More sour cream

I added sour cream to one of my normal recipes:

400g wholemeal strong flour
300g white strong flour
125g sour cream
340g (approx) warm water
10g light brown sugar
7g dry yeast
10g salt

I mixed the sour cream, water, sugar, yeast and salt together first and then added the flour. I adjusted the exact amount of water to get the dough to the right consistency. I kneaded it in the normal way for 10 minutes or so.

The overnight rise was ok but not amazing, although the fridge does seem to be colder at the moment (2C instead of 4C). I knocked it down and put it back. The following evening it didn't seem to have risen much so I was not too hopeful.

I left the bread to rise in the loaf tin for longer than normal - about 2 hours at 30C followed by 1 hour at room temperature. The bread rose spectacularly in this time. I was worried it may have over proved.

In the oven at 260C with steam for 10 minutes there was no oven spring - in fact it shrank a little. The top was quite brown so it was down to 200C for 15 minutes plus 5 more out of the tin.

The loaf is a day old and the crust has shrunk a little. It is now much softer than when baked - it is not burnt

No flying crust, despite my fears

A lovely crumb - very soft

Sour cream sandwich bread

I made Dan Lepard's Sour cream sandwich bread and it rose nicely with some oven spring although still not a huge amount. Even though the recipe uses 550g flour compared to my normal 700g it ended up taller than my loaf recipe although using 100% white flour must help. The sour cream may be the secret ingredient though and I will have to try adding it to my bread to see if it helps.

Too much salt and yeast

I managed to scale some of the ingredients for the bread incorrectly. I previously made two loaves with 500g of flour each. For my new, larger tin, I need 700g of flour. I should have scaled the recipe from 1000g down to 700g but instead I scaled up from 500g to 700g so, although I got the water right, I managed to use twice the amount of salt and yeast.

The recipe should be:
400g wholemeal strong flour
300g white strong flour
465g water
10g salt
7g yeast

I made the loaf again with the right ingredients and again it was good.

The dough stretched out to about three times the length of the tin.

The dough folded for the tin.

The dough patted down before rolling.

The dough in the tin before proving.

The dough nicely risen before going in the oven.

The baked loaf just out of the oven.

You can see where the loaf has sprung in the oven just above the tin line.

Nice crumb.

Success

Overnight the dough rose a decent amount so I knocked it back and put it back in the fridge. This evening it had risen again so I shaped it and put it in the greased and floured loaf tin. I followed the shaping process at breadsecrets.com where the dough is stretched out to three times the length of the tin, folded back twice and then rolled up.

After an hour and a half the dough had risen to the top of the tin. I preheated the oven to 275C with the grill pan. Once the oven was nice and hot I poured boiling water into the grill pan and then waited a minute. Sprayed the bread with water and then into the oven. After 10 minutes, grill pan out and temperature down to 220C. After 15 minutes I took the loaf out of the tin and put it back in for a final 10 minutes.

There was some oven spring but not a huge amount but it least the loaf hadn't shrunk like before.

So what was different this time:

• Making enough dough for the size of tin so it didn't overprove.
• Getting the right hydration. Instead of just putting in a fixed amount of water I put in enough to make the dough feel right - not too dry and not too wet and sticky.
• Simple recipe - I suspect the oil may have not done the gluten any good. Certainly the dough felt much better this time.
• Shaped the dough differently.
• I put boiling water into the grill pan a minute before the loaf went in.

Back to basics

I've decided to try some radical changes to see if I can make a better loaf.

The first is to increase the amount of dough I make. This is because my new tin is bigger than I had been using. It seems there is no such thing as a standard 2lb loaf tin. So, instead of using 500g flour, I am now using 700g.

The second is to return to a wholemeal/white mix rather than the oaty white that I am a bit bored of.

Finally, I am trying the most basic bread recipe possible - just flour, yeast, salt and water. No oil, sugar or vitamin C.

Here is what I have tried tonight:

400g wholemeal (Doves Farm strong wholemeal bread flour)
300g white (Waitrose Organic strong white bread flour)
465g water (this came from a cooled kettle so it was not warm but not as cold as tap water)
21g salt (Saxa table salt)
14g yeast (Doves Farm Quick Yeast)

The precise salt and yeast amounts were just the same baker's percentage as I always use.
I started with 450g water but added more as the dough was very dry. I suspect that other wholemeal flours might need even more water based on previous experience of Doves Farm wholemeal. I didn't use warm water as the dough went straight in the fridge. Slowing the rise down doesn't seem to be a problem when I won't be baking until tomorrow night.

I kneaded the dough in the usual way. It was less sticky than usual, probably due to the lack of oil. After about 12 minutes I was very happy with the windowpane test - it was much better than I have ever seen, even with white flour. Hopefully this is a good sign.

We will have to wait and see how the dough does overnight.

No improvement

The quick loaf, as reported last time, did not spring up in the oven but otherwise it seems to taste very similar to the slower loaf. The most noticeable difference is that the top is very uneven - the slow loaf has a nice dome.

The other experiment was to use different flour. This had no oven spring either so using a more expensive flour did not help. I can't comment on the taste or texture as it is in the freezer.

So perhaps it is the recipe or some other aspect of my method that is at fault.

An Experiment

After last night's lack of oven spring I've tried an experiment (two in fact) to see if I can get a better result.

First, I wanted to see if over-proving could be a problem. So I made the same dough as last time but used a sachet of Allinson Easy Bake yeast. I only had 340g of the Asda flour left so had to add 60g of Gilchester strong white flour. I also omitted the vitamin C as there is already some in the yeast. After the 10 minute knead I shaped the dough and put it straight in the tin. After 1.5 hours proving at 30C it had almost filled the tin so it was in the oven just like last night with the steam etc. Once again, no oven spring. The top of the loaf is a bit uneven and not as brown as last time but otherwise it looks much the same. As for taste and texture that will have to wait.

The other test was to try a different flour. I made the dough just like the first time but used Waitrose Organic Strong White Bread flour. It's now in a bowl in the fridge and I shall bake it tomorrow night. The dough certainly felt different - after 10 minutes it was less sticky and seemed more stretchy than with the Asda flour. We'll have to see if it works better or if that is just my imagination.

Elusive oven spring

Apparently to get oven spring you need lots of heat and steam. Ideally the temperature needs to be as high as 260C but my non-stick loaf tins are only safe upto 230C. The highest I've seen for non-stick is 240C. Above this they start to produce toxic gases. So I have bought a silver anodised loaf tin from Silverwood which can be used at any temperature. To make it non-stick it has to be greased and floured. They recommend groundnut oil as some vegetable oils (such as olive oil) go very sticky at high temperatures.

Last night I made a white oat bread with 400g flour, 50g oat bran, 60g medium oatmeal and 310ml water. This made a nice sticky dough which kneaded fine. Overnight it rose nicely in the fridge so I knocked it back and put it back in the fridge. This evening it had risen again. After knocking back and a quick shape it was in the loaf tin to rise. After a couple of hours it was near the top.

I pre-heated the fan oven to 260C with the grill pan at the bottom. I sprayed the top of the loaf with water. As soon as the loaf was in the oven I poured boiling water into the grill pan and shut the door.

After 10 minutes the top of the loaf was a lovely brown colour but there was no sign of any oven spring. I removed the grill pan and set the oven to 200C with top and bottom heat for another 15 minutes. I removed the loaf from the tin (it came out very easily) and put it back in the oven for a final 5 minutes.

After leaving it to cool I am pleased to say it is delicious, just not as well risen as I would have liked. It doesn't seem too heavy though.

I am wondering if the long initial rise in the fridge is too long and the dough has no more stretch to it. I could lower the yeast or only leave it overnight although this means only baking at the weekend. I also wonder how effective the heat and steam are as a lot is lost with the oven door open. I could try different flour - I used the cheap Asda strong white flour which has worked well for me in the past but it isn't as strong as some.