I’m all about my new bread baking book these days. This time I tried the crusty white sandwich loaf.


Looks pretty yummy, eh? It was! But I’m still not sure about the amounts for things. This is a great example. I made this batch of dough up probably a week before I made this bread. First thing I made was another boule, which takes 1 pound of dough. The recipe makes 4 pounds of dough, so I should have had about 3 pounds of dough left after making the boule. This sandwich loaf called for 1 1/2 pounds of dough. Easy enough — half of what’s left, right? I scoop up half and put it in the pan. Now, admittedly I had a 10″ loaf pan instead of a 9″ loaf pan, but that can’t completely account for the fact that it said the pan should be “slightly more than half full” but my pan was MAYBE 1/5 full, if that. And you can tell it from the finished height of this loaf:

So, it still tasted good, and I tend to eat sandwiches with one slice of bread cut in half, so these are about the size slice of bread I would want anyhow. But it’s not how it was supposed to look. I’m not sure what gives? If anyone has any ideas, I’d love to hear them. Could it have something to do with the first rise?? I have not had a big enough covered container for this (it’s on the way though!) so when it rises it practically busts off the cover. Also, the dough seems to be doubling (as far as I can tell) MUCH faster than the book states, though since it’s been hard to tell in my container I’ve been leaving it to rise for the length of time they recommend. Maybe that’s been way too long? Hmm…..well, it tastes good, and that’s what matters at this point!