Everyday Sandwich Bread Made WIth Fresh Milled Flour

Switching From White Flour To Fresh Milled Flour:

There is a bit of learning curve when baking with fresh milled flour if you have not used it before. When I was new to using fresh milled flour, I learned that it was key to take my time to learn to master just one bread before I moved on to any other recipes. Taking the time to do this will allow you to develop a feel for how it should look, feel, and move. 

I highly suggest taking the time to do this or you may feel frustrated and think that you don’t like fresh milled flour, and stop using it. I promise it truly is easy to adjust to once you have a feel for this. 

Once you do you will love baking with fresh milled flour and all the health benefits that fresh milled flour offers that commercially processed white flour does not. I know we do! The pictures in this recipe are the delicious loaves of bread I made earlier today!

Ingredients To Make This Fresh Milled Flour Sandwich Bread:

Bread Pan Size 4×8 (if you have larger pans you can use those but the loaves will be a bit smaller)
4 cups Fresh Milled Flour 485g (I like to use hard white or hard red for this)
3/4 cup water 180g
3/4 cup milk 180g
3 TBSP Butter 42g
3 TBSP Sugar or Honey 63g
1&1/2 tsp salt
1 egg 50g
2 tsp instant yeast

Instructions To Make Fresh Milled Flour Sandwich Bread:

Firstly, weigh out your flour
Then, to a microwave safe bowl add water, milk, and butter and microwave until the butter is melted completely.
Add water/milk/butter mixture to stand mixer bowl, then add sugar, egg, and salt. Mix to combine.
Then, add flour to the stand mixer, and start to mix until all the dry flour is gone.
Cover and let it sit at room temperature for at least 15 minutes, up to 2 hours to allow the fresh milled flour to absorb the liquid.
Then, add the instant yeast. Start to mix the yeast in until combined.
Start the kneading process. Learn How to Knead Here!

This could take 25 minutes with fresh milled flour, or less. This varies greatly, so the best way to check if the dough is done being kneaded, is to check for a window pane test. (You can watch a video on this here: Window Pane Test Video)
Once a successful window pane test is done, then, cover the dough and let it rise until doubled. This will typically take 1 to 2 hours.

Shaping The Loaf
There are so many ways to shape a loaf of bread, but the most important thing is to make sure you have good surface tension.I learned my technique watching this tutorial from King Arthur: How To Shape A Sandwich Loaf

After the dough has doubled in size, then, divide the dough in half if you are making 2 one pound loaves. Press each piece flat, then roll up to shape. Make sure there is some surface tension. I love this tutorial on surface tension: Creating Surface Tension
Using some olive oil on my hands and work surface helps me with the wetter stickier dough.
Place in a parchment paper lined 4×8 bread pan, and cover for about 40 minutes until puffy looking.
Preheat oven to 350*F towards the end of this second rise time.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until the internal temperature reaches 190*F.
Take bread out of the oven, and out of the bread tins right away, and place them on a wire cooling rack.
Let cool for at least one hour before slicing.
Slice and enjoy!