Bread Worth Waiting For

Ben, my middle, has always liked projects. When he was little, he made homemade gnocchi, pretzels, bagels - you name it. The messier the project and the more time consuming it was he would pick it. As a young adult he has gotten into baking bread. So far, through this pandemic, I’ve been lucky in that he and his girlfriend split their time between her parents and me. The weeks that Ben is here are usually messier, tastier and a lot more fun.

This past week he decided we needed good bread. It was a 3 - 4 day process but man! The bread he made was probably the best bread I’ve had in ages…. Crunchy crust, good chewy texture and flavor and, if you’re a carb lover like we are, it made a great anchor for our humble dinner of Tomato Soup, Cheeses and Grilled Shrimp. The true star of that meal was the bread.

My favorite way to eat bread is just with sweet butter sprinkled with salt but I threw it in my soup, spread my cheeses on it and probably ate at least 1/6 of the loaf. The rest we all ate Sunday - toasted with butter and jam (I am the lucky recipient of my friend Debbie’s delicious, homemade Strawberry Jam) and under our poached eggs.

The recipe I’m giving you here comes from Bon Appetit. It’s called BA’s Best Bread. I’ve made notes where we adapted it to what we had in my house but I am copying their directions pretty much verbatim since it was so delicious.

Ingredients

Poolish

1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast

117 grams (3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons) Whole Wheat Flour

75 grams (2/3 cup) Rye Flour NOTE - we only had whole wheat flour so we used that instead. It’s best if you use at least 2 different flours but don’t go crazy trying to find special flours in these times! Ben also used some bread flour but it was mostly Whole Wheat and All Purpose (AP) King Arthur Flour.

42 grams (6 Tablespoons) AP flour

Dough

103 grams (3/4 cup) Whole Wheat Flour

412 grams (3 cups plus 1 Tablespoon) All Purpose (AP) flour

17 grams (2 Tablespoons) Kosher Salt

Rice Flour or a 50/50 mix of AP flour and cornstarch (for dusting) NOTE - we just used AP Flour

Directions

Poolish

Combine yeast and 300 gram (1 1/4 cups) room-temperature water in the bowl of a stand mixer. It’s best if your kitchen is between 72 - 74 degrees. Add all the flours and mix with a wooden spoon until no dry spots remain Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until poolish is mature (surface will be very bubbly) 14 - 18 hours.

Drop a pinch of the poolish into a small bowl of room temperature water. If it floats, it’s mature and you’re good to go. If it sinks, wait another 1/2 hour and try again.

Dough

Combine 300 gram (1 1/4 cups) room temperature water into poolish with a sturdy wooden spoon. Add whole-wheat flour and 412 g (3 cups plus 1 Tablespoon) AP flour and mix until no dry spots remain. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let sit 2 hours. (This is called autolysis. It develops the gluten, which gives the dough its structure and chew).

Evenly sprinkle salt over the dough then add 65 g (1/4 cup plus 1 Tsp.) room-temperature water and mix with dough hook on medium-low speed. The dough should start to develop a shape and cling to hook after a minute or two. Increase speed to med-high and mix until almost all the dough clings to hook and clears the sides of the bowl - 8 - 12 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

Turn out dough on a clean surface. Holding a flexible bench scraper in one hand, quickly lift dough eye level then slap it down on surface in one swift, deliberate motion. As you throw it down, let it fall off the ends of your hands and fold over onto itself. The dough may be sticky but it will want to stick to itself more than your hands. Start slowly to avoid flying dough bits, then increase the intensity of your motion as the dough starts to firm up. Slap and fold for 10 - 12 minutes, occasionally scraping bits of dough from surface with a bench scraper. Directions say that you should be slightly winded by the time the dough is ready. This is very important. It builds the gluten and strengthens the dough.

Pinch off a small piece of dough and stretch it between your thumbs and index fingers on both hands. The dough should be able to stretch thin enough to let light though without breaking. If it splits or tears the gluten is not yet developed enough. Continue slapping and folding another 2 minutes, test again.

Place dough in a large clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it sit 30 minutes. Starting from one side, use a bench scraper to lift edge of dough, stretching it up and out of the bowl at least 12” and shaking back and forth to encourage lengthening, then fold back onto itself. Rotate the bowl 90 degrees. Repeat stretching process 3 more times, rotating the bowl after each turn. Cover and rest another 30 minutes. Repeat process 2 more times, resting dough 30 minutes in between each full turn. (This rebuilds gluten and feeds the yeast during fermentation.) Cover dough with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm spot until nearly doubled in size, 30-60 minutes. Dough should look puffed and bubbly on the surface.

To test if your dough is fermented, poke it with an oiled finger. The dough should spring back slowly but still hold a slight indentation.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured (AP) surface and do a final series of 4 folds, bringing edges into the center. Turn dough over, using bench scraper to help you, so seam side is down. Lightly dust with more flour and cover with a kitchen towel. Let rest until dough is puffed and surface is dotted with a few bubbles, 20 - 50 minutes.

Line a 9 inch round colander with a clean kitchen towel and dust towel with an even layer of rice flour (we used AP flour)

Uncover dough and dust with a bit more AP flour. Use bench scraper to push edges of dough toward the center to gather into a ball. Cup scraper and free hand around far side of dough and gently pull ball toward you, dragging dough several inches across work surface and rotating slightly. Repeat dragging motion several times, occasionally moving dough back to center of surface. The friction against the surface will help tighten the gluten over the dough, creating a smooth dome. Lightly flour top of dough, turn over with bench scraper, and quickly transfer, seam side up, to prepared colander; cover with plastic. Chill 1 - 2 DAYS. The longer the bread sits, the more complex the flavor will be. Don’t chill longer than 2 days - the yeast will die.

Place an oven rack in lower third of oven and set a 3 1/2 - 5 1/2 quart Dutch oven in center of rack (we used 5 1/2 quart Le Creuset). Set oven as high as it will go - at least 450 degrees. We put it at 500 degrees. Let pot preheat at least 40 minutes. Make sure you have a Dutch oven that can handle the heat - handle included! Otherwise take the handle off! BA recommends you plug the hole with a small piece of foil if you need to do this.

Uncover dough and dust surface with rice flour (we used AP). Cut a round of parchment paper so it’s slightly larger than the dough. Place over top of dough. Remove pot from oven and set on stovetop.

Working on stove next to Dutch oven, invert dough onto a plate (parchment side will be down). Use a razor blade to slash dough in desired pattern. Cut at least 1/2 inch into dough. BE VERY CAREFUL OF THE HOT POT. Slide dough and parchment into center of pot. Cover pot and bake bread for 15 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake, rotating pot halfway through, until crust is very well done - approaching the edge of burnt. 30 - 40 minutes. Carefully transfer bread to a wire rack. When it’s cool enough to handle, remove parchment.

The directions say to wait until cutting into the bread. They say to wait a couple of hours (we did not - we just let it rest for about 15 minutes). They claim it gives the bread a better texture.

I wouldn’t know. We ate most of it that night.