Dome at last!

Finally, John achieves a loaf of bread with a dome instead of a dip.  It only took a dozen tries and a small stack of new kitchen equipment. 

Here's some of that equipment: A new loaf pan, an oven thermometer, a food thermometer, and a new set of scales to weigh ingredients.

The last time we visited the ongoing saga of John’s bread-making efforts, he was still looking for the solution to his sinking loaves.

At that point, he’d already bought fancy new scales to weigh ingredients instead of depending on guesstimate measuring cups; discovered whole wheat bread flour instead of regular whole wheat, and was using a thermometer instead of guessing at what “tepid” means. Since then, he’s discovered that lard works better than olive oil for greasing pans (a particular low point was the loaf so stuck that it tore apart, making it not just a sunk loaf, but a disemboweled one.) And – maybe this was the problem? -- he bought a new thermometer that showed our oven’s 400 degrees is actually 375.

But until last week, all these tweaks, purchases and discoveries seemed to make no difference. No matter what he did, his bread kept sinking as it baked instead of rising into the pleasant dome shape that his recipe promised.

Finally, out of the internet world of bread-baking chatter came a new angle he hadn’t considered yet.  Could it be that the 9 x 5-inch pan he’d been using was too big?  The online suggestion was that for the amount of flour in his recipe, the pan should be only 8.5 x 4.5.

The discovery was so exciting that he immediately set off to the Gourmet Warehouse for shiny new pans, my old ones of that size being a little tarnished.

And voila! Victory! That half-inch in length and width made all the difference. John’s next loaf of bread had a dome at last.

That should be the end of the story. But. It seems that a smaller pan scooches the dough into a denser mass, so the heat takes longer to penetrate. In other words, that first, perfectly domed loaf was, actually, a little doughy.

But as John has found, there’s always a solution, usually involving tools. From now on, he’ll be stabbing his loaves with a thermometer to ensure they’ve reached their proper internal temperature of 190 degrees. And once he solves that problem, I’m curious about where his bread-baking adventure will take him next.

Earlier baking disaster: When the loaf won't leave the pan, it's not pretty.

The loaf that sank and tore. No wonder John was happy when he found a solution ....  

....in the form of this spanking new 8.5 x 4.5 loaf pan. It only needed to be the right size.

Here is John's hard-won  recipe:

100% Whole Wheat Bread

 

Lightly grease a (8.5x4.5 in.) loaf pan or line it with parchment paper. Set aside while you make the dough.

Put 3 1/4  cups (425 gr) of whole wheat BREAD flour into a bowl – let it warm to room temperature.

Add 1 tsp of salt, 7 grams of yeast, to the flour and mix.

Add 1 tsp of sugar to 425 grams of tepid (105F) water and pour it into a well of the dry ingredients.

Mix together and beat vigorously with your hand (or with a wooden spoon if you prefer) for no more than 2 minutes or until the dough comes away from the side of the bowl; it will be very soft and sticky.

Pour the dough into the prepared pan, cover with a damp dish towel and leave in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until the dough has risen almost to the top of the pan.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30–40 minutes or until well risen and brown. It should feel light and sound hollow when turned out of the pan and tapped on the base.

Transfer the whole-wheat bread loaf to a wire rack and, if necessary, return it to the oven for 5 minutes to crisp the sides and base. Leave on the wire rack to cool.

Quick whole-wheat bread can be kept for up to 5 days.