White (Softer) Bread

27 Dec 07

Since my initial bread making experiments, I've been trying slight variations to meet the needs of my consumers (mostly myself and my sweetie).  Although I don't mind a bit of crust on my bread, my significant other likes a very soft pulp, something I haven't been able to manage with a crusty bread.

Well, one of my Christmas gifts was the book "On Food and Cooking", by Harold McGee.  Not all that many recipes, but TONS of accessible chemistry explanations about foods, tastes and cooking/food prep techniques.

In the section on bread baking, it says that milk is used to make baked goods more tender.  Hmmm....

So, I took my standard white bread recipe (in percentages according to the weight of the flour):

and decided to try making half the liquid component milk (specifically, skim milk, since it's what we keep in the house.

So, the new formulary becomes:

McGee's book suggests scalding the milk first to inactivate a protein that can cause the loaf to be too dense.  I, lazy and impatient, tried it without the scalding step.

Mix it up, proof it overnight in the fridge, punch down, form into loaves (2 x ~480 gms) and buns (12 x ~43gms), and into a 500 degree oven (on Silpats, not on the stone, for a change) for ~12-15 minutes, or until internal temperature is up to 190-200 F.

Here are the results:

A closer look at one of the big loaves.....

...as well as one of the rolls.

But what about the crumb I was seeking?  Here's what a slice of the other big loaf looked like...

Nice and soft - in fact, a bit too soft for my taste when it comes to cutting the bread.  The loaf crushes a bit when I cut with the serrated knife (maybe I need a better bread knife?).  Nonetheless, makes a GREAT loaf for tearing chunks from for dipping into a nice sauce, like with this kind of meal.

Next bread experiment:  the ciabatta loaf.....