white sourdough - My Favorite White Bread Recipe

# From: servio!penneyj@uunet.UU.NET (D. Jason Penney)



My Favorite White Bread Recipe

This is my bread recipe that all of my friends say is the best. I have made
it literally hundreds of times. It is good sandwich bread, and makes
outrageous
toast.

I am going to assume that you are familiar with sourdough techniques. I am
a recently joined member of this mailing list, so I don't know what's already
been distributed, and I don't want to bore you if you already know the basics.
Alternately, I have a discussion of basic sourdough techniques published in a
local cookbook; I could reproduce that here if there is sufficient interest.

Start by making starter (of course!). For this recipe, I use:

"Sourdough Bread Batter"
1 C starter
2 C warm water
2.5 C flour
Allow to proof overnight, 8-15 hours.

yields: 1 C starter to return, 2.5 C starter to bake

The recipe:

2.5 C sourdough bread batter
1.5 C water (or milk, or 1 C yogurt + .5 C water)
-- make sure water is warm, else scald milk in microwave
2 T sugar
2 T melted butter
2 t salt
3-4.5 C flour
yields: 2 loaves

1. Add 1 C flour to starter. Mix in liquid, then sugar, salt, and butter.

2. Add flour until dough turns from sides of bowl.

3. Turn out onto kneading board and knead in .5 - 1 C more C of flour.

4. Let proof until doubled in bulk. For us sourdough users, this can be a LONG
proof, depending on how cold the flour was when we started. Plan on no less
than 2 hours, possible 3.

5. Punch down, let rise again (about 1 hour).

6. Turn out, punch down, shape into loaves.

7. Let rise about halfway (approximately 30 minutes), then bake in a preheated
375 degrees F oven 45-50 minutes.

8. Turn out onto cooling racks, allow to completely cool before wrapping. You
may optionally brush the loaves with water or melted butter while
still warm,
but I don't usually bother.

I had a friend who recently called me in a panic after she made this for the
first time, because the crust was hard :-). As a matter of fact, the crust
softens quite a bit in about a day. Isn't all sourdough bread this way?

I have also added 1.5 C grated sharp cheese before adding the flour. If you
do this, be careful with the cooking time; the bread will brown much easier.