Today I would love to introduce you to an amazingly versatile bread for beginners. No-knead, no-work bread mixed in (almost) no time that I used to bake a lot when I was starting with bread baking in general . Making your own bread can be scary or at least intimidating and for those who never attempt to bake one I definitely recommend starting easy, step-by-step, preferably with yeasts (fresh or dry) rather than a sourdough starter

• 

• 

When I discovered and started to bake this bread years ago, the best thing besides the taste was that it helped me to gain some confidence and a “proud feeling” anytime the bread turned out nice. A few successful bread-attempts and some confidence are really important (or at least were for me) when starting with the bread baking. The original source of the recipe is one of my favorite all-about-bread baking blog Maskrtnica (all recipes are in the Czech language, sorry my English-speaking friends). The blog is the original source of the recipe and I recommend browsing more of Juliana’s amazing bread & pastry creations

• 

• 

The texture & crumb of the bread is very moist and airy due to sour cream. A slightly tangy aftertaste resembles the sourdough-like flavor. The bread is very soft but it can still handle a generous amount of topping, even my favorite comfort combo – cream cheese, hard-boiled egg, gherkins and mustard

A few notes to ingredients & more:

• instead of using sugar & honey, you can opt for one sweetener only (only honey or only sugar) – remember to still use a total of 45g of sweetener
• if you’d planning on having your sandwich bread for breakfast, mix the dough a morning before you want to serve it (f.e: if you’d like to eat your sandwich on Saturday morning, mix the dough on Friday morning/ noon)
• all ingredients – especially liquids, sour cream & egg should be at room temperature
• you can experiment with combinations of flours but generally, sandwich bread should be fluffy and airy in the crumb. Therefore if you still want to use for example a whole-wheat flour, use only a part of it (no more than 1/3 of total amount)
• the bread proves for a long time (around 9-12 hours) therefore only a tiny bit of yeast is added (yeasts have enough time to prove & rise the dough). Resist from adding more yeasts than suggested otherwise you’ll end up with a not-as-pleasant yeasty aftertaste

---

INGREDIENTS

(makes 1 Loaf-pan size Sandwich Bread)

560g Flour, AP

1/3 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeasts

30g Sugar, white

15g Honey

290g Sour Cream

150g Milk

110g Water

1 Egg, whole, smaller

10g Salt

---

METHOD

1. In a bigger mixing bowl combine together all liquid ingredients (290g Sour Cream, 150g Milk, 110g Water & 15g Honey). Add 1/3 Teaspoon of Active Dry Yeasts and mix vigorously. Stir in one whole Egg and mix until well incorporated

2. Now sift in all 560g of Flour at once, add 10g Salt and 30g Sugar and mix well until all lumps are broken and the dough is smooth & uniform. Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it prove at room temperature (preferably in a colder room at 68-69° Fahrenheit/ 20° Celsius) for 9-12 hours. Yes – that long

3. After the first proving, take your dough out from the bowl on a flour-dusted surface and hand-knead it for a minute to “break” all bubbles in the dough. The dough will be still very sticky & runny, pretty hard to shape it but that’s how the texture of the dough should be. If you’re unable to shape a kind of roll that fits into your loaf pan, add more flour – but! Resist from adding too much flour otherwise the bread won’t be as airy and soft. Transfer your dough into a well butter-greased loaf pan and let the bread prove for a second time in a pan for some 1.5-2 hours until the dough rises almost to the top of the loaf pan or increases at least 1/3 of its’ previous volume (at this stage I like to prove my bread in a turned-off oven)

4. Preheat your oven to 480° Fahrenheit/250° Celsius and place a small baking pan with warm water into the oven as it preheats. This will cause the oven to humidify and the bread will pop up higher as it bakes. Bake the bread (with a pan with water in the oven) for 10 minutes at 480° Fahrenheit/250° Celsius, then decrease the temperature to 450° Fahrenheit/ 230° Celsius and bake for another 10 minutes and then finally decrease to 390° Fahrenheit/ 200° Celsius and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the bread is baked through (the surface & sides should be brown and top of the bread hard to touch making a “dull sound” when tapping on it

5. Once baked, carefully take the bread out from the baking pan and let it cool down completely before slicing it. I know, all that jazz about the warm bread out of the oven but trust me, you were waiting for this long and if you’d cut your hot/ warm bread while still hot, you’d completely distroy the inner structure of the bread and end up with soggy bread. You don’t want to do it – trust me. Been there done that 😀

6. Once the bread is completely cooled down you can finally slice it and enjoy your sandwich bread with a favorite topping on it. Yummy. Btw the bread is sooo yummy toasted and if not eaten all at once 🙂 keep it in a clean towel and in a ziplock bag or something similar to protect your bread from drying out

Dobrú chuť,
Lenka