A few important things:
I have a great warm spot to let my bread rise in, but Julia says that warm temperatures speed up the process at the expense of the flavor and texture. I knew extra risings were good, but I didn't know about the temperature thing. Wow. So, this bread rises in a NOT warm spot, for almost double the time, with three risings. The result is a close grain, flavorful bread. Awesome.
Julia has you knead in the butter after the initial kneading instead of mixing it in the beginning. I'm not yet sure why, but it was fun.
Also, this bread was baked covered by a pan with a brick on top. So instead of a rounded top, it makes regular square/rectangle for fancy sandwiches. That was a lot of fun - I enjoy trying different bread shapes almost as much as bread recipes, and this made a neat sandwich slice.
Thumbs up for the best sandwich bread yet.
p.s. If you bothered to read this whole bread post - you earned a head's up to a new pattern giveaway coming very very soon!
6 comments:
Great tips about bread!
A couple things I have learned (from "How to Cook Everything") are:
We tend to add way too much flour, just to make the dough easy to work with your hands. But wetter dough (easy to do in a food processor) makes better bread.
Also, kind of like you are saying here, it is really easy to just stick the dough in the refrigerator and let it rise overnight. I think there is also a souring effect from letting it rise so long that adds a lot of flavour to the bread.
Next time you're around, you are going to have to teach me how to do this. I can't even make a proper loaf in my bread machine anymore.
A brick on top!!!? I'm amusing myself imagining brickless people who want to make this bread trying to find bricks--lurking around construction sites, standing in the check-out line at Home Depot with one brick, etc.
mmmm..... bread.
I got to get our kitchen finished and the stove hooked back up. must bake!
Well, you don't HAVE to bake it with the brick on top, only if you want it to be a neat square. I admit, I went to Lowe's and bought one for 42 cents!
Try this one (the wheat one here). I swear, it will NOT disappoint: http://everydayfoodstorage.net/2009/03/11/making-homemade-bread-the-food-storage-recipe-challenge/food-storage-recipes
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