I’ve made no secret that I’m obsessed with this bread. It has literally changed my life. I don’t buy bread anymore because homemade is so much better.
If you do a quick search on this site with the term “lahey” you’ll come across my previous attempts with the bread. My goal is to find the right balance between whole wheat and white flour. The more whole wheat I use the less the bread rises and the flatter the loaf (and it ends up being super dense). I’ve made it with varying amounts of whole wheat flour, tried using whole wheat soft flour to varying degrees of success. So the other day I decided to start from the beginning and make the bread in its purest form — 100% white all-purpose flour.
The results were great and so different from the whole wheat. The bread rose so much both times which meant I got a nice high loaf… perfect for sandwiches. As you can see there was also a great crumb.
The one thing that I forgot to do was sprinkle the top with something. I usually play around and do either flour, wheat germ, cornmeal or oatmeal… but I totally forgot this time around. Didn’t make a difference but I enjoy an extra something something.
I also get super nervous about my loaf burning and I’m also awful at knowing when to take it out… so I always think my loaves are a tad under-cooked. But maybe that’s just my paranoia setting in.
Once I find my whole wheat sweet spot then I’ll start experimenting with additions… olives, cranberries, pecans, rosemary… the possibilities are endless!
For the uninitiated here is the follow-up article about the bread. Follow the links along the side to see the video and get the full recipe.
