Kates SOFT SOURDOUGH SANDWICH BREAD

[alaskagirl]

I am 50 years old and I have never baked bread in my life. I am an RN who was attacked at work and now I stay home with a traumatic brain injury. I watched this post about 25 times then tried it out. It turned out so good my husband said I should make bread every day. I was depressed and seeing doctors everyday of the week so this was something I really wanted to try. Thank you for the way you teach. I have never been so proud of myself 😊

[skim]

A quick tip for making even slices-- Allow your loaves to cool completely on your cooling rack exactly like you did. Then, when cool, turn your loaf upside down. There will be perfect lines that are imprinted on the bottom of the loaf from the grid lines of your cooling rack. Those lines are perfect slicing guides.

[bizzybits]

FAQ’s:
1. The machine is a Bosch 800 watt Universal Plus Mixer. 13:43. Yes, you can use a Kitchenaid with a dough hook, but half the recipe.
2. For a sourdough starter recipe: You can make your own with flour and water. Lots of tutorials on line. It does take a week or two to get going. Use the youtube search tool or just google “sourdough starter recipe” You can also buy it online in a dried form.

3. She uses unbleached AP flour. Others have combined it with some bread flour, spelt flour, whole grain flour, and/or fresh milled flour. You’re on your own here.
4. The video says ferment overnight. To me that means less than 12 hours. This will vary depending on the strength of your starter and the temperature of your kitchen. Since she’s wearing a sweatshirt her kitchen must be pretty cool.😊 Somewhere in the comments Ruthann says after kneading, it takes 5 or 6 hours for her rise to double before she shapes it.
5. Do not use chlorinated water. Filtered water or bottled water is safest. Or well water, which she may have. Chlorine or chloramine in tap water will inhibit your starter.
6. Read through the comments, and you may find an answer to your question. With 197, 000 subscribers it must be hard to answer all questions, which may already be answered or explained in the video. As I write this, there are 1, 128 comments, mostly from those that had great results and loved the video. I read through most of them, hence this FAQ. Lots of other interesting tips and comments, too.
7. Click on “more…” at the end of the description for recipes, printable recipes, a link to the wax wraps, etc. This should be FAQ #1.😊
Oh, okaaay, here ya go-



Hope someone finds this useful.

[brucemattes]

I began baking bread as a 14 year old boy who subscribed to *Field and Stream magazine, * in addition to other hunting, fishing, and firearms related magazines.

That year, 1968, the editor, *Warren Page, * wrote an *Editor's Page* article on sourdough, in which were recipes for how to start a sourdough culture from scratch, as well as a recipe for sourdough sandwich bread, sourdough biscuits, and sourdough pancakes.

One day, I dug out my mother's unused 1-gallon ceramic crock from the basement, placed the all-purpose flour and water in it, covered the mouth of the crock with my mother's oldest and raggediest cotton tea towel, and tied a piece of baling twine around the circumference of the crock to hold the tea towel in place.

Several weeks later, after following the instructions in the magazine, I had an active, furiously bubbling sourdough culture. I've made several dozen sourdough cultures from scratch over a 40 year period of time. By using freeze-dried commercial and hobby cultures from various sources, as well as by just placing flour and water in a container to capture local yeast spores out of the air. *Like many authors writing on sourdough have commented, I firmly believe that it takes a minimum two weeks to establish a healthy, vibrant, furiously bubbling sourdough culture.*

For the vast majority of the naysayers out there, it is the waste *(in their eyes)* of the close to 8 pounds of flour that it takes from starting the culture on day one to that first usage of the sourdough culture on day fifteen that seems to offend so many people.

On a Saturday morning, I got up early before my parents, my brother, and my sister; went downstairs to the kitchen in our Baltimore City rowhouse, turned on the oven to low, placed a dinner plate and a clean tea towel on the top oven rack, made the sourdough pancake batter, and began frying up sourdough pancakes in my mother's *Sunbeam 12"×12"×2" tabletop electric skillet.*

After every 4 pancakes came out of the electric skillet, I placed them in the oven on the ceramic plate surrounded by the warm tea towel. By the time my mother came downstairs to begin making breakfast, I had about 24 atypically thin pancakes already cooked.

My siblings stayed silent with looks of skepticism and amusement on their faces *(they thought that I was going to be punished, and like most kids, they were going to enjoy another's pain that they didn't have to suffer)* while my mother and father were highly critical of the concept of sourdough at all and particularly of what they believed would be pancakes too sour to be edible.

Both parental units vehemently expressed their opinions that I had wasted precious family resources on this fool's errand called sourdough. Even though I had purchased the flour and eggs for the pancakes with my own money earned while delivering newspapers.

When the bacon, eggs, milk, margarine *(butter was BAD for you, remember?), * syrup, orange juice, and water were on the dining room table, I brought out stacks of pancakes from the oven, placed a generous portion on everyone's plate, while my mother, brother, and sister waited for my father to take that first bite.

My father had a notoriously bad temper. He took a bite, his eyes lit up, he declared that they were delicious, and the rest was family history. Everyone else dug in, and they, too, loved them.

*The next week, I baked my first loaf of sourdough white sandwich bread from that recipe in Field and Stream magazine.* Those pancakes gave me the courage to attempt the sandwich bread completely on my own because my mother couldn't/wouldn't bake bread or make pie dough from scratch. Her biscuits came out of a refrigerated Pillsbury can or a Bisquick box.

*And, thus began a long journey that ultimately culminatied with thousands of loaves of all types of bread baked across a lifetime before Irritable Bowel Syndrome forced me to stop eating bread.*

Most of the loaves of bread that I have made were done by hand. Even when baking four 9"×5" large loaf pans at one time. Or, two 4"×4"×13" Pullman pans of square sandwich bread at the same time.

Bread can be easily made in an old style Cuisinart food processor as long as one has an accurate digital thermometer to check the temperature of the dough to prevent it from becoming over worked and over heated.

Stand mixers with dough hooks are nice but not a necessity. Methods that I have used to make

*#1* ~ By hand on a countertop
*#2* ~ By hand in a large mixing bowl with a piano wire dough tool
*#3* ~ By hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon
*#4* ~ In a bread machine
*#5* ~ In a food processor
*#6* ~In a residential stand mixer with a dough hook
*#7* In a residential European style stand mixer with a side-mounted dough scraper
*#8* ~ In a 20qt, a 30qt, a 60qt, and an 80qt Hobart, direct-drive, geared tabletop or floor commercial mixer with a dough hook😮

[DawnaLovesYarn]

Something I might suggest when feeding your starter when you have only scrapings in the jar, add your water first then put the lid on and shake it. This will help get your sides clean. I always add the water first and stir anyway when feeding my starter, and when making my dough.

[vannotenc]

I hope your family realizes that you make super delicious food and what a wonderful loving and caring mom you are❤

[melodysfiresidefarm]

I’ve had a bad case of vertigo for a few days and need to stay seated as much as possible. Your pantry tour came across my feed and while watching it I instantly realized how soothing your voice is! It immediately calmed my spirit and relaxed me! Now I’m old enough to be your mom but hearing you was just like hearing my mom speak when I was not well as a child. I’m enjoying going through your videos. This bread you’re making is just like our great grandmas made as new settlers and before yeast became a common staple. Ma in little house on the prairie cookbook makes this as her “Long Winter Bread” in her wood cook stove. The crusty style became a thing during the gold rush when the men traveled with a Dutch oven and baked the sourdough on the open fire. Adding eggs and more butter turns it into a Brioche. If you put a bit less dough in your pans once you put them into the oven sit a baking sheet on top of the pans as they bake you will have very flat tops and they will be more like a store shaped bread. Blessings sweet lady!

[janicebowcott]

I’ve made this twice in a week, the second time it was perfected. Your instructions are fantastic. I fed my starter in the early afternoon and it was ready in 6 hours so it was ready for preferment in the evening. This made it less sour. I used the microwave to melt butter, honey, milk and SALT. I added a spot of vinegar to the milk and let it sit for 10 minutes to create my buttermilk. I had to mix in my cuisinart with dough hook for 17 minutes on speed 5 to finally get the window pane smoothness. It only needed one rise, Kate’s recipe calls for 2. The rise of dough in the bowl and pans took 3 hours each at room temperature (78 degrees F). 475 degree oven was too hot and slightly burnt the top of my loaves both times after 20 minutes so I placed foil over them for the last 25 minutes. Next time I will try 450. The result was OUTSTANDING. I have tried soooo many sourdough sandwich bread recipes and have never had such soft and fluffy bread. You are a star Mrs. Zimmerman. God bless you.

[connie-zmws]

I've made bread all my life. Learned as a little girl from my mother. I never realized how fortunate I am that I acquired this skill at a young age. My mother never washed her bread pans. Just wiped them out with a paper towel. Bread never stuck.
I also was taught to roll out pie crust as a little girl.

[kuphoff]

As always I learned something new! Someone taught me to rub a cold stick of butter over the top of the loaf while it is still in the pan right out of the oven. A little less messy.

[kimbrgv]

Oh how I just love you all. My husband has passed after 42 yrs but I have started baking like the old days. Your recipes are so yummy i just cant help myself. Big thanks from myself AND my neighbors who benefit with my cooking obsession..lol Thanks so much, you are a beautiful soul and awesome mom. Love💞 and Light🌟& 🙏

[Yoda]

You understand how bread dough works better than 99% of the people making bread videos, I commend you!

[deborahwilson]

I learned that leaving your bowl on a wood or cloth surface while rising helps with temp. The stone type counters stay a little colder. I usually place a cutting board under my bowl while it’s rising. ☺️

[jamanne]

Just found you on utube. Soo Refreshing to see & hear your lifestyle. I lived In Holmes County Ohio during the 80s, on a small grade B dairy farm with my husband & small son. We were English and most of our neighbors were Amish. So I learned their ways of food production. I’m now 77yrs living alone in a small apartment in Northern IDAHO. I very much miss my Holmes Cty. Farm Days. I’ll now be living vicariously thru your lifestyle 😊So thankful to find you all.

[funemom]

Dear friend and yes i do consider you a friend because of the honesty, candor and warmth with which you come across. We appreciate you and all your family for sharing your knowledge and lifestyle and your life. I personally have tremendously benefited from your videos please keep them coming!
Oh to the RN WHO'S TURNING INTO A BAKER, YOU GO GIRL!!😊

[RootsandCalluses]

This video finally taught me how to bake bread instead of how to follow a recipe. Thanks to you, I know bake completely by feel. We don't like soft bread (I guess, it's the German in me :D), so I had to adapt it after the first loaf. Your "this is how it should look and feel" style instructions really helped. I haven't failed a bread since trying this recipe. Seriously, thank you! I had struggled for so long with bread that was still better than store-bought but just not what I was hoping for. It was bad enough that I baked this Soft Sourdough mostly as a palette cleanser to get a completely fresh look at sourdough. Well, it worked. Thank you!

[warmwoolsoxgood]

What a lovely young woman. Her experience is so helpful. She and I said the exact same words at times as I watched this video key points, reasoning as to why, when, or how. I’m old now but she has every bit of knowledge that I’ve obtained over a lifetime of bread baking.
A fantastic video, thanks so much for sharing your gorgeous loaves and techniques. I’d thought oh no, 45 minutes?! But it went by in a blink as she enjoined my interest.
Subbed! And sharing.
And when I saw the kids moseying in I knew ohhh the smells have worked the magic! Hahaha 😀 The kids suddenly appear! “Oh hi, mom.. whatcha doing? Mmm” 😀👍❤️ every time. Brought back sweet memories for me.

[Dragonth]

The softness is a serious factor to consider as most people like it soft. I'm a French baker and the problem with French baguettes is, when it's freshly baked, it's amazing but one day after, it turns into a baseball bat :) So I find myself doing the Anglophile thing which is soft bread :) longer shelf life and stays soft. Very good video keep it up.

[darienhemmerlein]

Seeing a happy fed sourdough starter never fails to make me happy! 😂 Almost as happy as seeing my happy chickens running around their coop😊

[koryswenson]

I can not get enough of your No Nonsense way of life. You are Special!!