Remember my post forWhite Sandwich Bread(2) I had mentioned that I had bought local made bread tins for getting square bread slices rather than buying expensive branded tins. Again I used the same local made bread tin, but this one is slightly different than the previously used. This tin has tight lid and is slightly bigger. Because of tight lid you can get very neat edges in your bread.
Initially I had baked all purpose flour bread with 3+1/2 cups of flour in this tin. Loaf came out perfect, so I tried wheat flour sandwich bread with the same amount of flour.
Bread was really good.
Beautiful slices and very soft bread.
But neat edges were missing!!
I realized my mistake!
Wheat flour doesn’t rise as much as all purpose flour, so to achieve neat edges I have to increase the flour quantity.
So I used 4 cups of wheat flour and voila!! I got what I was looking for ….!
If you are new in bread baking and planning to buy bread tin, I will suggest you to buy tin with the lid. If you are interested to bake a loaf without lid and want to witness the beauty of bread rising in your oven, just remove the lid and use this tin. And if you want to try neat edges in your bread, then also use this tin with its cover.
Ingredients :
Wheat flour 4 cups
Milk powder 4 tbsp
Salt 1 +1/2 tsp
Sugar 3 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1 +1/2 tsp
Oil/butter 4 tbsp
Water/Milk 2 cups+ 2 to 4 tbsp (reduce or increase as per the absorbing quality of flour) slightly warmer than lukewarm.
Bread tin size : width: 10 inch height: 3 inch depth 4 inch
Tips :
1. All ingredients should be on room temperature except water.
2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.
3. Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.
4. Dough proofing time depends a lot on the temperature of your kitchen. In colder temperature first proofing can take 60 to 90 minutes. In warmer temperatures it might get over in 40 to 50 minutes.
5. Wheat flour dough is slightly delicate than all purpose flour dough. So after first proofing don’t knead it much. Punch it and bring it back together to roll the log.
6. If using dry active yeast take 2+1/4 tsp.
7. Don’t compare the result of homebaked complete wheat flour bread with market bought wheat flour bread. We are not adding any artificial gluten, emulsifier, or bread enhancer. We are trying to bake a healthy bread of loaf, so it might be slightly heavy and dense. For better results try to use milled flour than packed ones.
8. For more tips on bread baking you can check my post on Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)
Process :
Collect all dry ingredients in a big size vessel so that it’s easy to mix and knead the dough if you are not using a mixer.
Make a rough dough by mixing all ingredients together with the help of water/milk…don’t use entire quantity of water/milk in this step.
Now start kneading the dough and keep adding remaining water/milk along with oil/butter for 15 – 20 minutes or till dough becomes smooth.
Keep this smooth dough in an oil greased bowl. Apply some oil on top of the dough and cover it with wet kitchen towel or cling film. Keep this bowl in a warm place for first proofing (the dough rises up and doubles in size). (check tip #4)
In the meantime grease bread tin and its cover with oil.
Spread some flour on clean kitchen counter or grease it with oil. After first proofing take out the dough and punch it gently.
Collect the dough together, gently knead it and spread it in a rectangular shape as per the size of your bread tin.
Start rolling it and prepare a tight log.
Seam the edges by pinching them.
Keeping the seam side at the bottom, place the log in oil greased bread tin. Apply some oil/melted butter on top of the log to avoid it drying. Cover the tin and and keep it for second proofing.
Second proofing will be over in 20-30 minutes…just 10 minutes before second proofing is getting over, preheat oven at 190 degrees.
Give milk wash to the log, cover it with tin cover and bake it on the same temperature for 40-50 minutes or while tapping, the top of the bread sounds hollow.
If top of the bread is not brown enough, uncover the tin and bake with the top rod on for 5-7 minutes or till you get the desired brown beauty!!
Take the tin out of the oven, apply butter on top of the bread so that it can remain soft and keep it on the cooling rack for 5-7 minutes and then take out the bread. Don’t leave bread in the tin for longer than this. Heat trapped inside the bread will turn bottom of the bread soggy. Once bread cools down completely, give 2-3 cling wrap folds and keep it in the fridge for 4-5 hours.
Later with a bread cutting surrated knife, neatly slice your beautiful loaf of bread .
