Jack Thompson

People / Process / Trust

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Cube Bread

Measures below for 4x4x4 and 4x4x8, mostly for my own sanity, and also full amounts for rye as well as plain as those are the two breads I reliably make. 4x4x4 Pullman pans produce enough bread for 2 people to reliably use without it going stale first.

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4" plain:

• 220g AP flour
• 15g sugar
• 4g yeast
• 150g water
• 5g salt
• 5g oil

8" plain:

• 440g AP flour
• 30g sugar
• 8g yeast
• 300g water
• 10g salt
• 12g oil

4" rye

• 180g AP flour
• 40g rye flour
• 15g sugar
• 4g yeast
• 10g caraway seed
• 2.5g ground caraway
• 150g water
• 5g salt
• 5g oil

8" rye

• 360g AP flour
• 80g rye flour
• 30g sugar
• 8g yeast
• 20g caraway seed
• 5g ground caraway
• 300g water
• 10g salt
• 12g oil

...and an appropriately sized Pullman loaf pan (4x4x4 or 4x4x8) with lid.

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There is a finicky way to do this (multiple staged ingredient additions and rests and the like) but it seems increasingly not worth the extra effort - for a day's quantity of bread, the freshness is the most important thing and you don't really notice anything else.

So:

Dump all the ingredients into a mixer bowl and knead, scraping down a few times til all the flour is incorporated, til silky and pliable - 15 minutes or so.

Proof til doubled in size (90ish minutes) and knock back.

Proof til doubled in size again (45ish minutes) and knock back.

Move the dough from the mixer bowl to the pullman pan, squishing it firmly into the corners. You can sprinkle seeds over the bottom of the pan before adding the dough for a poppy/sesame crust.

Preheat the oven to 425F (400F convection)

Final proof in the pan with the lid closed until the dough rises to touch the inside lid of the pan at the ends and there is more-than-a-little friction sliding the lid on its rails, about 45 minutes.

Bake 35-40 minutes - modified versions with more difficult flours in particular need a little more time to fully brown and to dry out the crumb for easier slicing.

Remove from the tin and cool completely on wire rack before slicing, about 1 hour, to avoid a waist.

Variations:

• Cinnamon raisin: add additional 15g (30g) brown sugar, 1/4tsp (1/2tsp) cinnamon and 1/4 cup (1/2 cup) raisins to the dough, and sprinkle the rolled out dough evenly with sugar and cinnamon (the amount varies depending on the surface area of your dough rectangle; it'll be a few tablespoons) before rolling the rectangle up and pressing it into the loaf pan.
• Seeded: mist the bottom of the pan with a spray bottle and cover abundantly with seeds (sesame or poppy are the best).
• fruit: sub half the water volume with fresh fruit. incorporate in 2 batches along with the water so some remain whole once kneeded. Blueberriesa or strawberries are great. It might need a little extra flour to pull together. A cinnamon/sugar/salt swirl works great.

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