Bread Challenge: White Loaves

For my next challenge bread, I made the White Loaves from Baking with Julia.  The Tuesdays with Dorie group made these a few weeks ago and all the loaves I saw looked wonderful.  It seemed like a good recipe to try.

My mom and sister also made the same bread the same week I did.  Our results were mixed.

I made a few changes to the recipe.  Some of my changes were to adjust for altitude and some of them were for added nutrition and taste.  Here are my changes:

1. I substituted white whole wheat flour for half the bread flour.
2. I used 8 teaspoons of KAF Whole Grain Bread Improver.
3. I let the dough sit for about 30 minutes after the initial mix but before kneading to allow the whole wheat flour to absorb more liquid.
4. I added an extra 2 tablespoons water to account for my dry climate and higher altitude.
5. After the first rise I punched down the dough and let it rise a second time before shaping and doing the final rise.

Results:

This is the best loaf bread I have made so far!  The texture was good – nice and “springy” to the touch, for lack of a better word.  The bread was great toasted and it also made a nice turkey sandwich.  I really  liked the flavor added by the white whole wheat flour.  My bread did not rise as high as many of the TWD loaves I saw, perhaps because of the whole wheat flour I used.

Yummy Turkey Sandwich

My mom liked her bread but didn’t love it.  It was a little chewy and yeasty.  But she was very pleased with her results since she hadn’t made a loaf of bread in years.

Mom's bread. The bread on the left was baked in a taller glass pan and the one on the right was in a wider metal pan.

My sister thought her bread was fine untoasted, but great toasted.  She didn’t care for the crust – it wasn’t what she thought it should be.  She and I both worried about our mixers; they got really hot while mixing!  The dough for two loaves was a little too much for our mixers to handle, and we both stopped the kneading process before we should have because we didn’t want to hurt our mixers.

My sister's bread. She only has one bread pan, so she made the second loaf a boule.

All-in-all, I consider our loaves to be a success!  Did you make any bread in the last week?  If so, put a link in the comments and I will check it out!