There are plenty (like everyone!) of folks who know more about sourdough bread making than I do but I’ve always wondered why you feed the starter, let it rise and then fall and then fall and that’s when you use it. Normally, I will feed my starter the night before when I’m going to make bread the next day. I can see on the sides of the jar how far it rose and then, it fell.
In my head, it would make more sense to feed it, immediately weigh out what you need, add the flour, or at least part of the flour for the recipe you’re going to make, add honey or any sweetener, and let the starter have a feast! Then, after an hour or so, add the rest of the flour, the salt and any other ingredients and proceed as usual.
A few days ago, I was reading and someone said they did exactly what I had been thinking and made a wonderful sandwich bread. It still had a nice, crispy crust but the texture of the bread was more like sandwich bread.
I tried it and may never go back to making regular sourdough bread. Basically, the lady said she takes starter right out of the fridge, and so long as it’s been fed within the last week, it’s good to use. I just poured the amount of starter into the bowl, added the flour, stirred it all up, let it sit for a while, added the other ingredients and proceeded as normal.
Since Vince is on a low carb diet (and Judy should be on a low carb diet) and, since it’s soup and sandwich season, I wanted sandwich bread that I can use for sandwiches. The recipe I was using would have made one large-ish loaf of bread. I knew making two loaves would make small loaves so I figured a small sandwich is better than a large sandwich, right?
Close to perfect sandwich bread. No large holes, small enough that it won’t totally blow Vince’s diet, especially if we don’t have sandwiches very often.
The loaf the white bread is propped up against is a cinnamon swirl bread. Instead of making two plain bread recipes, I figured I could make the cinnamon swirl and use that for cinnamon toast for my breakfast.
I thought I did a better job of distributing the cinnamon/sugar mix but maybe not. I’m hoping as I get farther into the loaf, it will look better but, if not, it will be better next time.
The crust is still crunchy but the center is soft and very sandwich bread like. The lady who posted about this said she puts the bread in a cold oven. Most of the sourdough (maybe all) that I’ve made has been put into a 475 or 500 degree oven for a few minutes and that gives it what they call “oven spring” which is a fast, high rise and that’s what helps make the large holes in the sourdough. This loaf was put into a cold oven that I turned on when I put the pan in the oven and I think that’s what gave it the texture without the big holes, though I can see holes, it still made a good sandwich loaf.
Dottie Newkirk says
That looks REALLY good!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Yes and I think it works so much better for us than does traditional sourdough boules.
RuthW in MD says
I made 6 loaves of white bread last Friday – and started them baking in a cold oven, per my notes on the recipe. “37 min in cold oven, 350 degrees F.” They turned out great. We cut into one loaf, froze the rest. We cut more slices off until Sunday evening when I cut up the last third of the loaf, put the slices in the bag, and put it in the freezer. I’ve found that homemade bread tends to begin molding after about three days out on the counter. So this morning I retrieved one slice, toasted it, and munched it down. These bloggers who talk about making their own bread are just encouraging me to eat more toast!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
The bread now will last about 5 days on the counter because my kitchen stays pretty cold. If I’m going to be cooking and heating things up, I’ll take the loaf to the sunroom (that has no air or heat) and it stays cool enough in there unless the sun is shining. I store extra loaves in the freezer but for bread I’m toasting, I don’t mind it in the fridge. And, yes, those recipes have me wanting to make bread all day.
Sheryl says
..Where is that site? It sounds very interesting
judy.blog@gmail.com says
The recipe was on the Sourdough for Beginners FB group.
Sheryl says
..I belong to that group but I rarely read fb. Is that what’s called the “unloaf method”?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Yes. Thank you. I couldn’t remember the name of it. I find some pretty good recipes on there.
Cody says
That bread looks fantastic.
I know that you grind your own flour, what did you use for it?
Received mt new grinder and am still experimenting, and would like try something new.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Mostly Einkorn. There as maybe 20% hard white. I weigh it all out when I start but then I end up adding a bit more of one and a bit less of another so I never know exactly what I used. Good luck with your milling.