My 89th loaf: wheat bread

Lets try again. After taking a week or two of break, I am craving for homemade baked goods again. A wheat sandwich bread will be good.

Recipe: Half whole-wheat sandwich loaf (1 medium loaf)

Ingredients:
- 1+1/2 cup KAF whole wheat flour

- 1+1/4 cup KAF bread flour

- 1/4 cup Bob's Red mill potato starch

- 1+1/4 tp salt

- 2+1/2 TB honey

- 3/4 cup + 2 TB fat free evaporated milk

- 1/4 cup + 2 TB warm water

- 3 tp active dry yeast

- 3 TB olive oil

Procedure:
1. Proof yeast in 2 TB warm water for 10 minutes.
2. Sieve together whole wheat flour, bread flour, potato starch, and salt.
3. Add proofed yeast and evaporated milk to dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. After adding all the milk, add water incrementally 2 TB at a time.
4. Allow dough to rise for 1 hour.
5. Rub oil into dough. Then proof in greased pan until volume doubles.
6. Bake at 350F until internal temperature reaches 190F.
7. Cool.

Results:
9:51am, flours, potato starch and salt sieved together:

9:58am, 2 tp active dry yeast proofed in 2 TB warm water, then added to flours with 1/4 cup of cold evaporated milk from the fridge:

10:09am, dough after adding 3/4 cup + 2TB evaporated milk and 1/2 cup water:

10:13am, 2 TB honey added:

10:18am, dough fully formed, sticky but still strong:

10:32am, dough allowed to rise the first time:

11:21am, dough after rising for 1 hour:

11:25am, dough punched down:

11:38am, dough rubbed with 2 TB oil:

11:48am, additional 1 tp yeast proofed in warm water and to be added to dough:

11:48am, dough before adding more yeast:

11:57am, dough with more yeast, allowed to proof:

12:26pm, dough proofed 30 minutes on warm stove top:

12:41pm, dough shaped into a log, rubbed with 1 tp olive oil:

12:43pm, dough with sesame toppings:

12:44pm, dough's height before the last proofing:

1:45pm, dough proofed 1 hour:

1:45pm, dough's height after proofing:

1:47pm, loaf started baking at 350F:

2:09pm, loaf baked 25 minutes:

2:10pm, loaf's internal temperature 180F, crust very hard for thermometer to poke through:

2:11pm, thermometer coming out very clean:

2:13pm, loaf's height:

2:13pm, loaf's burnt top:

2:14pm, heel:

2:14pm, side:

2:14pm, bottom:

2:14pm corner:

3:04pm, loaf cooled and sliced:

3:05pm, center-of-loaf slice:

3:05pm, heel-of-loaf slice:

3:05pm, comparing heel and center:

3:06pm, crust and crumb:

3:06pm, bite on heel:

3:07pm, bite on center:

Observations:
1. My initial recipe starts with 2 tp yeast. During the first two rounds of proofing, dough does not rise much even though I have placed it on stove top with gentle heat. So I suspect that the yeast may not be active. I add an extra 1 tp of yeast. The final dough looks strong in texture. So I leave it in the loaf pan to proof in a warm oven (<150F). I am totally stunned when the dough rises spectacularly.
2. I think the initial slow rise is due to the cold milk. I take the evaporated milk out of the fridge and use it without warming up. This may be very cold to the yeast. Subsequently, the temperature of the dough is warm enough and the yeast has enough time to grow. So the third rise is spectacular.