Successful Bread

Bread sponges are officially the best thing ever.

This light, fluffy bread was made with a sponge.

I found this post about how to make delicious bread from a sponge on Well Fed, Flat Broke quite a while ago and have been wanting to try it since I saved a blob of dough from the slightly unsuccessful if still delicious whole grain "Healthy Bread" from a while ago.
Just to clarify, a sponge here has nothing to do with cleaning and everything to do with letting yeast ferment overnight before putting it in dough. It's a lot like sourdough starter, but with store-bought yeast instead of sourdough starter.
I halved the recipe for my purposes, but it's an easy halving to do as long as you know that 1 tablespoon equals three teaspoons, or have a 1/2 tbsp measure. I'd never heard of one before, but my housemates have one. I love it so much.
Anyway, that was leading up to me telling you that I won't be posting the recipe, although I did take copious pictures. It's Emily's recipe with no changes, so go there and check it out.

It all starts with milk, flour, and yeast, and a blob of dough if you saved some from the last time you made bread.

I'm not sure why the sponge needs to be covered with plastic wrap and a towel; maybe for insulation?

Fermenting happened!

The sponge was all gloopy even after I added the yeast/water/sugar mix. I used agave, actually, and it worked great.

The dough seemed dry, but it really wasn't.

I kept stirring the dough, then pressed it into the bowl for a prettier picture.

This is the dough after kneading. I used about 3/4 c flour while kneading, then made a ball and used a little melted butter but mostly olive oil to grease the bowl.

The dough rises really well in hot, humid weather.

The dough is pretty easy to work with; just smoosh it into a smooth log and plop it into a greased pan.

I forgot to take a risen picture of the dough, so I snapped one about five minutes into the baking time. It rose about another two inches in the oven.

Ta da! I rolled my dough into a loaf. I don't recommend this method.

Isn't it gorgeous? Other than the way it falls apart because I rolled it up and it didn't mesh.

My doughs always collapse and go dense. This was super successful, and I highly recommend the method, even though you have to plan ahead.