I’ve been working toward a bread recipe that Nathan will approve for sandwich purposes. I’ve modified several recipes to make tasty bread for eating & dipping in olive oil or making bread bowls for soups, but none have passed Nate’s high sandwich bread standards. They’ve been too dense or the crust is to hard or I just got a little too weird with the substitutions.
Well, I think I’ve found one that works! I got this recipe from the Food Network and made only a few changes. It’s a bit more complex, but it felt really simple. This makes 1 loaf. And without further ado:
Ingredients:
2 C + 2 T Buttermilk
3 T unsalted butter
2 T sugar
1/4 oz active dry yeast
5 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 T + 1 t salt (I have coarse sea salt that I pounded a bit with our mortar & pestle)
Extra butter for greasing bowl & loaf pan
Stuff you’ll need/want:
KitchenAid Stand Mixer (or you could knead it by hand)
Really big bowl (greased)
Kitchen towel (wide enough to go across the bowl)
Loaf Pan (9×5) (I prefer stoneware)
Wire cooling rack (I like the ones with the small grid. They provide the best support)
Hot mats (duh)
Oven (also duh) with the rack placed in the center.
Directions:
Combine the milk, butter & sugar in a pan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring until butter is melted. The buttermilk may start to chunk up and separate (like you’re making cheese), and it may totally gross out your significant other. Just reassure them that it will all come together in the bread and taste great. Once the butter has melted, you need to get the mixture down to 110-115 degrees F so you don’t kill your yeast. I found that a candy thermometer hooked on the edge of the pan so it’s suspended (not resting on the hot bottom) works great! This is going to take a while. So move on to the dry ingredients while you wait. Once you’ve hit that magic temp, dump your yeast in and give it about 10 minutes to get all foamy. If it doesn’t get foamy, your yeast is dead and your bread will be flat and gross. This doesn’t mean big puffy bubbles like a bubble bath, more foamy like that gross stuff you see on lakes sometimes.
While you wait, mix your flour & salt together and oil up the bowl you’ll use to let everything rise (and by oil, I mean butter). I suggest a KitchenAid mixer (or another brand if it suits your fancy) for this whole process. If you don’t have one, I’m sorry. It’s a lot more work for you. Of course, you’re actually getting some exercise and get to play in dough, so I don’t feel too sorry for you.
Once your milk/yeast mixture is foamy, pour it into the bowl of flour and turn on the mixer (or get your hands in there and start kneading), until the mixture is kind of ragged.
If you’re using the mixer, just keep on mixin’. If you’re not using a mixer, dump that puppy on to a well-floured work surface and knead until it’s soft & elastic (about 10 minutes). Either way, once your dough is good and elastic, put it into the big greased bowl. I like to rub the whole lump around and then flip it so that both sides are greased. Be sure to take a taste of the dough because it’s FRIGGIN’ DELICIOUS! Then put a kitchen towel over the bowl and put it in a warm spot to rise until about double in size (about 2 hours). Suggestion on warm spot: your oven with the light on. It actually gets pretty darn warm in there.
When you’re about ready to pull your puffy dough out of the warm spot, take a moment to butter your loaf pan, then move the dough onto a work surface to shape it. I know my other recipes tell you to punch the dough, but you may want to refrain from such violence with this peaceful bread. It needs no punching and no rolling out. No tools necessary, just your hands. Gently, sweetly ease your dough into a long oval, about 10″ long, that is. Don’t roll this bread like a cinnamon loaf. Nope, this is a folder (again, gentle, peaceful bread). Fold it into thirds lengthwise and overlapping. Press down the exposed seam to seal it. Place it seam-side down into the buttered loaf pan, cover it with that kitchen towel and put it back in that warm spot. Give it about 2-2.5 hours to rise (supposedly about 1.5″ above the edge of the loaf pan, but I think it needs the full rise time to get fluffy enough). If you’re using the oven, take the bread/pan/towel combo out and let it finish rising while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (be sure to move that oven rack to the center before you preheat. It’s a real pain if you wait).
Remove the towel and LIGHTLY (I tell you, this is gentle bread) brush the top of the dough with warm water. You’re supposed to cut a slit down the center, but that really just made the loaf kind of flat & weird shaped on top, so I may try without the slit sometime. If you do cut a slit, use a sharp knife and make it 1/4 inch deep. Bake on the center rack until golden brown (about 30 minutes).
Remove the loaf from the pan and put it back in the oven, center rack for about another 15 minutes. The loaf should sound hollow when lightly rapped on the bottom & top. If it sounds at all not hollow, put it back in for a while longer. If you use an instant read thermometer for these purposes, it should read 190 degrees F in the center. Make sure to bake your bread long enough. Slightly over done is better than not done and slightly gooey and definitely gross.
You’re supposed to let this thing cool completely before slicing. Yeah right! I had a slice cut as soon as that puppy touched the counter (on the cooling rack, of course). The crust was disappointingly hard to cut neatly, but the bread was awesome (like all bread fresh from the oven). After it had cooled, I wrapped it in plastic wrap (and if anyone knows a good, earth-friendly alternative to this stuff, please let me know! I hate it, but it’s so darn useful!) and the next day, it cut like butter. Such smoothness was incredible! I cut thin slices for delicious sandwiches that came out perfect every time!
Alternative:
They suggested whole milk, but I was out & had buttermilk. I’d also wanted to make sourdough but didn’t want to wait on the starter. The buttermilk gave the loaf a slightly sour flavor, so it’s like sourdough without the starter.
