Bread

This approach is heavily influenced by instructions from Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery as written in his book. I recommend that book as well as The Bread Baker's Apprentice above all others for those people just starting with bread making. Another amazing resource is Peter Reinhart's online bread class where you can watch him making bread, ask questions online and join a community of bread students.

STARTER: My bread starts with wild yeast starter. Chad hesitates to call this "sourdough" as he prefers to use the starter a few hours after the 'refreshment' and the resulting bread does not taste at all sour. Creating a wild yeast starter is not difficult at all. Make a bag of a few pounds of whole wheat and an equal weight of white bread flour. Mix these flours together. Take 100 grams of this flour mix and 100 grams of water and let is sit for a day or two. Throw out 80% of this flour/water soup and then do it again. Add 100 grams of flour mix and 100 grams of water. Pretty soon this "refreshment" process can be done without weighing as you get a feel for the gloppy nature of the starter. A cup or so of flour mix and some water. Stir. Wait a day. Repeat. After a few days, the starter will be foamy and smell very nice. If you skip a day, don't worry about it. Just return to the cycle of daily refreshments. Dumping most of the old starter, adding the flour/ water and stirring takes about 1-2 minutes daily. You can save a lot of time if a bakery will give you a piece of their sourdough starter. If they will, you can just start using it and keep it going (indefinitely) by refreshing it with flour and water every week or so. You can, of course, replace sourdough starter with instant yeast.

When a glob of this mix floats in water, it is ready to use. It will smell good; slightly sour. If your starter doesn't float, you have two choices- either refresh it and check back in 12-24 hours or make your dough with the starter anyway and then add some commercial yeast to your dough. You will still get the flavor of sourdough from the bacteria in your starter and you will get the rising power from the commercial yeast. NOTE: Do not add commercial yeast to your source starter- only the the bread dough.

Mix together
1000 grams of flour
700 grams (ml) of water
200 grams of starter (or 1/2 tsp yeast)

Do not add the salt yet.

Let sit for 30-60 minutes.
Sprinkle the salt on the top.

After 30-60 minutes (and adding the salt) it is time to stretch and fold. Lift the dough, pull it into a rope (without tearing) and fold or curl it onto itself. Let sit another 30-60 minutes and repeat.

After 2-3 "stretch and folds", you should have smooth, elastic dough without doing ANY kneading! Allow to rise for 2-3 hours or until almost double in volume. Divide into 2 or 3 equal pieces depending on the size loaves you wish. Do not "punch down" the dough. Work gently with the dough to preserve the bubbles trapped inside.

Fold the pieces gently into thirds. Let rest 5 minutes and then fold or roll the other direction.

Place into a bread form. I use paper pulp bread forms but there are other possibilities such as a floured tea towel placed inside a bowl.

Spray the top of the bread with spray oil and place in a plastic bag. Let rise in the bread form for several hours or hold in the refrigerator and rise the next day for even more flavor. The longer the dough sits (up to about 3 days), the more starches are converted to sugars and the better the resulting bread will taste.

BAKING STAGE 1: Baking great bread in a home oven requires a dutch oven or covered cast iron skillet to trap the steam around the bread for the first half of the bake. Great bread can not be made in a home oven without this steaming technique as the steam introduced by a plant sprayer or hot water in a tray is insufficient in the large volume of the home oven. The dutch oven technique is a brilliant way to hold the steam around the bread.

Pre-heat the dutch oven pot to 450-500 degrees. Allow the pot to soak up this heat for at least 20 minutes. Dump your bread dough from the banneton/ brotform onto a large piece of parchment paper which will act as a sling to transfer the dough to the hot pot.

Slash the top of the dough with your sharp knife or lame.

Lift the dough using the corners of the parchment as a sling and place in the hot dutch oven.

Pour 2 tablespoon or so of water into the pot, but avoid getting the water directly on the dough. Immediately put the lid on. Be careful as large quantities of steam we be coming from the under the lid.

BAKING STAGE 2: Return the pot to the oven and bake covered for 20-25 minutes at 450 degrees.

After 20 minutes of baking with lid on.

BAKING STAGE 3: Take the lid off and bake another 20-25 minutes at 400-450 depending on how dark you like the resulting loaf. You can turn the lid so the top of the bread is protected by the lid yet the steam can escape

After 20 minutes of baking with lid off, test the interior temperature of the bread with a probe thermometer. It should read over 195 degrees.

COOLING: Allow the bread to cool for at least 1-2 hours before slicing. If you cut into the bread while the interior is still over 100°F, it will likely be gummy and ruin what could have been a great loaf of bread. Your patience will be rewarded.

Often this steaming method will create great "oven spring" as shown here.

Feel free to experiment with the addition of nuts, cheese, olives and other tasty items in your bread.