Enriched Sourdough Wheat Bread

• Note from the author: Making enriched bread by hand is a very arduous task. It's not impossible, but it's not easy. For this reason, I am using a stand mixer. This is not normal for sourdough, I know, but try it my way this time.

Fermentolyze

• Put your mixer bowl on a kitchen scale, and add each ingredient to the bowl taring to zero betweeen each ingredient for the best accuracy and simplicity.
• Add ingredients one at a time in this order: flours, powdered milk, (preferably unfed) sourdough starter, water
  90 g whole wheat flour, 188 g unbleached all purpose flour, 30 g powdered whole milk, 200 g sourdough starter, 140 g water
• Put your bowl on the stand mixer and knead ingredients together with a dough hook or spiral until it forms a ball and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
• Once the dough becomes relatively smooth, cover it tightly or transfer it to an airtight container.
• Place this container in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours. This is the last step of fermentolyze, and it greatly improves the texture of your bread by hydrating the flour fully. It also makes the dough more extensible and easier to form into a loaf later as well as develops flavor.

Kneading

• Remove fermentolyzed dough from the fridge and place it on the counter to equalize in temperature with the room (ideally 70-78 F)
• Uncover and return the dough to the mixer bowl if you removed it for fermentolyze.
• Knead in remaining dry ingredients in this order: salt, sugar
  6 g kosher salt, 25 g organic cane sugar
• Make sure your butter is softened but not fully melted. Knead it in one sliver at a time making sure each it is fully absorbed into the dough by adding it slowly. This takes some time, don't rush! If you rush this process, your dough will be lumpy and have hard spots in it. You got this far, so don't rush and wreck it! You may or may not reach window pane status, but your dough should not be wet or overly sticky.

  NOTE: Sourdough tends to be a little on the sticky side, so don't panic if it pulls away from the sides while kneading and then sticks a little after it relaxes. The hydration of this loaf is around 65% which is perfect for sandwich bread.
  56 g unsalted butter

Proofing and Baking

• Place the dough in an airtight container with room for the dough to double in volume. Plastic wrap over a bowl or a shower cap will work too, but I prefer an airtight container to avoid a skin forming on the dough that can mess with your texture in the shaping process.
• Depending on the ambient temperature, the dough should double in volume over several hours. Colder than 70 °F will be slower. Above 78 °F will be faster. Do not exceed 119 °F or you will kill your yeast!
• Once the dough has doubled in volume, shape it into a loaf and expel the gas without further kneading the dough, placing it seam side down in a greased or silicone coated loaf pan. (My favorite loaf pan is linked in the equipment section above.) Cover with a damp tea towel or a shower cap. Do not wrap tightly with plastic wrap.
• Wait for the loaf to rise about 1/2 inch above the top edge of the loaf pan, and then preheat the oven to 350 °F. Check your proof with a poke test before transferring to the oven.
• Bake uncovered for 35 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 195 °F
• Allow it to cool completely on a cooling rack covered by a tea towel (about 2 hours) before slicing the bread. Enjoy!