Bread #6: Incredible Toast Basic Loaf

 

Good morning bread bakers.

Unlike my last bread, this bread has a ton of ingredients and definitely stuff I don’t usually have on hand – like dried potato flakes, non-fat dry milk and vitamin C pills.  However, I am very excited to make this bread.  It comes from Cookwise by Shirley Corriher.  Shirley is a food scientist and every recipe in that cookbook includes an explanation of why the recipe works and how the techniques and ingredients contribute to the overall recipe.  I find all that very interesting, but I won’t bore you with all those scientific tidbits.  On to photographing the ingredients and starting the sponge.

Here is the recipe.  Please bake Incredible Toast Basic Loaf with me.

Special Tools you will need: (note, I am no longer going to list all the tools, only those that an average kitchen may not have on hand)

Heavy duty mixer such as a Kitchenaid
2 loaf pans

 Here are all the plethora of ingredients!

Ingredients:

1/3 cup non-fat dry milk
1 ¼ cups cool water
1/3 cup dried potato flakes
1 package (2 ¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
¼ teaspoon sugar
1 ¾ cup and 3 cups bread flour (4 3/4 cups total)
¼ of a 500 milligram vitamin C tablet, crushed
3 Tablespoons melted butter
1 large egg yolk
1 Tablespoon corn syrup
¼ cup crushed ice
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon oil for bowl
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large egg, beaten for glaze

  

Making the sponge:  Stir the dry milk into the 1 ¼ cups cool water in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until almost simmering.  Turn down the heat.  Hold below a simmer for 1 minute, then turn the heat off.  Let cool for several minutes, then stir in potato flakes.

In a measuring cup, stir together the yeast ,  ½ cup warm water and ¼ teaspoon sugar.  Let stand until foam forms.  Dump into the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer and add 1 ¾ cup flour.  Pour in the milk-potato mixture and beat on low-medium speed with the paddle blade for 4 minutes.  Let sit for 30 minutes to 2 ½ hours.

Making the Dough:  Remove the paddle blade and insert the dough hook.  Add the vitamin C, melted butter, egg yolk, corn syrup, ice and salt.  Turn the mixer on for a few seconds just to stir it.  Add the remaining 3 cups flour.  Knead on low-medium speed for 5 minutes, until dough is very elastic.

First Rise: Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat well with oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Shaping the Dough:  Punch down risen dough and dump out onto work surface. Divide in 2 equal pieces and shape into smooth rounds.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

Here Shirley goes into great detail on how to shape the dough into tight loaves.  Basically, you have to pull the dough together and pinch it until you have a nice, smooth tight loaf.  Repeat with the other ball of dough.

Second Rise:  Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and place a loaf in each pan, seam side down.  Brush with beaten egg.  Let the dough rise until slightly more than double, about 1 hour.

Baking: Position oven racks on the two lowest possible positions.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place a shallow pan on the on the lowest rack and fill with ½ inch of boiling water.  Place bread in oven and turn up the oven temperature to 375 degrees.  Bake until bread is well browned, 45 to 55 minutes.  Remove from pans and let cool on a cooling rack.

Reflections on this bake:

I hate to say this – but it lacked flavor!!  With all those ingredients and technique, I expected to love this bread.  It does live up to its name, however.  It toasts up incredibly well – with just the right amount of crunch and browning on the outside while staying soft and chewy on the inside.  So I think next time I make this I will add more salt.  1 teaspoon of salt to 4 ¾ cup flour just doesn’t seem like enough.  Most other bread recipes use 1 tablespoon of salt with that amount of flour.  I might split the difference and use 2 teaspoons next time.  Let me know if you make this and your thoughts on the salt.