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🍞 School lunches, sorted.
Published 5 months ago • 3 min read
School lunches, sorted.
Back from summer travel (more on this in a future newsletter), and it's time to get these kids back to school.
The routine for me at this time of year is to bake a few loaves for their lunches—whether it's a white bread like pain de mie or more whole-grain options (read on!), it's just nice having fresh pan loaves cooling on the counter.
Of course, the day they're baked, it seems like half the loaf is eaten posthaste, that's what I make two.
But more than school lunches, these breads are super versatile, ranging from stellar French toast (cut super thick slices and let them dry out a bit on the counter overnight) to sandwiches with heirloom tomatoes from the garden. What could be better?
Here are a few of my fav pan loaves, I'm sure you're going to love them, too.
A whiter, softer bread that's still got loads of flavor thanks to the long fermentation time. This bread makes a mean turkey or ham sandwich just as well as a BLT.
Spelt is one of my favorite grains to bake with, and this pan bread lets it shine. Incredibly flavor-forward, this is one you'll want to savor for toasts, but it works well in a sando, too.
I don't think any lunchbox is complete without a little something sweet. These chocolate chip cookies certainly fit the bill (plus, there are a few waiting for you at the end, too).
I recall a few special lunches where I brought a thick slice or two of banana bread for lunch in place of a sandwich—what a treat, isn't it? To be able to eat banana bread for lunch as a kid and not even give it a thought further than, boy, this is good.
What's more, this is one of the breads I return to time and time again throughout the year, and while it might be a little early (I make this heavily in the fall, for some reason), it's perfectly at home in a school lunch as it is as a snack while you're reading your fav book.
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How do you manage a "ripe starter" by 8:45 am for the start of this recipe schedule? Are you pushing back your previous night's feeding closer to midnight to ensure it is ripe around 8:45 a.m.? In general, this process has confused me when I need a ripe starter directly in a recipe (like this) or when making the levain, as most recipes start first thing in the morning. If a starter usually achieves peak ripeness around 8-10 hours after feeding, the feeding would need to occur around 12:45 a.m. How are you achieving ripeness by 8:45 a.m.?
Generally, it's okay to use your starter an hour or two before it's perfectly "peak." There is no perfect time. If there's a large delta, you can feed your starter a little earlier the night before to shift it a few hours. That way, it has time to ripen.
If you need to delay it a bit, you can feed later, use slightly cooler water, or leave less starter in the jar (all of these will slow it down)!
Is the Bread in Europe Better for You? (NY Times). Different wheat, longer fermentation, fewer additives—these all sound like good moves, in my opinion 🙂
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Maurizio Leo
Want to make bakery-quality sourdough bread from home? Subscribe for the best sourdough guides and recipes to take your bread from ordinary to incredible.
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