Sourdough Pan Bread

Long overdue, I'm finally posting this recipe I found for Simple Sourdough Pan Bread over at Carl's Friends. This is the easiest, tastiest, and most reliable sandwich bread I've ever tried to make. It works great from a sourdough starter or from a sponge start. (No sourdough? Just add equal parts water and flour for the starter that's called for and add a packet of yeast. I'll be going fine by morning.)

 You owe it to yourself to try this bread - in the summer though, keep a watch on it during the final rise, it'll blow the proof faster than you can imagine. I came home the other day after running errands while it proofed to find it rolling down the side of my breadpan. Not to worry though, I punched it down, reshaped and let it rise again, it wasn't the prettiest loaf I've made, but it tasted just fine.

Instructions for simple Sourdough Pan Bread using Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter and a Kitchen Aid K-45 mixer

Put into the mixing bowl:
1 cup fully active culture
2 cups water
2 cups bread flour
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Mix manually. Let sit covered for 8 or 10 hr.
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Manually mix in: 2 tsp. salt & 3 more cups flour. Machine knead ~10 min. at low speed while adjusting consistency by adding 1 cup more or less of additional flour, until the dough no longer sticks to bowl or fingers.
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Remove from mixer, hand knead briefly, and split dough. Work in more flour while hand kneading each piece. (total cups flour=6+, possibly<6) Well, I also bat each piece around in the bowl with the dough hook, at medium speed. (Bat one while kneading the other, repeat twice.)
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Form and reform each piece several times during 20 or 30 minutes, otherwise keeping covered. The dough should be soft enough to  easily reseal a seam, but should not stick to hands. Finally form to oblong and cut tops with a razor blade, 10 or 12 diagonal cuts. Dough as finally formed should be silky smooth.
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Place in pans*, allow to rise 5 to 8 hrs., enclosed to retain moisture, until top is an inch or two higher than the top of the pan. (3 in. is possible!) Bake 40 min. at ~375°F. Cold start OK. (Expect little "oven push", or none.)
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*usual Teflon-coated steel pans, capacity ~67 fl. oz. (~8-1/3 cups) to brim; Times are approximate, for ~70°F -- Shorten for summertime.
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Cans as measures: A 16 ounce can is good for fetching the first 2 cups of flour, and a 32 ounce can gets most of the rest. Keep cans with flour.

Pain sur Poolish (Daily Bread)

I found this wonderful website: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/ and decided  I simply had to spend some time on it. There is a great basic recipe for "Daily Bread" or Pain sur Poolish. This is where I started my adventure Fresh Loaf.

As the commentary predicted, it is WET. So I added enough extra flour to get it to together. Also since I have Active Yeast, not instant at the house I added an extra 1/2 teaspoon of that to main Dough. It rose as at should, shaped and let it go for it's final rise. Before putting it in the oven I brushed it with egg yolk and sliced it. My oven goes up to 550, so I started it there with one loaf on each cooking stone and with about 4 ice cubes for steam.  It baked for 5 minutes at the high heat, then I cut the heat to 475 and baked for the remaining time.

This is easily the best tasting, best looking, and best bread I 've ever made. Great flavor, nicely chewy crust, gorgeous crumb. I'll definitely have to make it again -- tomorrow. :)

In the event the recipe gets moved from the original blog, I've reproduced it here. You owe it to yourself to read the commentary on it from the original site here. My comments are in italics.

Pain Sur Poolish (Daily Bread)

Poolish

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1/4 tsp instant yeast

Final Dough

1 lb flour

10-12 oz water (I used 10, and would try 8 next time)

1 tsp instant yeast (I used 1-1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast)

2 tsp salt

all of the poolish  

1. Combine the ingredients for the poolish in a small bowl the night before baking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the poolish out at room temperature overnight.
2. The next day, prepare the final dough, either by using the autolyse method of flour and water first then the rest of the ingredients with minimal mixing or by combining them all and mixing until you have decent gluten development (8 to 10 minutes).
3. I typically fold the dough once an hour twice during primary fermentation, then shape the loaves and give them a longer final rise, typically around 90 minutes. Meanwhile, my oven and baking stone are preheating as hot as they can safely go. (550 is the hottest my oven will go. Brushed with an egg yolk before docking. Incidentally couldn't dock with a razor blade - docked with a serrated knife instead).
4. Baking, with steam, takes me 20 minutes, 5 minutes or so at maximum oven temperature, the remainder at 450-475. I rotate the loaves once half way through the baking.
5. That is it. Simple, tasty, and a great recipe to practice with.

Yield: 2 loaves

French Baguettes

I ordered a wonderful little book by Peter Mayle recently called "Confessions of a French Baker." It arrived Friday -- what fun! So seeing as it's a 3-day weekend, I dove in and gave Baguettes a try. Anything that promises to be this good is certainly worth a little time and effort -- which is a good philosophy when you're contemplating making Baguettes. 

While the ingredient list is not complicated, in fact it's just 4 ingredients long: flour, salt, yeast, and water, the "complicated" part is the mix, rest, knead, rise, shape, rise, shape, rise series of steps. None of these steps are hard, given that Peter Mayle and Gerard Auzet (AKA the French Baker) do a good job explaining what you're going for in each and every step.

The results, were impressive. A nice crust, spongy, yeasty goodness inside and when buttered -- divine.

I held two loaves back from baking in the refrigerator in order to try baking them off tomorrow. If it works, this may become a weekend ritual. Honestly, who can resist fresh-from-the-oven French Bread?

                                ...certainly not me!

PS -- the refrigerator plan didn't work -- that's ok though it'll still be worth it fof the day of.