Bread. Life.
Baking and Butter
Nothing better than the smell of fresh bread and coffee on a grey, winter Sunday morning in British Columbia.
A bowl of dough in the fridge, after a mix and first rise on Saturday night. Wake up, out and in a bread pan for second rise, an hour in a dutch oven, sit for 30m, and boom.
Bread and butter, hot coffee in an oversize enameled ceramic mug from a small café on Salt Spring Island reminding me of a summer always on its way, and the NYT Sunday Crossword. Perfect.
Ingredients: sourdough starter, flour, filtered water, kosher salt, yeast, olive oil.
I’ve used various flours with this recipe. All-purpose, einkorn, spelt, rye, wheat, fresh-milled from wheat berries, and various mixtures of the above. My favorite taste is just plain old white bread flour, but it’s all good. A 4:1, white : einkorn/rye also yummy.
Filtered water makes a difference. Yeast doesn’t like chlorine, and tap water will bork the enzymatic reactions necessary for good sourdough. No need for a special trip to get distilled water. A Brita filter from the tap works just fine.
Gear: digital scale, 2-quart bowl, bread tin, plastic dough cutter, plastic blag.
A scale is important. Me being me, I tried eyeballing ingredients for a while. That didn’t end well. 30 grams one way or another can make a big difference in texture and rise. And, in eyeballing, 30 grams ain’t a lot.
For some, the feeling of flour and dough in their hands is a highlight. Not me. I love making bread, but don’t like the feeling of my hands covered with dough, flour, kneading dough with my hands, etc. I’ve made hundreds of loaves of fantastic bread using a plastic dough cutter for all the kneading and folding, and it works just fine. But, if you like kneading with your hands, do it. Cooking should nurture your senses. Do what feels good for you.
Timing:
This recipe is forgiving with rise times. I’ve forgotten the timer for the first and second rise, gotten distracted, ran errands, then several hours later realized, “uhh… whoops” when I remember the bread. I go back to it, it’s risen too far, got all kinds of bubbles. I pound it down a bit, let it re-rise a bit, and it always turns out tasty.
Inspiration:
I made my first loaf of bread about a year ago. The owner of a local grocerant gave me some starter and a YouTube link and said, “Follow this exactly. You’ll get good bread.”
She was right. I followed that recipe several times until comfortable with the process. Visiting friends brought me “Evolutions In Bread”, by Ken Forkish, and I was off to the races. My bread below is based on one of its easier recipes. That book, and Ken’s attitude and love of baking, have been a huge help.
Funny thing about bread. It builds friends and neighbors. It’s the oldest form of cooking, with communal roots that exist in every culture. To this day, giving and receiving a loaf of bread feels like it touches something ancient.
Recipe:
Mix 380g of warm, filtered water, and 100g of room-temperature starter in a 2-qt bowl. Mix the starter well into the water;
Add 500g of flour;
Mix flour and water/starter mix until a shaggy ball. If you’re new to bread making, just keep mixing it up. It’ll happen. Use the round end of the dough cutter to scrape around the bowl, and under the ball as it forms to incorporate all the bits of dry flour;
Once you have a shaggy ball, add 11g of kosher salt and 4g of active, instant yeast directly on top of the ball. Do not mix;
Cover with a plastic bag or aluminum foil and let sit at room temp for 25 minutes. This is a very important step for reasons. Do not skip it, do not short-change the time;
Mix and fold for about 30 seconds. To do this, grab one end of the ball, and fold it up and over itself. I do this with the round end of the scraper, but your hands will also work. Rotate 90º. Do it again. Repeat rotate/fold two more times;
Use the round end of the scraper (or your hand) to push straight into the dough for 10 seconds or so. The goal is to fully incorporate the salt and yeast, and start to firm up the dough a bit;
Let set for 3 minutes;
Repeat step 6 and 7, and go around the circle (4 spins) a few times. Spend about 30 seconds doing this;
Cover and let sit for 10 minutes;
Repeat step 9;
Cover and let sit for an hour;
Repeat step 9;
Cover and let sit for between 3 to 3.5 hours;
At this point, the dough should have risen significantly. If it hasn’t let it sit an hour at a time until you notice that rise;
To cook the bread NOW, go to step 19;
Put the bowl of risen dough - covered - into the fridge overnight;
Wake up, take the dough out of the fridge, and let it sit on the counter for about 30m;
Lightly oil the entire inside of a bread tin. I use foil to cover the bread pan, and oil that instead. Makes it easier to get the bread out at the end if it sticks to the pan at all. Which, for me, it always does… always more to learn.
Lightly flour a smooth surface. Use the dough scraper to pull the dough ball out onto the surface without ripping the ball;
Get your hands a little wet. Form the blob of dough on the surface into a loaf about the side of the bread tin. Grab either side of that loaf, and pull in opposite directions until that dough is about 3 times the width of the tin;
Without letting go, fold the right side of the dough in and on top of the center. Fold the left side the same way;
Starting with the side of the loaf closest to you, pick up the entire edge, and roll the dough ball up and away from you to form a rolled loaf;
Place the loaf into the bread tin. Cover and let sit for 50m;
While it is sitting, heat an (empty) dutch oven at 450º. If you don’t have a dutch oven, don’t worry about it. Putting the bread in without any covering works. It’ll just be “crustier” and harder on the outside;
Place bread tin into dutch oven, put the lid back on, and place on middle rack. Bake at 425º for 30 minutes;
Remove dutch oven cover, and continue to bake at 425º for 18m.
Remove bread tin, remove bread from tin, remove foil, and set on a grill or other surface allowing air flow under the loaf. Let sit for 30m.
With that incredible smell, it is so tempting to immediately cut into that fresh loaf of hot bread. Don’t. The bread is still cooking and forming and letting it sit is important. Most recipes say let it sit for at least an hour. I can’t wait that long, and it isn’t still hot after an hour. That just seems like a waste of joy.
Cut, spread butter, eat, and enjoy.
Enjoy!
Lucas