Making Sandwich Bread at Home
It's back-to-school time, which makes me think back to when my daughter was little and this time of year had me thinking about school supplies and what to pack for her lunch. This back-to-school energy recently led me to make a homemade loaf of sandwich bread, and I wanted to share it with you.
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The Flour
I make 95% of our baked goods at home. Whether it's bread, pizza crust, English muffins, or bagels, I like to be in control of the ingredients. I try to use some whole wheat flour in most of my baking, so recently I decided to up my game. We invested in a flour mill, so we can grind wheat berries into freshly milled flour. Why? Well, some say that freshly ground flour contains more nutrients than flour that has been sitting on a shelf. Some say that the fiber level in freshly milled flour is higher. Some say that the nutrients are the same, but enzymes in the berries make the nutrients more readily available to the body. Some say there is no nutritional difference at all.
Is freshly milled flour better for you? In truth, I don't really know. The only place I can find info about it seems to be from milling companies. However, it does seem logical that the whole berry would retain more nutrients than milled flour. At the very least, I can chalk it up to the difference between freshly ground coffee beans and ground coffee that has been sitting on a shelf for months. The fresher product typically yields better results.
That being said, as I have played around with freshly milled flour, I have found that I prefer the texture of breads made with a combination of the freshly milled flour and unbleached all-purpose flour, so that is what I did with the sandwich loaf I made today.
If you have no interest in milling your own flour, just use unbleached all-purpose; maybe use some regular whole wheat flour. Whatever you use, it will still be amazing!
The Recipe
The recipe I followed was from one of my favorite YouTube channels (Farmhouse On Boone). Of course, me being me, I didn't follow it exactly. Also, while I only made 1 loaf, you can easily double the recipe to make 2 at a time.
Ingredients
280 grams hard white wheat berries, milled (about 2 cups)
140 grams unbleached all-purpose flour (about 1 cup)
3/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter
1 TBSP honey
1 tsp kosher salt
Directions
Melt butter in a small pan.
Add yeast and honey to warm water, stir, and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
Place your flours in the bowl of your stand mixer.
Add milk, butter, and salt to the yeast mixture and pour into the flour.
Run the mixer just enough to blend the ingredients, and then let the mixture rest for about 20 minutes. This allows the flour time to thoroughly absorb the liquid before kneading.
Run the mixer for 15 minutes to knead the dough.
Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until doubled. This could take anywhere from 1/2 -2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.
Scrape the dough onto the counter and gently knead it a couple of times. Form it into a rectangle and roll or fold it into a dough log that will easily fit in a well-oiled bread pan.
Place the dough into the pan and cover to allow it to rise until doubled in size, 15 mins - 1 hr depending on kitchen temperature.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 40 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes, and then remove bread from pan to finish cooling on a wire rack.
Do not slice bread until it is fully cooled to room temperature.
Serving Suggestions
This bread is delicious plain or with a little butter, OR...
Obviously, use it for sandwiches.
Make grilled cheese or a panini.
This bread makes delicious toast.
Cut into cubes to make homemade stuffing.
Use it to make French toast.
Top it with garlic butter for homemade garlic bread.
I used this bread to make a PB&J, which you may laugh at, but it was delicious. I elevated it by toasting the bread first (I can't recommend this enough); I used natural peanut butter, but you could also easily make your own. And I used my homemade strawberry freezer jam. This sandwich was unbelievably delicious!
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