Nigella Lawson - Old Fashioned Sandwich Loaf

This is the spot where I do the proving of the dough.

                                       

Review: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 In my opinion, this is THE best bread recipe I've ever had the chance to make, believe me I've tried loads of recipes for a loaf of bread and they have pretty much always failed me and ended up dense and dry. I was starting to believe that I just couldn't make bread. 

This one however is bloody brilliant, so much so, my youngest son (18) pretty much eats almost a whole loaf in 24 hours! It's that good and OMG as toast...well, layer it up with butter....😛💗 My silver surfers (aka the in-laws) love it too, I'm expecting orders from them soon! 😆

Bread isn't the easiest to make as it's quite time consuming, but honestly, this recipe is worth it. 

So far, since 8th November when I made the first one, I have made about 12 since. My last two loaves I made, I wrapped in greaseproof paper and then into thick good quality freezer bags and they froze and defrosted well, so if you're feeling the urge to batch some up, then do! I only ever use the soured cream method.

Another thing I've discovered with this recipe is that if you divide it into 12 equal parts (weigh the dough and divide equally) and form them into rolls and bake for about 11-15 minutes they make fab sandwich rolls - note they are smaller than normal teacakes., just bake on a tray lined with greaseproof paper and then cool on a cooling rack with a clean dry tea towel over them to make the tops soft. 

So, to make this recipe, follow as per recipe (Aga conversion notes at the bottom of the page) and I use the soured cream method not the butter. The result is a very moist loaf which is still nice and moist even if it gets to day 2-3. It doesn't taste of soured cream. 

Old Fashioned Sandwich Loaf

Recipe Book: Nigella - Cook, Eat, Repeat. Recipe Link 

Buy the book Here

Ingredients

Makes: 1 beautiful loaf

500 grams strong white bread flour plus more for dusting

2½ teaspoons (7g) or 1 x 7g/¼oz sachet fast-action dried yeast

2 teaspoons (8g) caster sugar

2 teaspoons (12g) fine sea salt

125ml spoilt milk (or sour cream) straight from the fridge Note: You can use half fat soured cream it works just as good as full fat but is more healthy!

150ml cold water

100ml hot water from a just-boiled kettle

3 x 15ml tablespoons (45g) soft unsalted butter (omit if using sour cream, plus more for greasing tin)

vegetable oil for kneading

Method

1. Mix the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
2. Pour the spoilt milk (or sour cream) into a measuring jug, add the cold water (which will take you to the 275ml / 1½ cups mark) then the boiling water (and I’m presuming you don’t need me to say that it should now read 375ml). 
3. Stir the soft butter into the jug; it won’t melt entirely, but that’s fine. - Ignore if you are using soured cream!
4. Pour the jug of wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, stirring as you go, either with a wooden spoon, a Danish dough whisk or – and these are my tools of choice here – hands. I actually use a fork to mix first before going in with my hands.
5. Stir until all the flour – apart from a little that’s clinging to the sides of the bowl – is absorbed into the dough; if this takes a minute I’d be surprised. Note: The dough is quite sticky at this point.
6. Form into a rough ball, cover the bowl with food wrap or a shower cap, and leave for 10 minutes.
7. Pour a little oil onto the kitchen counter and spread it with your hand to give a light sheen to an area big enough to knead on. This bit helps get rid of the stickiness.
8. Take the dough out of its bowl and duly knead it for 10 seconds. 
9. Form the dough back into a ball, return it to its bowl, cover it again, and leave for 10 minutes. 
10. Repeat this process twice, and after the third 10-second knead, form the dough into a ball again, put it back in the bowl, cover, and leave for an hour.
11. Line the bottom of a 2lb/900g loaf tin and very lightly grease the sides; I use an old butter wrapper for this. 
12. Take the plumptiously risen dough out of its bowl, and pat it out on your oiled surface so that you have a soft, puffy mattress about 2cm thick, with one edge about 4cm shorter than the length of your tin. Starting with this edge, and using both hands, tightly roll the dough into a scroll – or swiss roll, if that helps you visualise it better – and tenderly place it seam side down in your prepared tin; you may have to press the short sides gently to fit it in, as the scroll can get longer as you roll. 
13. Leave to rise for 1–1½ hours, until it’s peeking out just above the top of the tin. 
14. Turn the oven on when it looks like it’s nearly there.
15. So, heat the oven to 200℃/180℃ Fan/400°F. 
16. Dust the top of the dough with flour and bake for 45 minutes (11-15 minutes for Rolls on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper) , by which time the bread will be risen, with a rounded and deep biscuity-gold top. Unless your oven is misfiring, it will definitely be done. Armed with oven gloves, quickly take the bread out of the tin, and place it on a wire rack to cool before slicing into it. For Rolls, once out of the oven place on a cooling rack and cover with a clean dry tea towel as this keeps them soft. They may feel firm when they come out but the tea towel will help soften them.

To keep the loaf fresh for as long as possible, store in a bread bin. The next best method is to wrap it in a tea towel. I have one of those drawstring Eddington Bread Store Bags from Amazon to put the loaf in my cupboard and it keeps my bread nice and fresh.

Aga conversion: OK, lots to tell you here!

1. I prove my dough in a bowl which is sat at the left side of my Boiling Plate on my Aga module as this is the warmest place and I get a really good prove here in this spot. Only takes 50 minutes to an hour.

2. If you are using the 2lb Aga loaf tin which leaves a really cool AGA logo on the side of your loaf, you are going to have to grease and line the sides with the logo as I've found a couple of times that my loaf has stuck inside the indentation. This is resolved with greaseproof paper and you still get the logo.

3. Prove no 2 will only take about 45-50 minutes if you put it in the same place I do.

4. To cook it: Grid shelf on floor of the Roasting Oven 30 minutes. For Rolls: same place but only 11 minutes on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, for cooling place on a cooling rack and cover them with a dry tea towel to keep them soft.

5. You will need plenty of flour on the top as the crust does have a tendency to brown quite dark. I tried reducing the cooking time but the loaf wasn't firm enough on the sides to hold it.

Will I make this again? Stupid question really as I've already made a further 12 loaves since the first one!