Invention of sliced bread

[raro]

Hi there,
I've been doing a lot of research lately on bread. I was really disappointed to find that even 100% whole wheat, store-bought bread is often no better for you than Wonder bread, because they pulverize the whole grain until it's dust in order to make the bread "lighter" for the consumer, thereby killing the fiber until it's only 1 gram more than white bread.
At any rate, I have a bread machine and have made bread in the past. But the biggest problem I've had is that, while homemade bread tastes better, is cheaper, and is better for you, it's lousy for making sandwiches. If I slice it thin enough for sandwiches, it falls apart. If I slice it thicker, it's way too filling for a sandwich.
Does anyone have a good recipe for sandwich bread that you can slice thinly? Thanks!

 

[Britesea]

we mill our flour too. But to help with the crumbly part, I sift out the larger particles that the mill doesn't always get, and use that as a farina type hot cereal.

 

[Britesea]

 

[Britesea]

Ok here we go. DH has been developing this recipe for 5 or 6 years now. The technique was originally developed for a dutch oven, but he has tweaked it over the years. We are still using the same yeast starter but because we use it so often (every weekend) it hasn't really turned very sour. It does have a slight tang though. Using weight rather than volume measurements neutralizes the changes caused by environment (wet day vs dry day, that sort of thing)

SEED BREAD RECIPE

200 grams whole wheat flour

200 grams white flour

100 grams seed mix consisting of 2 cups of 5 grain rolled cereal from Bob’s Red Mill, and 1 cup or more to taste of: poppy seeds, flaxseed, sesame seed, pumpkin seed, sunflower seeds. (you can add or leave out whatever to your taste- this happens to be what we like)

8 grams salt

300 grams warm water

1/3 cup yeast starter (originally created by mixing 1 cup of flour to 2/3 cup water and allowing it to sit uncovered for a minimum of 24 hours. At that point you should start to see little bubbles, at which point you can loosely cover it and start feeding it up.

PROCESS

Dissolve starter into water in a mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients, stir until thoroughly hydrated (resembles drop biscuit dough). Cover (we use clean recycled plastic shopping bags). Let rest for an hour.

Scrape onto a floured surface (I highly recommend a silicone scraper- the dough doesn't stick as much), grasp ball of dough and pull apart until it threatens to break, then fold over on itself into thirds. Rotate 90degrees and repeat. Return to bowl, cover. Let rest for 15 minutes. Repeat the stretch and fold. Return to bowl and cover and let rest for between 12 to 15 hours until roughly double in size. The longer and slower the dough rises (ferments), the more completely the starch is converted- resulting in the flavors of the wheat developing, rather than the more yeasty taste you get with more modern, quick-rising breads.

Scrape onto floured surface. Gently pat down with floured fingers (don’t completely deflate it!) fold into thirds, rotate and fold in half. This is a fairly wet, soft dough unlike modern kneaded loaves- it needs to be handled very gently. Cover and let it sit 15 minutes.

Form into a boule or batard (round or traditional French bread shape), Pinch closed the seam, place into a floured proofing basket, cover, and let it proof for an hour.

After 1 hour, start heating oven to 480. Use a pizza stone or earthenware pan if you have one for a extra nice crust. (put into cold oven to avoid shock). Let oven preheat for another hour (to make sure the stone is really hot). Gently transfer the dough onto the stone or pan (we have a pizza peel for this, but you can also just tip the basket over the pan or stone).

Using a razor blade, slash the dough shallowly. Helps to control the expansion of the dough.

Baking time: 30 minutes minimum and up to 45 minutes depending on things like altitude, oven, climate etc… there is nothing definite here- the color should shade towards mahogany rather than golden brown. You can stick a thermometer into the loaf to check also- should be between 195 and 205.

Pull the bread out, and if your hearing is good you can actually hear it “sing” (sort of like Rice Crispies- it should snap crackle and pop very faintly.

Let it cool for at least an hour before slicing- otherwise the moisture in the bread escapes and you end up with an inferior loaf.

DH insists that I point out that he learned the original technique for this type of bread from Jim Lahey's book "My Bread". Lahey set out to recreate the original, primitive breads and this is what he came up with.

Interestingly, my mother, who grew up in pre-war rural France, once told me that they used a yeast starter similar to this, but if it turned sour they threw it away because it was considered to have gone bad. She didn't like sourdough bread at all.

 

[Britesea]

It's all the extra fiber in the whole wheat flour that makes it so crumbly- not much 'glue' in bran. We add a little bit of white flour to the mix- seems to help with the 'crumb'. Other than that, I think you might have to just get used to it; or learn to like open faced sandwiches like the Danes eat. Sandwiches were invented by an aristocrat... and you can bet he wasn't eating brown bread like the peasants.
We threw away our bread machine and make our bread using a long ferment/rising time and natural yeasts. The amount of active time spent is no longer than any other bread, but the rising time can take 12 hours or longer. It seems to really develop the gluten (and the flavor!) in the bread- which is what holds everything together for thin slices. The long fermentation time also means that the carbs don't impact my diabetes as much.

 

[raro]

Sorry to sound lame, but what is the difference between store-bought and "natural" yeast? I remember as a kid my mom had a glass orange juice jar that she kept in the fridge for years. It had what looked to me like chicken feed in it, but she said it was yeast that had been given to her. I don't think she had a clue how to use the stuff. The pellets (for lack of a better word) were about the size of BBs. Is that "natural yeast"?! (Of course, it could have been chicken feed and someone was playing a joke on her...we'd never know the difference...!)
Does the fermenting process make the bread taste like sourdough bread? I'm not much of a sourdough fan. And I only use the bread machine to mix the dough. I don't have much energy for kneading, and I prefer the regular loaf shape!

 

[Britesea]

The natural yeast is a little like making sourdough, but it doesn't turn very sour if you are using it weekly and then feeding it for the next baking. This is the way they made bread for thousands of years, before the invention of dried yeast. I have no idea what the pellets in your mom's fridge were, unless the yeast had simply overgrown or something.
Try looking up the no-knead methods of making bread- my hubby doesn't knead his dough at all- just does a couple of what he calls "stretch and folds" The dough is very soft - he bakes it either on a pizza stone or in a clay loaf pan which are preheated in the oven to 480F-- the dough rises in baskets with flour covered towels and he just sort of tips it into the hot loaf pan. The crusts are wonderfully crispy this way, and the bread has a good flavor and a decent crumb. He told me the best mix for a good sandwich loaf is about half whole wheat and half white (Darwin's mix, it's called), but you can still get a pretty good crumb from a 2/3-1/3 mix.
And just like the fermented feeds everyone talks about for their livestock- this method neutralizes the phytic acids and unlocks more of the nutrients in the grain.

 

[baymule]

I have this same problem. The bread I make, I mill the wheat into flour, is crumbly. Delicious, but crumbly. Fresh, but crumbly. DH still prefers store bought.

 

[baymule]

.......smacks forehead with heel of hand...... DUH! Why didn't I think of that?

 

[Denim Deb]

Looks yummy!