07/04/07

I wanted to do something about getting my daughter to eat my bread. Homemade bread is probably the most healthy, especially lean bread like the ones that I have been making. Unfortunately for me, my daughter prefer bread with a more tender crumb. Some commercial bakeries add shortening to get a tender crumb. Usually butter is not used as it is both expensive and tend to color the crumb a tinge of yellow. Apparently, when the consumer buys a white loaf, he expects it to be white.

This week, I decided to make bread with a more tender crumb. I baked it using my unreliable old counter-top oven as I did not feel like making more loaves. I chose the recipe for a split tin loaf from Bread Encyclopedia of the World by Jennie Shapter. The recipe has a 72% hydration. The ratio of water to milk was 5:1. I chose the recipe as it does not call for butter.

The results were satisfactory. The loaf had an open crumb that was tender to the bite. The oven spring was tremendous using a cold oven bake. The only thing that scored low marks was that the bottom was not sufficiently browned and was a little dense. This can be attributed to insufficient bottom heat.

Verdict: The customer agreed to eat a slice. That was good enough for me.

Oven spring was tremendous.

The crumb was tender enough. The bottom was a little dense and pale.