Deli Bread

I'm always on the lookout for good sandwich bread, and I have a few favourites ; Briarpatch Herb Bread, Golden Sandwich Bread, Sour Cream Sandwich Bread, Sister Jennie's Potato Bread, and there are a few more! They are all so different from one another, but they are all good!

When I saw this recipe Deli Bread, I know that it was just a matter of time before I try it. The first thing that attracted me to this bread is the caramelized onions. I love caramelized onions. And this bread uses a small amount of mashed potatoes and some caraway seeds. According to Dan Lepard, this is Saturday-night, Sunday-morning bread, as the dough is made the day before, keep refrigerated overnight, shape and bake the next day.  And chilling the dough overnight helps to develop a stronger flavour to the crumb. (for me, it is a Sunday-night, Monday-night bread, as we had it on a Monday-night, a sandwich-dinner).

Firstly, prepare the mashed potatoes by first boiling some potatoes in a small saucepan. I used Russet potatoes which I peeled the skins off, and while waiting for the potatoes to soften, I cooked the sliced onions until golden which takes about 15-20 minutes, pour the onions onto a bowl and let cool. By the time the onions are done cooking, the potatoes are already tender. Drain the potatoes and mashed it in a small bowl with a fork. I boiled only a third of a Russet potato and it yield about 75gm, so I used all of it (recipe uses about 50gm). 

While waiting for the onions and potatoes to cool, prepare the yeast starter by mixing the yeast with 50ml of warm water and 2 teaspoons of bread flour, and leave for 30 minutes. Combine all ingredients together (refer to the recipe instruction), and mix to a dough. 

The only changes I made was to reduce the salt to only 1 teaspoon which works out fine for me. 

Place the dough into a greased bowl, keep covered, overnight in the refrigerator.
The next morning, the dough has risen to almost double in size.
Turn it out onto a lightly oiled surface, knead lightly and flatten to a rectangle the length of the loaf pan. I've used a 9"x5" Pullman loaf pan, without the cover. Roll the dough up tightly like a swiss-roll and place in the greased loaf pan, seam-side down. (The baked bread did not rise as high as the Pullman loaf pan, so next time, I'll just use a regular loaf pan instead).
Cover with greased cling wrap and let rise till size increased by half, about 2-3 hours.
Just before baking, slash down the centre of the loaf.

Bake in a preheated oven at 220C for 35 minutes, reduce temperature to 160C and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. I tent the top with foil during the last 15 minutes of baking as it was already brown. I placed the pan on the third lower rack of the oven. 

As soon as bread is done, remove it from the pan and let cool on wire rack.

I like the texture of the crumbs. Smells really nice while the bread is baking, from the caramelized onions. The caraway seeds gives a lovely flavour and taste when you bite into it. My kids thought that I have used mint leaves as it has a light minty taste to it. The mashed potatoes provides the moistness and softness of the loaf. 

This is such a lovely bread for sandwiches. It has the right crumb texture as a good sandwich bread should be; moist, soft with firm crumbs.

Deli Bread
(adapted from "Short & Sweet", Dan Lepard, or from here)
2 teaspoons fast action yeast
200ml warm water
325gm strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
150gm onion, thinly sliced
50ml sunflower oil
about 50gm mashed potato
75gm rye flour (I use dark rye flour)
1-1/2 tsp fine salt (I use 1 tsp)
2-1/2 tsps caraway seeds
oil for kneading and preparing the tin

Mix the yeast with 50ml of the warm water and 2 teaspoons of the white flour, stir well and leave for 30 minutes. Place the onion and oil in a pan and cook on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring well. As soon as it's golden, pour into a bowl and cool. Combine the onions and oil, potato and remaining 150ml water with the yeasty mixture, then pour this into a bowl with the rest of the white flour and the remaining dry ingredients, mix to a dough and leave, covered, for 10 minutes. Finally, knead the dough once for 10 seconds, return to the bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight for about 12 hours.

The next morning, knead the dough lightly again and flatten on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 20cm x 15cm, then roll it up tightly like a scroll. Oil and flour a loaf tin, and drop the dough seam-side down into the tin. Cover and leave for 2-3 hours or until increased in size by half. Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/425F/Gas 7. Flour the top of the dough and cut a slash down the centre, bake for 35 minutes, then lower the heat to 180C/160C fan/350F/Gas 4 and bake a further 10 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.

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