Sourdough White Sandwich Bread

I recently found a little and inexpensive sourdough pamphlet for sale on Amazon called Baking with Sourdough by Sara Pitzer.  Now that I have two pots of sourdough, a rye levain and a potato flour starter, I must keep them fed regularly and that means finding things to make with them.  This pamphlet has some great ideas for using sourdough.  Ever since the new year, I have been making my own bread and I think I finally found one that hubby will like to make sandwiches with, rather than just eating hunks of with soup.  It wasn't the quickest recipe, sourdough breads never seem to be, but it made two huge, beautiful loaves with good crust and nice crumb.  My potato flour starter is VERY WET, so I had to use more flour than the recipe called for.  Use your judgement when kneading, add more flour until the dough comes together in a nice smooth dough.

Sourdough White Sandwich Bread adapted extensively from Baking with Sourdough by Sara Pitzer

Ingredients:

1 c. very wet sourdough starter

1 1/4 c. high gluten unbleached white flour

1 c. warm water

1 1/2 c. whole milk

2 Tbls. honey

2 tsp. salt

2 Tbls. butter

6-7 1/2 c. high gluten unbleached white flour (depending on how wet your starter is)

Directions:

1.  The morning before you want to bake, combine the first three ingredients in a large bowl.  Cover with Saran Wrap and leave on the counter for 24 hours.

2.  The next day, combine the milk, honey, salt and butter in a small saucepan and heat the milk until the butter melts.  Allow the milk mixture to cool slightly and add it to the mixture that had been sitting overnight.  

3.  Begin incorporating the flour with a wooden spoon.  When you can no longer stir it, turn the mixture out onto a heavily floured counter and begin kneading, adding flour as necessary, until dough is smooth and elastic.

4.  Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and allow to double in bulk, about 3 hours.  Punch dough down, cover again, and again allow to double in bulk, about 1-2 hours.

5.  Separate the dough into two or three loaves depending on the size of your loaf pans.  Dough should fill about half of the pan.  Brush the top of the dough with butter, cover and let rise until the dough is rising out of the pan, 1-2 hours.

6.  Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees, F.  Bake the loaves for 45-50 minutes until nicely browned.  Cool for 5 minutes in the pans on a wire rack, then remove the bread from the pans and let the loaves cool completely on a rack before serving.