Golden Sandwich Bread

As mentioned in this recipe, this bread is indeed a good bread for toast, sandwiches, and French toast. It is even delicious on its own and un-toasted. As said, this bread is indeed golden in colour and its smell alone can makes us salivate when it was baking in the oven. It is brioche-tasting and yet soft, spongy and less guilty to indulge.

This bread recipe is from the book, Bread by Nick Malgieri. I must thank my two baking buddies, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings for suggesting this recipe to me because my family and I really enjoy eating it. Lucky that I can predict that this is going to be a good recipe and baked two loaves according to the exact quantity mentioned in the recipe. We ate one loaf when it was freshly baked and froze the other one for later use. The frozen ones were eventually thawed and consumed as toast. They were very light and crispy when toasted. Yum!

Before proceeding onto the recipe, here are a few tips to share about baking this bread:
This recipe yields a sticky dough and so it is best to mix and knead using an electric mixer or a bread-maker.

• Try to resist using too much flour while shaping the dough into loaf as the increase of flour content might toughen the texture of the finishing breads.
• Use a 21 cm x 11 cm baking tin to bake your loaf. I baked one of mine in a slightly smaller tin and it looks like a balloon baking in such a small tin.
• This recipe uses three fermentation steps but I did mine in just two and it still works... 

Cottony soft golden sandwich bread

Making my bread using bread-maker

The breads rose very nicely after their final proving and baking.

Mum, are we baking a balloon? - To avoid this comment, use the right baking tin. LOL!

Buttery soft bread... Yum!

Update on 21 Sep 2016: Hi! Hi! Here I have incorporated the tips that I have mentioned earlier at Jan 2013 (see the above text). To do so, I had re-calculated the amount of ingredients required to bake two standard 8-inch 20 x 10 cm loaves and re-wrote this recipe. And yielded two perfect loaves!!! YAY!!!! HAPPY!!!

The perfect golden sandwich bread that I have baked again.

If you interested to bake these highly recommended very cottony soft golden and tall sandwich bread, you want to watch my one-minute video to see how I baked these breads.

And here's the re-calculated recipe that can bake two perfect standard 8-inch 20 x 10 cm loaves.

370ml (1 1/2 cup) water, at room-temperature about 24°C / 75°F
135g eggs from 2 1/2 large eggs, at room temperature, roughly beaten - It is important to use the exact weight and I have used 3 yolks and 2 1/2 egg whites.
720g bread flour with 12% protein
25g caster sugar
10g salt
25g milk powder
50g butter, softened at room temperature
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast

cooking oil spray to grease

Place all ingredients into the pan fitted in a breadmaker according to the order of the above list. Use the dough setting to knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic and allow the dough to prove for 1 hr.

If breadmaker is not available, kneading by hand or an electric mixer with a hook attachment is possible but please be aware that the dough is sticky but not too difficult to handle because it is very elastic. Combine flour, sugar, salt, milk powder and yeast in a large mixing bowl or the mixing bowl of your electric mixer. Make a well in the flour mixture, add water and eggs to form a dough. Using your hands or the electric mixer with low speed, start kneading the dough. While kneading, add butter and keep kneading until it forms an elastic and smooth dough (at least 20 mins) Although the dough is sticky, do not add any extra flour into the dough. Just keep kneading and you will see that the dough become very elastic and easier to handle. Allow the dough to prove for 1 hr or until doubled in size.

Grease the loaf pans with cooking oil spray.

IMPORTANT tip for shaping: Do not any extra flour to shape and handle the bread dough as the increase of flour content will toughen the texture of the finishing breads.

To shape into 2 loaves, divide dough into 6 equal portions and shape each into balls. Allow them to rest at room temperature for about 10 mins.

Using a rolling pin, roll each portion into long and flat oval shape (about 20 cm) and roll it again into a Swiss roll shape. Repeat this step with the remaining portions of dough.

Place 3 shaped dough with their seams side down into the each prepared pan. Press the top of the dough lightly to form an even surface.

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow it to prove for another 1 hr or until both dough are risen to the rim of the pans.

Preheat oven at 200°C /400°F.

Place the loaves into the oven and lower the temperature to 190°C / 375°F bake for 25 mins or until well risen and deep golden, If the top of the bread is turning brown too quickly, cover the breads very loosely with foil at the last 10 mins of bake and continue to bake for at least 25 mins in total. When the bread is cooked thoroughly, unmould them immediately. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice and serve.

Keep any uneaten bread in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or wrap with freezer bags in portions and freeze for up to 2 months.

This is the recipe from the book, Bread by Nick Malgieri (with my modification and notes in blue)

Makes two 9-inch loaves

800g bread flour
30g sugar
170g room-temperature tap water, about 75°F
3 tsp active dry or instant yeast
1 cup or 225g whole milk, scalded and cooled
(replaced with 30g milk powder and 250ml water)
3 large eggs at room temperature
60g butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened
18g fine sea salt (reduced to 10g)

Two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans, buttered and the bottoms lined with parchment paper
(I have one 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan and one 11 cm x 21 cm loaf pan, both buttered but didn't line them with any baking paper)

1. Combine the flour and sugar in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Pour the water into the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk in the yeast. Wait 5 mins, then whisk again. Whisk in the cooled milk and eggs.

3. Use a large rubber spatula to stir the flour mixture into the liquid a little at a time, stirring to combine between additions.

4. Place the bowl on the mixer with the dough hook and scatter pieces of butter on the surface of the dough; mix on the lowest speed for 1 min. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 15 min.

5. Increase the speed to medium, sprinkle in the salt, and beat the dough until it is smooth and elastic, for 2- 3 mins longer. Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and turn it over so that the top is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment until almost doubled in bulk, about 45 mins.

Note: For step 1-5, I've used a bread-maker instead of the electric mixer. I've placed all my ingredients into my bread-maker and use "dough" setting to knead and prove the dough for 1 hr. 

6. Invert the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Flatten the dough to a disk. Fold the two sides in to overlap at the middle, then roll the top toward you all the way to the end, jelly-roll style. Invert, flatten, and repeat. Return the dough to the bowl (oil the bowl again if necessary), cover, and let ferment until fully doubled, 30-45 mins. Note: I've skipped step 6.

7. Invert the dough to a floured work surface and shape it into a rough square. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into 2 equal rectangles, each about 715g. Pull the narrow ends of 1 rectangle of dough outward to widen. From one of the wide ends fold the sides in about 1 inch or so, then roll down from the top as for turning the dough. Drop the roll into one of the pans, seam side down. Repeat with the second loaf and pan.

8. Cover with oiled or sprayed plastic wrap and let the loaves proof until they have risen about 1/2 inch above the rim of the pan. Once they're close to the top of the pan, set a rack a notch below the middle level and preheat the oven to 400°F (or 180°C fan forced). Note: My second proving took about 1 hr.

9. Place the loaves in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 375°F. Bake until well risen and deep golden, with an internal temperature of at least 200°F, 30 to 40 mins. Note: My loaves were baked at 180°C fan forced for 30 min.

10. Unmold the loaves and cool on a rack on their sides. Wrap and keep at room temperature, or double wrap and freeze.

Happy Baking

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