For the Love of Food : Sour Cream Sandwich Bread

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Sour Cream Sandwich Bread

There was a time when making a sandwich at home required buying bread and other ingredients , assembling them and eating it, given the bread would be bought from bakeries but once you have made your own bread successfully there is no looking back. Like my friend Karen says, its therapeutic and I say its an addiction and well you get the best flavours and taste.

So when I decided to make a sandwich I had to pre-plan it from at least 4 days before. First and foremost there was the search for the perfect recipe though but wait the sandwich is yet to be made because first comes the bread. Well to be honest when it comes to bread I don't have to read too many articles and recipes to know where to find the perfect recipe. You see the first time I ever baked bread it came out top notch and perfect and I had nothing to do with it, it was all because of my Bread God Dan Lepard's recipe. His recipes are perfect , so whenever I bake my bread I just follow his recipe and add a little of what I call 'Manjari proof' thing in the end.

So Mr. lepard says this is the 'proper British sandwich bread' and I say it comes out marvellous. It calls for sour cream and so lets begin with the sour cream . You can easily buy your own but believe me making sour cream substitute at home is easier than any other dish. And there is no need to try and make this healthy with wholewheat flour because if you really want healthy bread make a wholewheat bread . I have one in my Cakes and Bakes :)

For the sour cream :-

200ml cream
2 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

Just mix the cream with the vinegar and keep it in the hottest part of your home and let it ferment for 24 hours to 48 hours and you shall have thick sour cream substitute. Then chill this for a day and you are sandwich ready. I took advantage of the horrible summers in India and my sour cream was ready after overnight fermentation which I chilled for the entire day before using. After using the amount of sour cream required for the bread you shall still have some sour cream. Use it for salads, soups etc. The amount left is too little for cakes.

Recipe Source : Dan Lepard's Sour Cream Sandwich bread

What you need for a good loaf which yields enough slices for 6 sandwiches is :-

125ml chilled sour cream
550gm all purpose flour
150ml cold water
100ml boiling water
2 tsp dry active yeast
2 tsp castor sugar
2 tsp salt
25gm butter (all of which you shall not require)
Milk for brushing

Start by boiling the water. Take a big bowl and add your sour cream, cold water and then add the hot water , salt sugar and yeast. See the recipe did not call for proofing of the yeast and I haven't done it but I am guessing this first step proofs the yeast. After 5 minutes stir well and add the flour and use your clean hands to make the dough and cover and leave for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes butter your hands and knead the dough for 1 minute and leave for 10 minutes covered with the cloth. Repeat its process twice. Now knead it well and tightly roll it like a scroll and butter your baking pan and leave the dough inside the pan covered with cloth and let it rise for the next 1 hour to 1.5 hours till it has doubled in size. Brush with milk. This brushing of milk is what I call the 'Manjari proofing' because if you don't there is a chance that the top becomes too dark. This gives a nice brown crust on top and a shine.

Preheat oven to 200 C and bake for 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I personally required 39 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for 2 minutes and then take it out and let it cool on the rack for at least 2 hours to 3 hours and when it has become completely cool only then should you slice it. If you try slicing ti earlier your bread will crumble.