Feather Bread (Bernard Clayton)

"Feather bread" -- not to be confused with the featherpuff bread from Laurel's Kitchen -- is a fairly plain (but quite serviceable) basic, white bread from Bernard Clayton's bread book. Although he recommends baking the loaves as baguettes, I didn't feel like trying to shape the long, skinny loaves, so I made a couple of slightly plump batards instead.

The dough itself is lightly enriched with a small amount of sugar and a much larger quantity of butter. And the crust develops a lovely shiny sheen from the egg white glaze applied just before baking.

I found the flavour of the final bread somewhat bland. But it did work very well for sandwiches. And the crumb was very nice with excellent texture. And the loaves did look quite pretty. So, definitely worth making. But possibly not a bread to enjoy on its own. It works better as a substrate or sandwich component than as a stand-alone starch.

Feather Bread

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 500-550g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour, divided
• 1 Tbsp. instant yeast
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 1/2 c. water @ 50°C
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp. water

Directions

1. Combine ~375g of the flour with the yeast, sugar, and salt and mix well.
2. Pour in the water and stir to combine.
3. Mix vigorously for 150-200 strokes (or a couple of minutes with the flat beater in a stand mixer).
4. Mix in the butter.
5. Mix in the remaining flour, a bit at a time, until the dough comes together.
6. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, supple, and elastic (10-20 minutes).
7. Round the dough and place in a covered bowl to rise. The first rise should take ~1 hour at room temperature.
8. Once fully risen, knock the dough back and divide into two equal portions.
9. Round each portion, cover, and rest for ~10 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, grease a baking sheet and dust it with cornmeal.
11. Shape each portion into a batard and place on the prepared baking sheet.
12. Cover and allow to rise at room temperature. The second rise should take ~45 minutes at room temperature.
13. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
14. Beat the egg white with the water and brush the mixture over the surface of both loaves, being careful not to let the glaze drip onto the pan.
15. Slash the loaves as desired.
16. Bake at 220°C (425°F) until shiny and nicely browned (15-20 minutes).
17. Test loaves for doneness. If they're not quite done yet, reduce oven temperature to 180°C (350°F) and continue baking until done (likely 5-10 minutes longer).
18. Turn off oven and allow loaves to stand in hot oven for 5-10 minutes.
19. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.