Sourdough Stories Chapter 9: White Sandwich Bread

So, Mandough has been growing so rapidly that I actually ended up making THREE things last week to whittle my starter down a bit. The first was the egg noodles, which I'm pretty happy with.

Then, we were out of bread so The Hubs asked if I could make a loaf for us to use for sandwiches & such this week.  I was happy to try my hand at making some basic white bread.  The Clever Carrot's recipes have served me well so far, and I liked that she offered options for varying the amount of starter & water if you're using discard to try & get it to rise better. (I went with the 150g starter + 250g water option, because, again, I was trying to use up starter.)

FYI: You may notice some variability with the lighting in these photos. I pulled out my old ring light for my SLR camera and was trying to use it with my phone.

Her recipe calls for 100% AP flour, but I used half AP + half bread flour...and accidentally added a little too much water. But since bread flours sometimes soak up extra water, I said a little prayer and hoped it would turn out just fine.

I was surprised at how soft and pliable the dough was after letting it go for 6-8 minutes on the Kitchenaid, and hoped & prayed I hadn't overmixed it or added too much water or screwed it up in some other way.  I'm used to having a big dense dough ball, but this almost seemed like stretchy loose pizza dough. It flattened out in the bottom of the bowl I was using for the bulk rise.  The recipe noted if it was sticky to just dust it with a bit more flour, so I did.

About 8pm (Saturday night) I checked on it--it had grown and was bubbly but still pretty flat, and a touch sticky.  I dusted the top of the dough and my cutting board with flour, then dropped it upside down on the cutting board, and dusted the bottom with flour as well.  Lightly tamped it with my fingers to get air pockets out, and then began trying to roll it up as described in the original recipe.  Which was a challenge, because this dough was REALLY pliable. Like, almost ooze-y.  But with some patience (and a little extra flour), finally got it rolled up, and then carefully plopped it into the loaf pan.

Like a bread slug...

At that point, because I had opted to let it rise during the day instead of overnight, I put plastic wrap over the top and put it in the fridge for a slow overnight proof, so that we could finish baking it the following day. After church, I pulled it out of the fridge and let it sit in a sunny spot for a couple hours until it had risen to level with the top of the baking dish.  Then we heated up the oven and let 'er bake.

I think it's another really pretty loaf; not as soft as commercial sandwich bread but still a nice neutral flavor and it sliced easy enough.  We made plenty of cinnamon toast and grilled cheese with it (along with yes, a few actual sandwiches).