The sandwich bread I want to talk to you about today is a rustic bread with a crispy and thin crust, featuring an incredibly soft and well-aerated interior, baked in a simple loaf pan from which it gets its name. It’s an extremely easy recipe, accessible to everyone, that provides great satisfaction in yield, taste, and aroma of this wonderful leavened bread. We can use it to create delicious stuffed sandwiches, bruschettas; or enjoy it at breakfast with honey or jam. It can be made with either sourdough or fresh yeast, and I will illustrate both procedures below.
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Portions: 10/12 servings
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter, and Spring
Ingredients
- 150 Ready sourdough starter
- 200 g Manitoba flour
- 200 g Re-milled durum wheat semolina
- 200 ml Water
- 12 g Fine salt
- 3 g Fresh yeast
- 150 g Manitoba flour
- 70 ml Water
Preparation
Procedure with sourdough starter. The flours should always be sifted before kneading.
In the bowl of a mixer, place the refreshed and lively sourdough starter, Manitoba flour, semolina, fine salt, and water. Knead all the ingredients until they are perfectly blended and the flours are completely absorbed. The dough will be firm and compact, not mushy.
Let the dough rest, well covered, in the mixer bowl for 1 hour. In this way, the gluten mesh will relax, and we can fold the dough without problems.
Gently drop the dough ball onto a lightly floured table, roll it towards yourself until you have a sort of cylinder; position the cylinder vertically to you and fold it again (towards yourself) to form a loaf again.
Now take the two ends of the loaf and bring them down (i.e., under the loaf).
Finally, place it in the mold, cover it, and let it rise until it reaches the edge of the mold.
These steps are important because they will give structure and strength to our bread and will allow us to have a well-aerated and soft crumb.
When the bread has risen, turn on the oven, set it to the maximum temperature, and let it heat up well.
Bake it in the preheated oven at mid-height. After 20 minutes, lower it to 356 °F and let the bread bake for another 10/15 minutes. When it’s ready, golden and crispy, turn it off and remove it from the oven. Let it cool before slicing it…if you can resist the temptation because the smell in the house will be irresistible.
Procedure with fresh yeast. Basically, it is the same as the previous one, with a different type of yeast and faster rising times with this last type.
a) Prepare a starter by dissolving fresh yeast in water. Add the sifted Manitoba flour, mix, cover, and let rise until doubled.
b) Transfer the doubled starter into a bowl to knead it with the other ingredients (the doses and quantities of the ingredients for the actual sandwich bread dough are the same as those provided in the “Dough” section, except that instead of sourdough, we will use the starter) and proceed from there as described for the procedure with sourdough, including folding and baking.
