Polish Starter Toast
Since I fell in love with baking, my favorite has been all kinds of toast. I've tried various recipes from kitchen masters, including direct method, sponge dough, and Tangzhong method, etc. Today, I'd like to share with you a beautifully risen Polish starter toast ^_^. The original recipe is from Taotao Mom's blog on Sina, and I've made some adjustments myself. I hope everyone enjoys making satisfying toast.
Ingredients
Steps
1. Dissolve yeast in water, add high-gluten flour, mix well, cover with cling film, ferment at room temperature for one hour, then cold ferment in the refrigerator at 5°C for 10 hours (for convenience, I prepare the starter in the morning and refrigerate it, then use it after getting home from work). Room temperature fermentation also works.
2. Polish starter fermentation is determined by its condition, not time. Ferment until it doubles in size with lots of bubbles.
Mix the fermented Polish starter with all the main dough ingredients except butter and salt. Knead with a bread machine for 15 minutes until the dough becomes smooth. Add butter and salt, and knead for another 15 minutes until fully elastic and able to stretch into a thin film.
Let the dough ferment once at around 26–28°C until it doubles in size. Test by dipping a finger in a little flour and poking the dough; if the hole doesn't spring back or springs back very slowly without collapsing, it's successfully fermented ^_^. I fermented it for about 70 minutes at 26°C.
Take out the fermented dough, gently press out large air bubbles with a rolling pin, divide the dough into three equal portions, round them, and let them rest for 15 minutes. My dough weighed 495g in total, divided into three pieces of 165g each.
Roll out each rested dough piece for the first time into a tongue shape, flip, then roll it up. Let it rest again for 20 minutes. For the second rolling, release air bubbles and roll up from top to bottom into a cylinder. Pinch the bottom tightly and place it into the toast mold. (I forgot to take pictures of this step; will update next time.)
The shaped dough.
Place the toast mold in an environment of about 36–38°C with a bowl of warm water for the second proofing, until the dough fills about 80% of the mold. I proofed mine for about 70 minutes at 36°C.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the toast mold on the bottom rack and bake for 35 minutes. My oven runs hot, so I used 150°C for the top heat and 190°C for the bottom heat. Cover with aluminum foil after 8 minutes to prevent over-browning and continue baking for 35 minutes.