Easy Sandwich Bread

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 1
Bake of the Day: Breads -- Easy Sandwich Bread
Our Blogging marathon team is starting a month long Baking marathon today. Good thing is we knew about the marathon almost 6 months ago, so I started baking or at least planning what to make all this time. Eating all this flour and sugar all by myself or just with my family would have been quite a challenge, so I have been utilizing all the opportunities to bake and feed (and share the calories) friends and family.
There are no official themes for this marathon, but I imposed some on myself to streamline my thoughts. For the first week (or first week and a half), my theme is going to be 'Yeast & Sourdough Breads'. 

I have stopped buying store bought bread for quite a while now and try to make a loaf every week. My son loves bread and can happily live on sandwiches for breakfast, lunch & dinner. I pack him sandwiches to school too. Our requirement for bread is simple, it has to be soft and not too crusty. It could be sweet or slightly savory, it should work in pb&j and/ or grilled cheese.

That explains why I'm always looking for bread recipes and any recipe that says easy catches my attention. This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated magazine and it is a quick yeast bread. Quick & yeast are almost never used in a single sentence. But this recipe is an almost- no-knead recipe that takes less than 2 hours from start to finish.

Bread flour, which encourages maximum gluten structure, is used instead of all purpose flour. Also the recipe has slightly less fat and sugar quantities and interestingly salt is added in the second mix, which gives the bread more spring and lift. Another interesting thing is the use of paddle attachment for the first mixing of the dough and then switching to dough hook with the increased speed to medium shortens the mixing time and also gives the dough enough structure to rise. A shiny egg wash (in my case, I brushed it with soy milk) before baking and brushed with a thin coat of melted butter after.

This bread recipe is very different from regular bread making. Here, the dough is very wet, almost like a batter and it is mixed in a stand mixer for few minutes. It is a great recipe for newbie bread bakers. Bread turned out soft and delicious -- perfect for my family.

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated:

Ingredients: Makes 1 8½"x4½" loaf

Bread Flour - 2cups
Wholewheat flour - 6tbsp
Instant or Rapid-rise Yeast - 2¼tsp

Warm Water - 1¼cups+2tbsp
Unsalted Butter - 3tbsp, melted
Honey - 1tbsp
Salt - ¾tsp 

Egg - 1 large, lightly beaten with 1tsp water & pinch salt (I used 2tbsp soy milk instead for a vegan substitute)

Method:

• In a stand mixer, whisk bread flour, wholewheat flour and yeast together. Add 1¼cups warm water, 2tbsp melted butter and honey. Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, mix on low speed for 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes. 
• Scrape down the bowl and paddle with a greased spatula. Continue to mix for 2 minutes longer. Remove bowl and paddle from mixer. Scrape down the bowl and paddle, leave the paddle in the bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a 8½"x4½" loaf pan with cooking spray.
• Dissolve salt in 2tbsp warm water.
• When the batter has doubled, attach bowl and paddle to mixer. Add the salt-water mixture and mix on low speed until water is mostly incorporated, about 40 seconds.
• Increase speed to medium and mix until thoroughly combined, about 1 minute, scraping down paddle if necessary.
• Transfer batter to prepared pan and smooth surface with greased rubber spatula.
• Cover and leave in warm place until batter reaches ½" below edge of pan, 15~20 minutes. Uncover and let rise until center of batter is level with edge of pan, 5~10 minutes longer.
• Gently brush top of risen loaf with egg mixture (or soy milk). Bake until deep brown and loaf registers 208~210°F, 40~45 minutes. Carefully invert the bread onto a wire rack and brush the top and sides with the remaining 1tbsp melted butter. Cool completely before slicing.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 51.

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