So Mr. Reinhart’s (are we on first name basis yet?) second recipe (or ‘formula’) in the whole wheat bible is for a ‘transitional’ sandwich bread. This is a bread that is about 56/44 whole wheat and white flour. I’m not sure if it was this formulation or actually following ALL of the recipe’s instructions, but the results were superior. I swear, the 2013 challenge might be RE-BAKING all 55 recipes and getting them right the second time.

This loaf rose better. The color is better. The texture is better. Does this come for sufficient kneading and not trying to turn them to charcoal at 500°F or the increased percentage of bread flour? All my readers are probably shouting the same thing, “It all matters!”

If 10 people made this bread using the baker’s percentage formula:

• Fresh milled whole wheat flour 56
• Unbleached bread flour 44
• Salt 1.8
• Yeast 1.5
• Milk (I used almond milk) 39
• Water 28
• Honey 8
• Oil 1.8

You would get 10 different breads. Why? Because ‘it all matters’.

Water temperature, order of adding ingredients, kneading time and style, fermentation time, etc. all matter. Change something as seemingly insignificant as when the salt is added to the dough or how many minutes you bench rest the dough before you do final shaping and you will change the bread.

I think the thing I still need to learn about sandwich loaves is creating sufficient tension in the final shaped roll. I’m casual about this and the loaf is not as springy as I would like. I would never dream of not tightening the tension on a hearth loaf, why am I not paying attention to sandwich loaves? The education continues.