White Bread

After an overnight rise of around sixteen hours at room temperature, knocking back and then shaping and baking, the White Bread (p135) came out like this:

 I'm quite happy with this, since I've never gotten an overnight rise to work before. (They always ended up over fermented). Even though the crumb is quite dense, the texture is surprisingly delicate. I assume that's due to the long rising period.  I think this will prove a useful recipe in future - it's very low maintenance yet gives a good result.

(However I still need practice at shaping, slashing and guessing when it's proved. The crumb looks a little underproved, however I was impatient to bake it!  I think underproving is also the reason for the air-bubble under the crust, visible on the "sliced-up" photo.)

Overnight Rising White Bread (adapted from Larousse Gastronomique p135)

400ml room temperature water (I actually needed a tiny bit more than this, but it may have just been the brand of flour which I used).
1 1/2 teaspoons dried active yeast 
1 teaspoon white or unrefined sugar
675g Strong white flour
15g unsalted butter
2 teaspoons salt
 
Dissolve the sugar in the water. Sprinkle  in the yeast and allow it to dissolve over ten minutes.  (The yeast will not "froth" in ten minutes since the water is not warm, however the time allows for the yeast to hydrate properly). 


Place flour and salt in a large mixing bowl,  rub in the butter. Now pour in the liquid yeast mixture, combine and knead until smooth. (The standard ten minutes of kneading).  


Allow to rest at room temperature for 12-16 hours. By this time it will have doubled in size.  (It may have even sunk a little, like mine did, however the dough still proved to be perfectly usable. )


Knock back the dough, and shape. Allow to rise again (I left mine about an hour, but it was still a little underproved).  Preheat your oven to 210 degrees C and apply slashes to your dough, to allow for even rising.  Apply any glaze which you require.


Bake for approximately 40 minutes. (For one large loaf). Additional tray of water in the oven is optional; I used a very small tray of water, for fear of breaking the uni oven.


Note: These timings are for an English kitchen at room temperature in the autumn. If your kitchen is likely to be significantly warmer, decrease the amount of yeast in the recipe -up to half a teaspoon less, and/or use fridge temperature water. Or you could just let the dough have it's first rise in the fridge overnight, but I was trying to avoid this due to minimal fridge space. 


If your kitchen is likely to be colder than mine, warm up the water as necessary. You could also add a little more yeast - up to half a teaspoon more.