White Loaves--sorry for the crap photography!
I suppose at some point I will write about myself and why I decided to start this blog, including the reason for the blog’s title, which I find delightfully dorky and embarrassing in a good way (as in, I can’t stop laughing when I say the name!). For now, though, I will jump straight into my first Tuesdays with Dorie post. The recipe today was White Loaves, hosted by Laurie of Slush and Julie of Someone’s In The Kitchen.
I prefer to use weights in baking, rather than volume measurements. This is probably due to a combination of laziness (who wants to wash lots of measuring cups?), the urge for speed (as I do most of my baking nowadays with my one-year-old son underfoot), and a love of precision that I’ve likely inherited from my engineer father. So a recipe that calls for “seven cups of flour” given me a sinking feeling. How to measure said flour? I’ll be honest, I didn’t take the time to read the front matter of Baking With Julia prior to starting the recipe, which may address this issue. (I only decided to join TWD and start this blog earlier today!) Instead, I pulled out my copy of Baking: From My Home to Yours, in which I’d noted, after an extensive internet search, that Dorie’s cup of flour weighs 4.8 ounces, or 136 grams. I’ve used 136 grams as the weight for a cup of flour in the other Dorie recipes that I’ve made (my favorite being the Chocolate Oatmeal Drops, which, while pregnant with my son, I ate for dinner more times than I care to admit) always with good results. So I did a little math, and came up with a weight of 952 grams. I used about half bread flour and half all-purpose, both King Arthur, and SAF Red Instant Yeast. I also used salted butter, since that was all I had in the fridge.
The dough came together well, and my KitchenAid got a real workout with the ten minutes of kneading. I did have trouble with the dough creeping up the dough hook, probably since there was so much of it. I did need a splash more water than the recipe called for, but once I added that, I found the dough smooth and easy to work with.
My kitchen is on the cool side, but I found that both rises took almost exactly as long as the recipe called for. I did the first rise on my counter (sunny in the late afternoon) and used the microwave-with-the-door-ajar trick (so that the light is on) that I read about somewhere for the second rise. I covered the loaves with a damp tea towel, which I was worried might stick but didn’t.
second rise in the microwave, just before going into the oven
I’m usually a whole wheat kind of person, so wasn’t actually too thrilled about starting with this recipe. I have to say, though, that this is some fantastic bread, I’m glad that I made it, and I’ll make it again. My husband and I had it for dinner with lentil soup and a salad, and there’s only about a quarter of the loaf left.
There was a lot less left after dinner!
runintheoven 
I had to keeping stopped my KA as well to move the dough down the hook – I kept waiting for my dough to go airborne!
I’ve heard about spraying the hook with baking spray or oiling it–I’m not sure that it would work, it just seems like a lot of dough for a KA. It still seemed to knead fine though. Thanks for being my first commenter!
nice job with your loaves. I’m the same way with the whole grains thing, but homemade white bread is different than store bought.
Welcome to the blogosphere.
I am a total King Arthur Flour addict. I am not sure what I would do if someone tried to give me something else…
Glad you joined the group. Nice looking loaves you have there. This was my first bread baking try and I will certainly will do it again. I must say 300+ blogs have given me plenty to read.
Like the pictures and your tips on the microwave It caught my eye beacuse I too used the microwave for rising but for different reasons. I have two Boxers that are obsessed with my counters! I also don’t use plastic wrap, trying to be green so I was curious about the damp towel method. I ended up lightly covering with wax paper.
Happy first blog post! Glad you liked this bread – I am usually a whole wheat person too, but there’s just something about a nice homemade white loaf. I wish this book had weight measurements as well as volume – it is much easier!
Yes, I do wish more of the cookbooks had wgt. measurements- they can be so much more accurate.