Four Nights A Week

When COVID isolated us, and inflation made the price of bread somewhat ridiculous, I started baking bread on a weekly basis again. Baking bread was something I enjoyed when our family was much younger; there was and still is definitely some deep satisfaction in putting together rather simple ingredients and turning out warm loaves of bread!

I’ve not been a fan of sour dough baking until recently, and I still do not like the taste of overly sour breads. So when I discovered this sandwich bread recipe which relies on just 3 TBSP of sour dough starter, I felt this would be a sourdough loaf even I would enjoy.

The key to this bread’s success, of course, is to allow the levain to rise at least 12 hours. Starting that levain the night before makes that a reasonable task. Additionally, another lesson I’ve learned from Milk Street Kitchen and Flour Bakery is that in order to be consistent, use volume measurements, not English weights.

This sourdough recipe comes from King Arthur Baking and can be found here.

I have to admit that I’ve been a lot more discerning when it comes to flours since bread-baking has been part of my regular routine. Good bread flours are definitely worth seeking out as they are reasonably priced. Custom milled flours would, of course, be more expensive – as they should be.

I’ve listed ingredients so you can be ready for baking. just don’t forget to start the levain 12 hours ahead – the rest is easy.

Sourdough Sandwich Bread from King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

Levain

• King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• water, cool (60° to 70°F)
• ripe (fed) sourdough starter

Dough

• King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• King Arthur Baker’s Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk (I have KAB’s dry on hand, but nonfat dry milk certainly works)
• granulated sugar
• salt
• instant yeast
• unsalted butter, room temperature
• water, warm (70° to 80°F)
• all of the ripe levain (prepared at least 12 hours prior)