Soft vegan sandwich bread – light & fluffy
I think it has been a year since I’ve started preparing homemade bread on a regular basis. And believe me or not, I haven’t bought a loaf of bread in the store since then (okay – I remember: I’ve bought a pumpernickel once). And although the vast majority of my baked goods are sourdough breads: this adventure of keeping sourdough „pet” alive is a great fun and fascinating thing for me. So I experiment a lot, change various factors and learn how to use different types of flours (I highly recommend to step into the sourdough world!). However, sometimes, when I do not plan to feed the bread starter and I want a loaf of home-made bread a little faster: I use yeast. And in such situations, I bake my real bread guilty pleasure: home-made, milky, I would like to say, buttery (there is something in that flavour!) sandwich bread: perfect for the morning toasts. This is the fluffiest bread I’ve ever made.
A recipe inspired by Nigella Lawson’s „old-fashioned sandwich loaf” from her TV series “Eat. Cook. Repeat ”. I adjusted it a bit and veganised it a lot (in the original recipe it’s bread with a lot of cow milk and butter).
Recipe for the 30×10 cm loaf baking tin
- 500g white wheat flour (if you avoid it or want more healthy option, you can use spelt flour type 630. Bread won’t rise that big and will be definitely less fluffy, but still delicious) + 1 tsp for dusting
- 7g dry yeast
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 250ml unsweetened soy milk
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (alternatively: white wine vinegar)
- 100ml hot water (just-boiled)
- 50g refined coconut oil (or vegan margarine)
- 1 tbsp rapeseed oil for kneading surface + 1 tsp of oil to grease the tin
- Mix the flour, dry yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
- Prepare the measuring jug or any container for liquid ingredients. Mix soy milk with vinegar. Add boiling water and the coconut oil. Mix it with a spoon for a few seconds, until the oil melts entirely.
- Transfer the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix it for a two minutes or until all the flour is absorbed into the dough. Form the rough ball, cover the bowl with kitchen towel or food wrap and leave for 10 minutes.
- Pour a little oil onto the kitchen counter and spread it with your hand to prepare oily knead area. Take the dough and knead with greased hands for 30 seconds. Form it into a ball, transfer it back to the bowl, cover it again, and leave for 10 minutes. Repeat this process two more times, giving the dough 10 minutes breaks. After the third knead, form the dough into a ball again, put it back in the bowl, cover, and leave for an hour.
- Prepare the loaf tin and lightly grease its sides and the bottom with coconut or rapeseed oil. Transfer the dough for the last time on the kitchen counter and with greased hands, try to form it to the shape of the tin. Fill the baking tin and leave the dough for final rise for 1 to 1.5 hours. This time you don’t need to cover it, as it will grow fast in the baking tin.
- Heat the oven to 180℃. Dust the top of the dough with a bit of flour and bake for 40 minutes – the top of the bread should be beautifully golden. Take the baked hot bread out of the tin, and place it upside down to cool.
- To keep the loaf fresh for as long as possible wrap it in a tea towel. You can also freeze the cut slices and defrost them before putting into the toaster.
- I really recommend using white wheat flour in this recipe. In result, you will get incredibly fluffy loaf & the toast will turn beautifully golden in the toaster.
- Soy milk is important in this recipe – by adding vinegar to this milk, you can achieve vegan buttermilk. Thanks to this ingredient, bread gets this delicate milky, buttery flavour.
Dough after the first, second and third knead
