Milk Loaf

In an attempt to get my two young daughters to eat more home made bread instead of the super soft supermarket pap, I've been trying variations on the milk loaf from Dan Lepard's The Handmade Loaf. The fat in the milk helps make the crumb soft and the extra calcium is great for growing girls even though they already consume a reasonable amount of milk and yogurt. My first attempt was almost straight from the book:
250g strong white flour
250g plain flour
350g whole milk
20g maple syrup
25g unsalted butter
8g salt
5g dry yeast
I divided the dough into two balls, placed them both in the large 2lb tin and sprayed the top with water. I preheated the oven (non-fan) to 260C but turned it down to 240C when the loaf went in. I baked it for about 30 minutes with the last 5 minutes out of the tin.
The result was OK. I didn't get any oven spring but the loaf was quite soft. It was much tastier than any supermarket white loaf and fairly popular with my girls. The top of the loaf was very brown although not burnt.
My second go was similar but I used 100% strong flour just to see if it made a difference to the rise. Dan's recipe bakes the loaf at 210C (fan oven) for 15 minutes followed by 180C for 25-30 minutes. As my previous loaf had been very brown I decided to try this lower temperature. He also brushes the top with milk so I did this too.
This loaf was not a great success. The loaf didn't seem to be fully cooked after 45 minutes so it had to go back in the oven for longer. In the end it was in for about an hour - twice as long as the previous time. This meant the crust was quite thick. Also, when I brushed the top with milk it ran down the side. This meant the loaf stuck to the pan although I did eventually get it to come out. Again, the bread was edible but not as good as I would have liked.
For my latest attempt I made two loaves and decided to add some spelt flour in an attempt to make it more tasty - I normally like to eat wholemeal rather than white bread. I also increased the amount of flour per loaf as my tins are quite large. This time the recipe was (for two loaves):
900g strong white flour
200g wholemeal spelt flour
770g whole milk
44g maple syrup
55g unsalted butter
18g salt
8g dry yeast
In an attempt to get some decent oven spring I preheated the oven to 300C non-fan. I sprayed the tops with water instead of brushing with milk. On putting the loaves in the oven I turned the temperature down to 230C. After 25 minutes I tried to get the loaves out of their tins but struggled again. After a bit more time in the oven I managed to get them out but one loaf lost part of its crust as it was stuck fast to the tin.
Despite being damaged these loaves are a great success. They taste delicious - the little bit of spelt has really helped. There was a decent amount of oven spring and the crumb is lovely and soft. Most important of all I don't think I've seen my two girls enjoy my home made bread so much.
Next time I won't divide the dough into two balls - I think this is making the loaf stick to the pan as it sticks round the middle. I shall probably also try with more spelt and might also try rye or even wholemeal wheat, but the bulk of the flour will be white. At least I know there are no additives and the salt content is low.

Yeasty Brown Bread

When writing a blog it's always tempting to only record your successes and quietly forget about the failures, but analysing these is probably the best way to improve. So what happened? I was given some Tesco Brown Bread flour that was two years out of date. As it looked and smelt fine, and not wanting to waste food, I decided to use it to make a loaf. I intended following my normal procedure except I used about 3g of yeast and left the dough to ferment at room temperature, instead of putting it in the fridge. It didn't work out this way as the dough seemed too dry in the mixer so I added some more water. Unfortunately I didn't measure the amount so I ended up making the dough wetter than I normally would. Since I keep reading that "wetter is better" I didn't try to correct it with more flour.
The next morning the dough had almost filled its 4L container, which this quantity doesn't normally do. I knocked it back. During the rest of the day the dough filled the container again and then sank back a bit. This, combined with the yeasty smell, was a sign that perhaps things were not perfect.

I shaped the dough for the tin and left it to proof at 30C. After two hours it was still not quite at the top of the tin and the poke test suggested it was still not fully proofed. Running out of time and hoping that being underproofed would give good oven spring it went in the oven. There was no oven spring.

Disappointing rise

As you can see, I slashed the top. I thought it would help the oven spring but it just healed up. After it cooled it was time to taste. Tasted off, very yeasty. After a couple of days we have eaten about half of it - it tastes better toasted, but it's not great. The rest will go as breadcrumbs for a treacle tart or to the birds.

So why did it go wrong? As the dough was quite wet I think the fermentation was much quicker - it was much nearer a poolish or starter. Having seen the dough was wet I should have put it in the fridge. I've left dough to ferment at room temperature for this long before without the yeasty taste, so I think the quicker fermentation used up all the fermentable sugars, even though I had added sugar.

Initially I didn't think the age of the flour was an issue but I have since read in Andrew Whitley's Bread Matters that "The yeast may be exhausted or may not have a sufficient supply of fermentable sugars in the dough at the time of the final rise or proof. This may be due to using a flour with a naturally low level of amylase or flour that is a bit old." I have relegated this flour to dusting duty.

I don't think this photo shows it but the crumb looks odd.