Thursday, March 14, 2013

NEW Single White Loaf , Farmhouse style

Recipe below, play by play pictures coming... in the mean time, look at what came out of my oven:





To get an idea of the scale...



Oh and I didn't make it in a loaf pan! I made it in a restaurant steamer pan!!!!! OH YES I DID! I couldn't get a pan with the dimensions I wanted in the USA, the shipping for a "Farmhouse" loaf pan from the UK was going to be twice the cost of the pan and that just bugged me. SO, when I was at the restaurant supply store moaning about their lack of high sided loaf pans, I had a total epiphany!!

HEY, I said, I LOVE LOVE the steamer pans for roasting vegetables and chickens I bought there. It cooks perfectly evenly, is stainless steel and nothing, absolutely nothing, sticks to it. I thought, HEY, why not see if they have a size that I could use for white bread and they DID!

It's a 1/4 size I think, it's 4 inches deep(!) and 8 inches long and about 4 inches wide. EXACTLY what I wanted. I'm going back to buy more so I no longer have to play wait for the pan I love the best and can retire the old rusted nasty pan I usually make my loaves in. This is...perfection.



OK, here's the recipe, it's so very easy and so much more delicious than any white bread I've ever made before. I have tested this many times and had testers try it... it's a good one ;)

TRACY'S ENGLISH STYLE FARMHOUSE WHITE LOAF

*You CAN make this by hand, I use the Kitchen aid, just use a spoon until it's too hard to work then knead until a smooth dough, no Kitchen aid is no excuse not to make this!*

4 cups (450 grams) all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons cold butter *unsalted
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
300 ml room temperature liquid *I do 200 ml warm water + 100 ml 2% milk

METHOD:

IN the bowl of a Kitchen aid with a dough hook, combine the flour and butter.  RUB the butter into the flour like you are making biscuits or pastry. You don't want any chunks of butter, this must be totally combined. 

ADD the yeast, salt, sugar and MIX around with your hands.

ADD liquid all at once.


COMBINE on slow speed until combined, it should completely clear the sides of the bowl. Then turn on high and knead for 4 minutes to make the dough a smooth, soft, dough.

Butter the dough lightly and put in a box/bowl with a lid (or a bowl with cling film) and leave to double. *mine takes 45 minutes.

Gently transfer dough to a lightly floured board and flatten with fingertips. Roll into a loaf shape and put into a lightly buttered/sprayed pan. Leave to double. *mine takes about 45 minutes.

Bake at 450, 
for 30 minutes.  I turn it a couple of times during cooking.  I don't spray the oven, loaf or put ice in with this bread.  If it's getting too brown, put a piece of tinfoil over the loaf. 


Leave to cool on a rack, removed from the pan, until completely cool before you slice this. It's soft and sweet and the crust is just hard enough to hold it but soft enough to yield. Yeah, you're going to LOVE this, I want to see pictures of your bread!! 

Let me know how much you love this bread.


**I like a TALL loaf and have been using a steam table insert pan, stainless steel, that measures 8x4x4 inches. Previous to my ephiphany, I used a standard loaf pan. This also makes ridiculously good little rolls**

Alrighty now, go make it.

/tracy









4 comments:

  1. You have solved my conundrum of the high sided pan! Thank you!!

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    Replies
    1. You're MORE than welcome, the high sided pan issue drove me quite mad until my epiphany! happy TALL bread!!

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  2. Will this work in a breadmachine?

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    Replies
    1. absolutely but do try it without :D enjoy!

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