Most of my loaves are free-formed or shaped in a banetton, but it’s nice to occasionally bake a proper sandwich loaf in a tin!
The boys certainly enjoy the variety, and I’ve recently had quite a bit of success with this formula – a sourdough adaptation of Joanna’s white toast bread. I substitute half the bakers flour with Italian 00 flour, which gives the finished loaf a tender and white crumb. Because I don’t knead much anymore, the crumb is still quite open and a little holey.
The 00 flour is milled from soft wheat, and the one I’m using only has 10% protein (which makes it the same as plain/AP flour). This is particularly noticeable in the crust – it’s harder to shape a strong gluten coat, and as a result the top of the bread is always a little ragged. The quantities listed below are for a single large loaf (although the photos show the double batch that I made)…
- 200g active sourdough starter (166% hydration, ie. fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup flour)
- 350g bakers/bread flour
- 350g Italian 00 flour
- 375g water
- 15g extra virgin olive oil
- 13g fine sea salt
- 10g brown sugar
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients together to form a shaggy dough, then allow to rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
2. Give the dough a quick knead in the bowl, then cover again and allow to prove until roughly doubled in size. This could take anywhere from 4 to 10 hours, depending on how active your starter is, and the temperature of your kitchen. Spray one large or two small loaf tins with oil.
Edit: my heavy duty large loaf tins are 28cm x 11½cm (11″ x 4½”).
3. Scrape the proved dough onto a lightly oiled surface and shape it into a loaf. Place the dough seamside down into the prepared tin – it should fill the tin to about halfway. Cover with cling film and allow to prove until the tin is approximately three-quarters full. Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature.
4. When the dough has had its second rise, slash the top with a serrated knife or razor blade, spritz it with a little water, and put it in the oven to bake, reducing the oven temperature to 220C with fan at the same time. Bake for 20 minutes.
5. At the end of 20 minutes, the loaf should be quite brown – carefully tip it out of the tin, and place it directly on the oven rack to finish baking. Reduce the heat to 175C with fan and bake for a further 20 – 30 minutes until well browned and hollow sounding. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
Like all sourdough loaves, this one freezes well. I usually cut it in half before freezing though – otherwise the wolves defrost and eat an entire 1.3kg loaf in a single sitting!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Seems so delicious… I can eat all of them, with cheese and tomatoes :) Thank you dear Celia, have a nice weekend, love, nia
Nia, that’s exactly how we’ve been eating it! With tomatoes and cheese! :) xx
I am going to try this next time I make bread, which will be soon, as I have some Italian OO flour in stock. My husband will like this as it will fit in the toaster better than the usual shapes I make! Thank you Celia!
Jeannette, I hope you like it, it’s great during school holidays to be able to make things like toasted sandwiches – almost impossible with a wonky ciabatta loaf with big holes! :)
awesome post
Thanks Linda! :)
Celia, how long are you giving it for the second rise and if I do the 1st prove overnight will it be OK in the fridge?
This is definitely going into the girls’ lunch boxes!
Morning Tony! :) I’ve always been rubbish at proving dough in the fridge – my sourdough starter is so resilient that I can leave my dough to bulk prove on the bench overnight and shape it in the morning, and it will bounce back every time. Second rise is about an hour, from memory, but I never really pay attention because it varies so much with the weather (as you know!).
I so want a slice with jam! Happy Friday:)
Thanks Renee! Have a wonderful weekend! :)
Beautiful loaves! And had to laugh about the wolves…feel like those days aren’t too far away for us. :-)
Abby, to be fair, they’ve both now reached (I think) their maximum height, and are starting to slow down just a little with the eating. Although Small Man can still put away half a loaf of bread WITH dinner.. :)
This looks fabulous Celia! What size are your loaf tins (pictured above)? I want to get some and give this one a go! Oh, and I had a question about your previous post- do you use green lemons like the yellow ones? I used to have a wonderful olive oil pressed with green lemons and it got me thinking about yours! I’m so curious… Have lovely weekend :) xx Em
Thanks Em! My tins are 28cm x 11½cm (11″ x 4½”) and they’re sold as “black steel” bread tins. I’ve had them for about 20 years. They’re black steel on the outside and lined with (I think) aluminium on the inside. I think you could adapt the recipe to any loaf tin you have though – just fill it halfway with the bulk proved dough and allow it to rise.
Re the lemons – we’re using them green because I’m too impatient to wait for them to go yellow. Pete said we really should go buy some rather than denuding our poor tree of green fruit! I use the juice as I would yellow lemons, but I haven’t been using the green rind. xx
Thanks Celia!!! xx
Those loaves look fabulous.
I am going to make some this weekend as I need some bread that I can enjoy. Frank likes artisan breads from the upper scale markets because he wants the bread to last longer and they have some preservatives. I like my own bread and just freeze it or eat it quickly.
So- half bread flour and half AP? Or should I use a softer pastry dough for half ?
I’ve been using a lot of spelt lately and I think that is what Frank really doesn’t like.
Heidi, the 00 flour is a very finely milled flour, so a bit different from AP, but same protein content, so I guess you could try it? According to Wiki, the equivalent would be pastry flour, so that might work too? I’d love to know how you go with it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour
Spelt is a tricky beast – we love some batches of flour, others are just terrible, it seems to be so variable!
I think if you bake your own bread you would never hear those wolves cry, ‘There’s nothing to eat’. Interesting to read your comment that you find spelt to be very inconsistent – is this across different brands or is there inconsistency within the same company’s product? xx
Bit of both, Charlie. One brand is quite different to another, protein levels can vary from one batch to another in the same brand, and I find it tends to go off faster than regular bakers flour. I USED to be a big spelt fan, but I don’t use it much anymore (occasionally for cookies).
Nice tips Celia – the sandwich loaves are so much easier to manage for lunches.
Thanks Amanda – I think so, and during school holidays, a neverending stream of peanut butter toast seems to be leave the kitchen as well.. :)
I picked up some banettons when I was at chefs warehouse recently, along with a copy of Dan Lepards “short and sweet” (Along with quite a few other bits and pieces -how could you not!). I’m looking forward to using these alongside your comments and recipes when I give sourdough a try when time permits, in about 6 weeks time at this rate
Bye
A
Amanda, that’s exciting! Have fun with it! :)
I get an odd satisfaction out of baking loaves that are this sort of shape! I don’t know why! :D
Lorraine, I agree with Becca (below) – I like the free form loaves a bit better too, but these certainly make a nice change! :)
They do look nice sweetie, but I love the free-style look of the others better. The little holes are perfect for collecting butter in, yummo! Xox
I do too, darling. But this makes a nice change – and the loaves last a bit longer when they’re not tearing them apart and dunking them in oil! :D
Another lecture added to Bread 101 – thanks and do have a lovely weekend during this wonderful Indian summer! [Just don’t ask how far I have gotten with ‘the very beginning’ :) ! ]
Eha, there’s no rush, sourdough is a time commitment, so there’s no point starting when you’re busy! :)
Hi Celia. More delicious bread and useful information from your kitchen. I have not used bread tins before, I tend to stick to banettons. I love your tins, they look sturdy and well used. Have a lovely weekend x
Jane, I’m not big on tins either, but I am very fond of these ones, as they’ve been around for a very long time! Hope the sun is shining in Broken Hill! x
Hi Celia have you written about “% of hydration” somewhere? Can you explain it please :)
Wendy, in sourdough terms, there are two different uses of the word hydration.
One refers to the consistency at which the starter is kept – a low hydration starter is thick and dough like, whereas a high hydration one is runny like mine. The percentage there refers to the amount of water to flour in the starter.
The second use of the term hydration in breadmaking refers to the amount of liquid in the dough itself. I tried to explain it a bit here:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2011/02/20/basic-sourdough-recipe/
Hope it’s not too confusing! :)
Per your reply to Charlie, other that protein levels and its ability to go off quicker, is there any other reason you’ve moved away from spelt? I love this sandwich loaf.
Um…it annoyed me? ;-)
This looks wonderful Celia. I am going to play around with this recipe next :)
Tandy, as always, can’t wait to see what you do with it! :)
Ahh, the tins of my childhood. It was always my job to oil the tins up before mum would bake the bread, making sure I got right into every corner… Funnily enough I very, very rarely use them now when I bake bread.
Good wolf food :-)
Brydie, I didn’t really start using tins for sourdough until I discovered Jo’s white toast recipe. It’s all gone on from there! :)
Do you deliver?
Not to Canberra, but if I ever visit, I’ll bring BREAD! :)
Lovely loaf!
Thanks Manuela! :)
I really wish I could get on this Sourdough bandwagon. I just don’t have the time though. In the meantime, I’ll ‘ooooh’ and ‘ahhhhh’ every time I see a new recipe. Love it, I can smell the freshly baked loaf from here ;)
Lisa, it IS a time commitment, but once you find a routine and rhythm for it, it becomes remarkably easy to fit into life.. :)
There is something so satisfying about a tin loaf. I have a question to ask you Celia – if (I say if!!) I hydrate my starter, what would I do with it while I’m away for 2 months? Should I get someone to starter sit?!
Sally, you’ll definitely need to get someone to feed it for you – at least once a fortnight and keep it in the fridge. If you’re going away soon, why don’t you wait until you come back? Alternatively, you could dry a little out and restart it when you come back, providing you’ve got it all bubbly and active before you go.
I usually bake in tins rather than free form. Most of the bread in this house gets eaten as toast or sandwiches so I find the tins easier to deal with. If I haven’t got my act together I will do the first rise in the tin in the fridge overnight then take it out of the fridge in the morning to allow it to finish rising. Thanks for another great tutorial Celia. I love this series you are doing.
Tania, thank you!I think bread baked in tins lasts longer in our house than free form loaves – I think the boys just eat it in more civilized portions! :)
Thanks for the blog love darling ! your tinnies are uniquely you xx
Are they? I thought they were widely used. I DO love them though! :)
Ah, I’ve made my second ‘tinnie’ today. I did the same as last time and added soaked linseed as well as some mixed rolled grains (barley, rye, oats). I’m so surprised at the good result with such a small amount of kneading. Patsy is so obligingly bubbly with such a small amount of encouragement. When you say that with a lower protein flour it’s hard to shape a strong gluten coat do you mean that lower protein flour makes for a stronger gluten content Celia? I was in our Italian green grocer/deli yesterday and bought a packet of 00 flour but wasn’t game to use it for today’s bread. It’s so satisfying turning out nice bread. I like the look of yours, ragged crust or not.
Jan, I actually mean the reverse – the higher protein the flour, the stronger the gluten, which is why bread flour is about 14% protein, whereas plain/00 flour is 10%. So the gluten is weaker in this mixed loaf, hence the difficulty in shaping a smooth top. But the combination does make for a tenderer loaf! :)
I’ve never considered 00 flour for bread, thanks Celia, I’ll give this a go.
Rose, it’s a nice change, and 00 is becoming more and more widely available these days…
Ooh thank you Celia this is just what I needed. I’m going to change it up a little with my grain mix and see how it goes.
Claire, your last grain loaf looked fantastic! :)
I’ve made twice your other version of Salt-Crust Bread with Semolina (I bought from Supermarket, still can’t source it in Melbourne), it was adored by my family not just the texture, taste (lots of salt) and slice easily by the machine (for a neat looking sandwich). Thanks again for sharing your recipe!
Yvonne, I’m so glad you liked it, thanks for letting me know! I was *trying* to copy the bread we’d had at Cumulus Inc, but just can’t get it quite right.. :)
I found this recipe yesterday morning, and as someone who makes sour dough bread I had never thought to do a no knead version.. well I made a a dough last night, and today put it in a pan and baked it.. I have to say this is the BEST sour dough I have ever made.. we had it with soup for dinner and got the thumbs up from the family.. so I have just finished putting two on to do dough things over night.. one I have filled full or spices and raisins, so fingers crossed it works as good as the plain one.. thank you for sharing this, I may never knead sour dough again.
Wendy, that’s wonderful, thanks for letting me know! I barely knead at all these days – as I’m getting older, I’ve been getting sore hands, so I had to adapt my breadmaking techniques to make them sustainable in the long run. I think I’ve ended up with better bread as a result! :)
Celia, I am a self-confess lazy bread maker, I had been using my bread machine a whole time to knead the (sour) dough, it does take a bit longer (30 mins) but it seems to work fine by looking at the crumbs. I am looking into a Thermomix at the moment that it can knead the dough in 1.5 mins and mix/cook/stir in the same bowl (I hope it can do the proofing in there too with the insulated bowl for cooking purpose). However the price tag is not that easy to make a purchase decision, I assume you are paying for a strong motor and a good quality appliance.