Inspired by the queen Nigella Lawson, this sandwich loaf is the most perfect and speedy bread that can be ready in a morning with very little faff.
I have altered the recipe from Nigella (her recipe is here) who altered an original recipe from Dan Lepard (here) so I guess this is just the natural order of bread evolution. My version has a bit of rye flour for flavour and texture, less salt, no sugar and both butter and sour cream rather than one or the other.
The double dairy, I have to admit, was an accidental discovery when I didn’t read the recipe correctly, however, it works great especially once the salt and sugar are toned down.
My favourite way to eat it is as a toastie – cut into two thick slices, with cheddar in the middle and fried in butter on a low heat on a frying pan. Honestly delicious, even just writing about it makes me want to get up and make one. However, it is also fabulous toast and cuts the best slices.
In our house, we have about two a week along with a couple of sourdoughs. But as I am sure you are well aware, sourdough takes a while to get a bread whereas this one can be thrown together quickly when we have a bread emergency.
Ingrediants
400g strong white bread flour
100g rye flour
7g (one sachet) yeast
1 tsp salt
125 millilitres sour cream
150 millilitres cold water
100 millilitres hot water from a just-boiled kettle
45g soft salted butter
Method
Put your flours into a large bowl and then add the yeast on one side and the salt on the other.
Then put your sour cream, cold water, hot water and butter into a jug (in that order) and stir. The butter should melt a little and soften slightly more but it won’t go completely.
Pour your wet ingrediants into the dry and combine with a spatula and then get your hands dirty.
Once formed into a ball cover and leave for 10 minutes.
Pour a little oil onto your worksurface and spread. Knead the dough for 10 seconds on the surface, roll the dough back into a bowl and put back in the bowl for 10 minutes. Repeat twice more.
After the third knead, cover in the bowl and leave for an hour.
Line and grease the bottom of a loaf in. I like to just put a strip along the bottom from end to end rather than going up all four sides – it’s neater and then you can just lift out.
At this point your dough should be risen, so take it out of the bowl and lay it on the surface so it becomes a rectangle with the long side about the length of the tin. Then with the longside towards you roll like a swiss roll, lift and drop into the tin.
Cover and leave to rise until it has doubled in size. About an hour and a half.
Heat the oven to 180 degrees fan. Dust the top of the bread with flour and bake for 45 minutes.
If your oven is a bit severe (as mine is) you may need to put a tin foil hat on top of the bread to stop it from burning.
When brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, take it out of the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool.
Grace is Never Full 