Sandwich Loaf

Bread making last night took longer than I thought. I always underestimate rise time. I've been playing around with long rise times lately, so I'm still getting it down. I think it's worth it though because the longer the bread ferments the more tasty it becomes.

Ingredients

9 oz cold water
1 scant tsp. active yeast
2 tbls. honey
15 oz flour
1 3/4 tsp. salt

In your mixing bowl combine the water, yeast and honey. Then add the flour and salt on top. Mix until a dough forms. At this point in time I have been putting my dough hook on the kitchen aid and auto kneading for about two minutes, but that's just a time saver. After the auto knead, I turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and finish kneading by hand. This way I can get a really good feel for exactly where the bread is at. After passing the window pane test* place the dough back in the bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. At this point in time you have a choice. Either place the dough in a warm place to rise quickly (around 3-4 hours), or place the dough in the fridge and don't worry about it until the next day (remember the harder the yeast has to work, the better your bread will taste) Once the dough has doubled in size punch it down on a floured surface and cover with a towel for 10 minutes to rest. While the dough is resting oil a 9 inch loaf pan, and preheat your oven to 350. After 10 minutes form the dough into a loaf (I'm still working on the best way to do this), and place in the loaf pan. Cover the pan with a towel, and place on top of the stove to proof. After about an hour the dough will have risen again and it will be time to place it in your well preheated oven. Cook the bread until it has reached an internal temperature of at least 180 degrees. In my oven this is around 40 minutes, the recipe that I started from said it would be around 60 minutes.

Optional - If I have an egg around (I didn't last night), I like to brush the top of the bread with an egg wash about halfway through cooking. This gives the crust a nice dark brown look.

*Window Pane Test - Cut a small piece of dough off of your dough ball and stretch it out with your fingers, if you can get it to a point where you can see light through it without it tearing it has passed the window pane test.