Baking Bread

"Mom, when I move out and have my own apartment, can I buy bread from you?" - Emily, age 14

This is how I make my sandwich bread, and it works for any proportion of whole wheat bread flour to white bread flour. I usually use 100% whole wheat. I make two loaves at a time.

In a large bowl, combine:
3 cups flour
2 2/3 cups warm water
2 tsp active dry yeast
OR
3 cups flour
2 cups warm water
1 cup sourdough starter (room temp, recently fed, approx. pancake batter consistency)
Whisk those up nice and smooth, and pop a plate over the top of the bowl to keep the moisture in. Let it sit at room temp for at least 4 hours for the active dry yeast, overnight for sourdough. This is your "sponge".

This is why it is called a sponge.

Once the sponge has worked, add
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 T salt
2 T melted butter
2 T honey

Mix up with a spoon or scraper until it is really hard to stir, then get your hand in there and work the rest of the flour into the dough. It should be just a touch sticky, and clean all of the flour from the sides of the bowl. Turn it out onto your kneading surface, and knead 10 minutes. If it is still too sticky to work with after about 30 kneads, add a bit more flour. (I'll add more pictures when I get some taken.)
Butter your large bowl, plop your dough ball in, turn it over so that all sides are buttered, and cover back up with the plate. Let rise at room temp until double in size. Active dry yeast will take a couple-few hours, sourdough a good 5 usually.
Once it's all risen, punch it down,

turn it out of the bowl, and cut it in half. I usually weigh my pieces on a scale and adjust 'till they're the same size. Knead each piece just a couple of times, then squish out into a rough rectangle with your fingertips. Roll up the rectangle, trying your hardest to not get any big air bubbles trapped.

Pinch the seam closed, and pinch the ends closed and smooth, and lay into buttered loaf pans.

Brush the tops with melted butter and loosely cover with plastic, and let rise for however long it takes for the dough to peek about a half-inch above the rim of the pan.

Once your dough has risen to that point, heat the oven to 450 F, and once it's preheated, pop the bread in and bake for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, drop the temp to 350 and leave it in there for another 20 minutes.
Remove the bread from the pans immediately, and cool on a rack, covered with a clean towel. Don't slice into it for at least 20 minutes, and don't put into a plastic bag until almost completely cool.

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