Who doesn't like a delicious sandwich? But what is this dish? The word "sandwich" is translated as "butter-bread." Of course, something else also relies on these two ingredients - cheese, sausage, fish, caviar. And how unpleasant when the impression of a delicious filling of a sandwich spoils poor-quality bread! A sandwich puts forward even more stringent requirements for the base of the dish. Indeed, unlike a simple sandwich, it has two slices of bread. This means that this product must be of the highest quality. So, the topic of our article will be bread for a sandwich. What should it be like to make a tasty snack? Can I make bread myself? And if you buy toast for sandwiches, then which company to prefer? Read - and find out.
The rules of a delicious sandwich
Americans love this dish. For many, it is lunch. That is, they manage to push a simple lunch into the sandwich, including salad, nutritional component and sauce. To withstand such a complex and voluminous filling, sandwich bread must be special. You should pay attention to its density. It is moderately loose, but not decaying. It does not get sour from mayonnaise or ketchup. Its crumb remains tender even after the slice is in the toaster. The crust of such a bread is moderately hard. It does not crumble and does not break with a crunch, like a French baguette. But at the same time, this crust holds the shape of a slice well. What about the color of the bread? White is considered a classic. But recently, when a lot of attention is paid to healthy eating, bread can be not only wheat, but also rye, and with bran, and whole grains. In large supermarkets you can buy such a product. It does not mold and does not stale much longer than ordinary bread. What's the secret? Maybe there is a lot of “chemistry” in such a product? Is it dangerous to eat American toast bread? Let's look at the most famous brand.
Harry's Sandwich Bread
The product of this brand cannot be called cheap. Packing slices of seven hundred grams costs more than a hundred rubles, while the price of domestic bread of the same weight is 30-40 rubles. What makes people buy Harry's, besides the desire to join the American culture of food consumption? First of all, convenience. The bread is already cut into perfectly even slices. Secondly, the crust: soft, light brown, just for those who do not like scratching crumbs in their mouths. Thirdly, in the toaster, such bread does not become hard as a cracker, but slightly toasted, appetizing. This product, even if you open the packaging, is not stale for a long time. And finally, this is the perfect bread for a sandwich. You can put lettuce, vegetables, sauce on the sandwich and it will not soften with moisture. If we analyze the reviews of Russian consumers, then Harry's is bought mainly by those families that poison the child to school, providing him with such a lunch, or simply consume little bread. Rather than throwing out a half-loaf of loaf every day, it is better to have a package that stays fresh for 20 days.
Structure
If American bread for sandwiches has such a long shelf life, the question arises: what is it made of? Do we harm our health by consuming such a product? The composition of the bread is printed on each package. The main ingredient in it is wheat flour (or another - depending on the name of the product). It is always of the highest grade and is intended for baking bakery products. There is also margarine, sugar, salt, water, yeast. Not without its so-called improvers - emulsifiers (glycerides of fatty acids), preservatives (calcium propionate, soy flour, enzymes), antioxidant (ascorbic acid), food alcohol, wheat gluten. The energy value of such a product is 260 calories per hundred grams. It should be noted that under the Harry's brand several types of bread are sold: white wheat; with the addition of rye flour; with bran; "Seven Grains"; dessert "Brioche".
Is it possible to make such bread ourselves?
The composition of the American Seedwich Broad is quite rich, including elements that are undesirable for the body. But this does not mean that you need to abandon the idea of enjoying a delicious sandwich. We just bake the sandwich bread ourselves. Nor will we use unhealthy ingredients. Perhaps our bread will not be stored as long as a store product. But we do not need this. The aroma and taste of the bread will be such that the family will sweep the loaf in a day or two. And for the crumb to be tender, like a real Sandwich Broad, some recipes suggest adding milk to the composition. By the way, many people themselves bake bread for sandwiches, not trusting a store product. And each mistress has her own recipe. Sandwich Broad can also be made in a conventional oven. But the kneading process will go much easier if the kitchen has such a loyal assistant as a bread machine.
The recipe for the batch. Ingredients
The finely porous structure, soft crust and slightly moist crumb - this is what distinguishes American sandwich bread from other baked goods. The recipe suggests that we take two or three loaves of the finished product at the rate of such ingredients. Three glasses of water and seven - flour, one hundred grams of butter (margarines contain harmful palm and soybean fats, so we refuse it). We also need yeast - one and a half tablespoons. To make the dough rise well, it’s best to trust the product from Dr. Etker. Without salt, cooking is nowhere. We’ll prepare one tablespoon of it. The amount of sugar will be adjusted to taste. If we want to cook brioche, then we need two or more tablespoons, for ordinary sandwich bread - a smaller amount. Let's try to experiment with flour. So, for five glasses of wheat, you can take two - rye.
Kneading dough
This process will take a lot of time, but not effort. From utensils we will need a large pot (five liters, no less), a sieve for sifting flour, a wooden spatula and cling film. With this simple equipment and without any kitchen devices, we will get delicious bread for sandwiches. The recipe instructs us to first heat the water in a pan to a temperature comfortable for a colony of yeast bacteria. You also need to melt the butter. Pour it into the pan, along with yeast, salt and sugar. Sift the whole amount of flour. Mix the ingredients with a wooden spatula until smooth. The dough will turn out liquidy, the consistency of sour cream. Cover the pan with cling film and leave at room temperature away from drafts for three hours. During this time, the dough will increase in volume 3-4 times. Without crushing it, we put it in the refrigerator for another three hours. This is the minimum required before baking. The dough can be stored in the refrigerator for longer, up to two weeks, becoming from this only better and more porous.
Baking in the oven
Cover the mold with foil, lubricate the inside with margarine or oil. We pluck the required amount of dough. Sprinkle the hands and work surface with flour. We crush the dough, but not so much so as not to damage the air bubbles enclosed in it. We fill the baking dish for one third. Let the dough stand for fifteen minutes. At this time, turn on the oven so that it is heated to two hundred degrees. Be sure to put a pan of water at the bottom of the oven. This is necessary in order to create the necessary humidity in the oven. Bake a la "American Sandwich" bread for about forty-five minutes. And the last secret: if you grease a freshly baked loaf on top with oil, then when cut, it will not crumble.
The nuances of cooking in a bread machine
This device has its own specifics. The machine itself kneads the dough, heats it, cakes and bakes. From the chef only it is required that the necessary ingredients be put in the bread maker bowl. And here lies the main catch. First, put the dry ingredients and only then pour the liquid. Yeast is known to dislike salt. Therefore, if you want the bread for the sandwiches in the bread maker to rise, you need to know the sequence of laying the products in the bowl. First pour salt and sugar. Then sift the flour. And only on top of it we put the yeast. Pour warm water so that bacteria immediately begin to develop, and oil (vegetable oil is possible). Some devices of the new design have two modes: “Normal bread” and “Sandwich”. You only think that there is no difference between them. Indeed, in both cases, the loaf is prepared for three hours. But in the Sandwich program, the bread machine does not so vigorously knead the dough, which makes the crumb more tender and the crust thin.
Bread for sandwiches in a bread machine: recipe
For a medium-sized bowl, we will need such products: warm water - 360 milliliters; vegetable oil and sugar - three tablespoons each. We also need four glasses of flour. At the bottom of the bowl pour two teaspoons of salt. And at the very top of the dry ingredients, put the same amount of dry yeast. Now pour the water and vegetable oil. You can replace it with creamy. But in this case, care should be taken to melt it first. This can be done in the microwave or in a water bath. We turn on the Sandwich bread machine mode (if any). In this case, the machine requires us only one clue - what is the weight of the loaf? From the specified number of ingredients, a loaf of nine hundred grams is obtained. You can also manually set the degree of hotness of the crust. But it should be noted that the more crispy and darker it comes out, the more difficult the chunks will be cut.
Milk Product Recipe
Such a loaf of sandwiches can be prepared both in the oven and in the bread maker. Consider the traditional option. In different containers we heat up to 40 degrees 170 ml of milk and sixty milliliters of water. In a bowl, mix them with yeast (15 g). We put forty grams of melted butter and a half tablespoons of liquid honey. Beat this mass with a mixer. In a deep bowl, mix 450 grams of flour and two teaspoons of salt. We add liquid to dry ingredients, slowly, constantly working with a mixer with “spiral” nozzles. The dough will become smooth and begin to stick to the walls of the dishes. If this does not happen, add a little flour. Lubricate another bowl with vegetable oil, put a gingerbread man there and cover with cling film. Put this container in a heated but turned off oven. In forty minutes, the dough will double. We put it in a baking dish, cover it again with a film and leave it to grow for half an hour in a warm place. The dough will grow even twice. On the lower grill of the oven we put a pan with two glasses of water. Turn on the oven at 170 degrees. When the water in the pan boils, reduce the heat to 95 ° C. On the middle grill we set the form with the dough and bake for about 45 minutes. When the loaf has cooled, we’ll think about what sandwich from the toast bread we can make.
Reviews
Those who tried to apply one of the above recipes in practice, assure that the product turned out to be very aromatic and tasty. People especially liked the fact that you don’t have to conjure over the test for a long time. Another positive point is that the leaven can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time. Culinary experts urge to experiment: include sweet paprika, caraway seeds, sunflower seeds in the composition of the ingredients.