Mamaw Bread

Difficulty Medium ∙ Source Louise Head (neighbor from Tequesta in the ’60's)

Notes

1. You must use bread flour in the starter. 
2. Should yield 5 loaves.

Ingredients

• Refrigerated starter
• 5 cups of water (up to the water line)
• 5-5½ cups Bread Flour (I use KAF flour)

Directions

The night before bread-making day:

1. Remove the starter from container and put in a large bowl. Add 5 cups of water. Stir using an electric mixer or immersion blender to dissolve to a milky liquid. (During the summer, use cool water; during the winter, use lukewarm water.) 
2. Stir in enough bread flour (about 4½-5½ cups) to make the sponge into a very stiff LIQUIDY batter. Let this concoction sit overnight. It will become very light and full of bubbles. If you should get a bit of foam on the top, stir it down before you take your new starter out in the morning. (I use the full 5½ cups. I think it helps give me the 5 loaves.)
3. Clean the starter's container, so you don't forget to keep out your starter  in the morning! I keep the container on the counter where I work the dough.

Baking Day

Ingredients

• For the starter:
• Approx. 3 cups starter that grew overnight (up to the starter line)
• 1 cup sugar
• In the morning, pour the starter up to the "starter" line in the plastic container, and add 1 cup of sugar. Let it grow. It will grow and crawl up over the sugar. Once it has consumed the sugar, stir it up and let it sit out another hour or so. It may rise up again. Stir it down and refrigerate. Put the date on the jar so you know when you last baked. Try to bake monthly but at least every 3 months. 

Now to make bread:

Ingredients

• Put approximately 3 cups of stater batter in the Kitchen Aid (because of the capacity of my Kitchen Aid, I process in 2 batches)
• Approx. 4 ½ cup of bread flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
• 1 tbsp dough enhancer
• ¼ cup golden flax meal (optional, but it adds more nutrition to the loaves)
• Oil to coat the bowl in which the dough rises and to coat prepared dough balls before placing in baking pan.
• Flour to keep dough from sticking on hands and kneading board.

On baking day:

1. To the rest of the sponge (which has been growing overnight and from which    you took your new starter: put half of the starter (approx. 3 cups) into the Kitchen Aid upright mixer, gradually add 4½ cups of bread, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tbsp dough enhancer, and 2 tbsps of vital wheat gluten (1 tbsp per loaf), (and ¼ cup golden flax meal, if you want) Turn on your mixer and mix well--I start the dough with the regular mixing paddle, then when it’s hard for it to beat, I switch to the dough hook. If it is a still a little sticky, add a little bit of flour at a time until you get it so that you get it to where you can handle it. (At this point, it is better for it to be a little sticky and then add flour on the board while kneading the dough than for it to be too stiff before you knead it.) Since you are using the Kitchen Aid for part of the kneading, knead the dough about 50 times.
2. Smooth up and grease the ball. Put a little oil (1-2 tbsps) in a bowl or pan. Put the dough ball in upside down and turn over. Let this rise to approximately double. Poke with your finger and if the dough bounces back, it is probably OK to proceed. (Note: if it is really cold out or you are in a hurry, you can set it over a pan of warm water to help it raise.)
3. Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the rest of the sponge!
4. Once the dough has risen, punch it down, then cut the raised dough into 1.4 lb pieces. Knead each piece until smooth: about 25-30 times. Be careful not to add too much flour at this point. You need just enough so that the dough doesn't stick to your board or hands. (I also spray Pam on my hands and wrists. This helps cut down on the stickiness.)
5. Spray the bread pans with Pam or grease your pans. Grease each ball well with oil and put in loaf pans. Let rise until at least doubled or more. (You can speed things up here by putting the pans over a bowl of warm water. Just change the water every 30 minutes or so.)
6. Start bread in a COLD oven set at 275°F. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn up the temperature to 325°F and continue cooking for another 25-30 minutes. The bread should be nicely browned when done. If it hasn't browned, turn the oven up by 25° and cook another 5 minutes or so.
7. Remove bread from the pans and butter the tops of the loaves.