft sandwich-y white bread!

I learned from a friend of mine that when you add yeast to a liquid (warmed to 110 degrees of course) you have to really whisk it to get that yeast going. Before I was merely giving a quick stir with a spoon. Once I discovered that, all systems were a go! I also knew from other readings that sugar is the fuel and food for yeast to become active, and I really wanted this to work. I wasn't reliant solely on the sugars in the milk, so I added a quarter teaspoon of granulated sugar to the milk before adding the yeast. Maybe it's not necessary, but none-the-less, it worked.

Lesson learned with the most applicable quote: "The Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein

White Sandwich Bread (Artisans Bread Every Day, page 105)

1 Tbsp Instant yeast (aka Bread Machine Yeast)

1 3/4 cups, plus 2 Tbsp milk (any kind) warmed to 110 degrees F.

6 1/4 cup unbleached bread flour

2 tsp salt

5 1/2 Tbsp white or 1/4 cup honey or agave nectar

6 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter

1 egg

Do Ahead:

Whisk the yeast into the warmed milk (110 deg F) until dissolved and set aside for about five minutes or until foamy.

Combine the flour, salt, sugar, oil and egg in a mixing bowl (I used the bowl from my stand mixer.) Then slowly add in the milk and yeast mixture. If using a mixer, use the paddle attachment and mix on lowest speed for 2 minutes. If mixing by hand, use a large spoon and mix for two minutes. The dough should be coarse and sticky.

If using a mixer, break out that dough hook that's been stashed away, attach that to the mixer and mix on medium low speed for 4 to 5 minutes, or knead by hand on a floured work surface until soft and supple, but and tacky, but not sticky. **Note: Tacky should be defined as the texture that could stick to your hand and easily be removed like a post-it note. Sticky textures are difficult to remove from your hand, tacky is not.

Whichever mixing method you should use, knead by hand for one minute and then tuck the sides under and smooth it into a ball. Place the dough it a clean, lightly oiled large mixing bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight or up to four days. If you plan to bake the dough in batches, over different days, you can portion the dough and place into two or more oiled bowls at this stage.

On Baking Day:

Remove the dough from the refrigerator about 2 1/2 hours before baking, and divide in half. Shape into sandwich loaves by rolling each half out into roughly a 5"x9" rectangle, and starting with the short side, roll away from you. Once your roll is complete, gently rock your fists on top of the loaf to form a evenly formed rectangular like shape (for further illustrations you'll have to refer to the book p.23)

Place each loaf in a greased 5"x9" loaf pan. Mist the tops of the loaves with cooking spray and wrap with plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 2 1/2 hours until it domes about 1" above the rim.

Hint: This works for me since we live in the upper Midwest where it gets pretty chilly in the winter. Use either a microwave safe breakfast size bowl of water or a good sized coffee mug and heat the water in the microwave for about 3 minutes or until boiling. Once that is complete and the microwave is turned off (no flying sparks here) immediately place your two loaf pans in the microwave with the steaming cup or bowl of water and close the door, try not to open it for close two 2 1/2 hours. This is a good warm, draft free way to let your baked goods rise and it also keeps the out of the way!

Before baking preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depends on the oven, then rotate the pans around and bake for another 15-20 minutes until top is golden brown. You are striving for an internal temperature of the bread to be at 185 degrees F and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack-Enjoy!