Breads (Sourdough) - Soft Loaves
Wholemeal Soft Bread (Hybrid Sourdough Discard)
December 02, 2021
| Recipe by Bake with Paws
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I always try to make use of my sourdough discard to make bread. Sometimes the discard may have been sitting in the freezer for too long. I tried to clear them to make bread too other than crackers. I tried using a hybrid method by added tiny bit of instant yeast in the recipe. The result is a bread that isn't sour at all. To be honest, I don't think the natural yeast did much with this bread. I believe instant yeast is doing most of the work.
I incorporated Yudane Method to this bread. The bread texture is very soft, more moist, fluffy and slightly chewy. It stays fresh longer than the bread that not using yudane method.
If you have any questions regarding this recipe or any other post, please leave me a comment in the “LEAVE A COMMENT” link and I will reply you as soon as possible. Do tag me on Instagram @Bakewithpaws if you attempt on this recipe.
How To Make Wholemeal Soft Bread
Yields: 1 loaf
Ingredients:
Yudane:
65g bread flour (I used Japan high gluten flour, 12% protein)
65g boiling water
Main Dough:
105g bread flour (I used Japan high gluten flour, 12% protein)
70g wholemeal flour
180g sourdough discard *
1.5g (about 1/2 tsp) instant yeast
15g caster or brown sugar
1 tsp salt
50g full cream milk (whole milk), reserve 10g first, add in later if too dry. I used all 50g
40g egg, whisked (from 1 medium size egg)
30g butter, room temperature
Egg Wash (Optional for without cover bread):
Balance of whisked egg from the above + 1 tsp water, whisked
Utensil:
450g Loaf pan with lid (20 X 10 X 10 cm) or (8" X 4" X 4")
* I store my sourdough discard in the freezer to prevent it from turning runny and lose its gluten. I transfer it from freezer to refrigerator one night before baking. This way the discard will not be runny and will still have a lot of gluten strength when I use it.
METHOD:
- Yudane Dough:
- Add bread flour in a bowl, pour the boiling water and mix well with spatula or spoon until no dry flour.
- Cover and rest for at least 4 hours or overnight in the fridge. I prepared the night before.
- Take out from the fridge 30 minutes before using to return to room temperature.
- Kneading:
- Put all ingredients (except butter) into a bowl of stand mixer.
- Slightly combine the mixture by hand with the paddle attachment before turning on the machine so that the flour will not splash out. Using the paddle attachment, mix for 2 minutes or until all incorporated. Scrap down the dough if it sticks to the sides of the bowl.
- Change to hook attachment and knead for another 3 minutes or until the dough comes together. Add in butter and continue knead for 10 - 12 minutes or until reach window pane stage. During the whole kneading process, I stopped few times to scrape down the dough from the hook to be sure it is evenly kneaded and also to prevent the motor from overheating.
- 1st Proofing:
- Let the dough rise in a warm place (room temperature @ 28C -29C) for about 60 minutes until double in size. I usually left the dough in the same mixing bowl and cover with cling film.
- Shaping:
- Punch down the dough to release the air. Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface. You can divide the dough into 3 equal portions if you like.
- Flatten with rolling pin into a big dish.
- Fold right to centre and fold left to meet in the centre. Roll out with rolling pin into long rectangle shape. Roll up the dough like Swiss Roll until a small log is formed.
- Place all dough in a lined loaf pan.
- Final Proofing:
- Let it rise at warm place (room temperature around 28C - 29C) for another 45 - 60 minutes or until it reaches about 1 cm - 1.5 cm below the rim of the pan.
- Put on the lid if you prefer a square loaf.
- Baking:
- Preheat oven at 180C - 200C (top & bottom heat) for 15 minutes.
- Without Cover - Brush with egg wash (optional) and bake in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until golden brown. You may cover the bread with aluminium foil for the last 10 minutes if the top browning too quickly.
- With Cover/Square Loaf - Bake in a preheated oven for about 30 - 35 minutes.
- Remove bread from oven and let them cool on rack completely before slicing.
GENERAL NOTES:
SOURDOUGH STARTER
Please click this link for "How To Make Sourdough Starter" and "Sourdough Maintenance"
A healthy starter is very crucial as advised by Baking with Gina. It is advisable to feed your starter regularly if you want your bread to rise nicely and to use the starter (levain) at its peak. A starter that is fed regularly will be more active in general. If the mother starter is not strong, the bread dough will not rise a lot even though the starter is used at its peak.
GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT & WINDOWPANE TEST
Gluten forms when flour comes in contact with water. Hydration of the flour causes the sticky and stretchy protein to form, giving structure to the bread. This makes your bread trap air and rise.
Gluten in dough can be developed by autolyse, resting, kneading or folding.
The windowpane test is used to determine whether the dough has been sufficiently kneaded. By gently pulling the dough (or you may pinch off some dough) and trying to stretch it into a thin membrane. If you are able to stretch the dough paper thin and translucent without tearing, then the gluten is fully developed. However, if you can stretch it without tearing but the membrane is not transparent, then the gluten is not yet fully developed.
However, from my experience not all the recipe can achieve a thin and translucent window pane stage easily. For example low hydration and low fat dough. For such recipes, a reasonable window pane is good enough and it can be left to rest. Gluten will continue to develop while resting. Exercising restraint to not over-knead the dough prevents the gluten from being overworked and broken. Some of you may have experienced the dough breaking during the second proofing. It is because the dough is over kneaded.
The total kneading time for me is usually 15 minutes at low speeds except brioche dough with high fat percentage or dough using liquid fat which usually takes a little longer (maybe 18-20 mins).
From my experience, I found that high hydration dough with high percentage of fat will be easy to stretch and achieve a paper thin windowpane stage.
KNEADING TIME
For kneading, please regard the timing provided as an indication only. It is only meant as a guide. Timing may differ depending on the brand of flour and electric mixer used. The protein content may vary from one brand of flour to another.
FLOUR
The right flour plays a very important role in bread making. To achieve fluffy, soft and light bread, I used Japan High Gluten Flour in most of my bread baking. The protein content is around 12 - 13%.
HYDRATION
The liquid measurement given is also a guide. It is advisable to always reserve some liquid and not add it all in one go. This would give you the opportunity to adjust if necessary. If dough is too dry, add the reserve liquid one tablespoon at a time until the right consistency. This is because each flour absorbs water and hydrates differently.
PROOFING
Please note that the proofing timing may also vary depending on your climate, environment, flour and your starter.
If you are unable to judge by just looking at the dough, you can do the finger poke test:
Proofing:
- Lightly press the side of the proved dough with your finger. If it bounces back immediately without any indentation, it means the dough is under proved and needs more time before baking.
- If the indentation stays and it doesn’t bounce back, it means it has been over proved.
- If the indentation slowly bounces back and leave a small indentation, it is ready to bake.
- There will be a final burst of rising once the bread is placed to bake in the oven and it is called oven spring.
If your bread collapses or gets wrinkled on top after removing from oven, it could be because your dough over proved during the second proofing. Please proof until the tip of the dough just reaches the rim of the pan, around 80% - 90% in size.
BAKING TEMPERATURE AND TIME
Do also note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.
Can I ask, if I'm using a square loaf tin, can I just half the quantity or will it affect the overall bread? And what if I don't have enough discard eg. Only 100g, what should I adjust in the recipe? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for reading this post. May I know what is the size of your square loaf tin? If your square loaf tin is 250g then you can half the recipe. Actually this recipe is to get rid of the discard that we have in the fridge. However, you still can bake this bread if you don't have enough discard. You can add 40g of bread flour and 40g of liquid more for the above recipe. Maybe you can also use 2g of instant yeast instead. I have not tried with 100g discard. I am just giving you the guideline and hope it will work.
DeleteIf you are half the recipe then you need only 90g of discard.
Cheers
Cheers :)
Thanks for the advice! Managed to half the recipe to fit my tin. But it was all gone in one morning! Might need to do the full recipe next time. Lol
DeleteHi, My pleasure..Glad that the recipe work for you. Yes, actually half of the recipe is too little, lol..
DeleteCheers :)
Hihi, I have been trying to use discard to make loaf bread. However, it is always at the second proof that the structure of my bread starts to break down and bread start to deflate. I usually quickly put it into the oven to bake, and there is no oven spring at all.
ReplyDeleteI do not think my second proof is too long because the bread didn't rose to even 3/4 of the tin. I kneaded the dough to window pane as well.
Do you think you can help me out here?
Hi Evelyn, Did you use this recipe? How old is your sourdough discard?
DeleteUsually the dough break during second proofing is because the dough has been over kneaded and the gluten broken. It could be also the starter already too long and lost it gluten.
Cheers :)
I made this last weekend. Normally I would shy away from using stiff starter because of the pre-preparation work. But the bread turned out so soft and fluffy, all the work is well worth it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a wonderful recipe.
Hi, thank you for trying and your kind feedback. May I know which recipe that you try? This recipe does not use stiff starter? lol
DeleteCheers :)
This looks awesome! I was wondering have you ever thought about trying a 100% whole wheat sourdough version of this bread? What would be really awesome is a 100% whole wheat, sourdough potato bread! Even being whole wheat, I am sure it would taste so good with the addition of potato, and the health benefits of whole wheat, sourdough and potato would be awesome too!
ReplyDeleteHi, thank you for your comment. I have not tried 100% wholewheat flour because the bread will not turn out fluffy and very soft. However, it will be very healthy. By the way, I used wholemeal instead of wholewheat flour in this recipe.
DeleteYa, maybe I should try your suggestion one day :)
Cheers and happy baking :)
Hihi, I have a few questions on this hybrid method. I tried 3x but everytime the bread will tear when profing and baking. I don't think i overknead it. My bread with usual yeast method turns out fine. Can you advise pls? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Yin, Thank you for trying this recipe. It could be the sourdough discard. How is your discard looks like? If it is runny and no gluten strength then it could be the reason.
DeleteI stored my discard in the freezer and my discard is quite thick and a lot of gluten strength. If the discard is kept in the refrigerator for weeks or months it could turn to runny and lost the gluten strength.
I hope this is the reason.
Cheers :)
Thank you for your reply..my discard is usually about a wee or more old. It did seem to be quite runny. Maybe tbat is why. I will store them in the freezer and try. THank yiu!
DeleteBtw, if you store the discard in the freezer, when you want to use it, di you bring it to the fridge to defrost?
DeleteYou are most welcome...
DeleteI transfer it from freezer to refrigerator one night before baking. Sometimes I left it outside on the counter for 1 - 2 hours when I forgot.
Cheers :)
Thank you!
Delete