Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Easier isn't always better

I have a bunch of goat cheese I need to use up, and I thought that a creamy sandwich spread would be delicious.  Only problem - no bread.  So I looked to see if I had any simple recipes, and found one that was perfect.  Very few ingredients, it only makes one loaf, and no kneading required.  I wanted a lighter wheat bread, so I did a 1:2 ratio of wheat to all purpose flour, instead of the 2:1 ratio in the original recipe.  The recipe said to cover the loaf pan with a floured tea cloth during the second rise - since I let mine rise in the oven with the oven light on, I didn't cover it at all.

So this is the good.  The bad....
Well this didn't turn out at all how I thought it would.  I should have been worried after the second rise - the dough rose so high above the top of the pan that I thought it was going to collapse onto itself.  After 10 minutes of baking, some of it had actually dripped down onto the bottom of the oven.  Thank goodness I caught it before anything started burning.  After less than 20 minutes, the top of the bread was completely brown and hard, so I took it out.  I let it cool on a wire rack, in the pan for a while, and then took it out.  The bottom of the loaf was soggy and spongy.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to toss it.

All in all - this sounds like a great loaf of bread, but unfortunately didn't work out for me.  I don't know if I didn't add enough flour, if it rose too much before baking, if it needed to be baked at a lower temperature, or what!  I'm including the recipe anyway in case someone is brave enough to try and see if this works for them.


Recipe: Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread (from One Perfect Bite)
Ingredients:
1 packet active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp molasses
2 cups all purpose flour, divided
1 cup whole wheat flour, divided
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the water, yeast and molasses.  Let sit for ~ 5 minutes, until foamy.  Add 1 cup all purpose flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, butter and salt; mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Add remaining flour, and mix just until combined.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and sit in a warm spot ~ 1 hour, or until doubled in size.

Pour into a greased 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Cover with a flour-coated tea towel and let rise in a warm spot, or until it fills the pan.

Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes.  Cool in pan, and then cool completely on a wire rack.




1 comment:

Alisa said...

Oh I hate it when bread goes awry! Here are my thoughts:

The way the bread isn't holding shape and dripping, makes me think you have too much liquid, not enough flour. I would change the ratio up slightly. I think you could definitely reduce the water just looking at the proportions.

If it rose too quickly, perhaps you live at slightly higher altitude and need to reduce the rising time?

That oven temp looks mighty hot to me. I typically bake bread at 350 or 375. That said, always bake for the full time on the recipe. If the top is browning too quickly, simply tent the top with foil as you would do to pie.

I hope that helps!