The Essential Book of Fermentation (40 page)

1 cup unbleached all-purpose or whole wheat flour, preferably organic

1 cup filtered or spring water

1.
Mix the flour and water in a gallon-size ceramic bowl. Cover with a moist dish towel and set a plate on top to hold the cloth in place.

2.
Let the mixture rest on the kitchen counter for 3 to 6 days, stirring it daily and remoistening the dish towel each day.

3.
It’s ready when it has risen and deflates when poked, and when a spoonful of it shows little bubbles and smells slightly but cleanly sour. It may fail the first time, but persist with a new batch and soon you will have your starter.

4.
Place the starter in a canning jar topped with a piece of paper towel held by a band that would ordinarily hold a metal canning jar lid. This allows the starter to breathe. Place the starter in the fridge.

5.
Refresh and feed your starter every 3 or 4 weeks. It will be reduced in size because you will have (it’s hoped) made bread with some of it. Simply add a slurry made of flour and water in a 1-to-1 ratio. Stir the slurry into the remains of the starter, let it warm, covered, to room temperature for a few hours, then place it back into the fridge. Refrigeration slows fermentation. The starter should always smell fresh, slightly sour, and yeasty. If it develops an off smell or shows any signs of unwholesomeness like gray liquid or mold, or becomes unpleasantly and very strongly sour, toss it and start over with a fresh batch.

6.
When it comes time to make bread, you’ll need to get your starter supercharged so it’s potently active. A couple of days before your planned day to bake bread, take ¼ cup of starter from your fridge and place it in a large bowl. If you have an accurate scale, weigh the starter and add equal weights of flour and water. If you are using measuring cups, the ¼ cup of starter is given ¼ cup of filtered water and a little less than ½ cup of flour. Mix these ingredients together vigorously so they’re thoroughly combined and some air is whipped into the starter. Cover and let stand for a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 12 hours. Then repeat the process, using the same amounts of starter, flour, and water. Mix well, cover, and let stand again for 4 to 12 hours. Feed the starter a third time, and at the end of the third period, the starter should be bubbly and able to double in size in from 4 to 8 hours. Now it’s working and ready to adequately proof your bread.

7.
On baking day, add 1 cup of the supercharged starter to every 6 cups of flour in the bread recipe. If you’ve made your own starter, be aware that the yeast floating in the air that has made your starter is no match for the active dry yeast you buy at the supermarket. It will take your yeast starter longer to proof (rise) your loaves—from 4 to 24 hours, depending on the temperature and the mix of yeasts in your starter. The longer it takes to rise, the more sour the loaf will be. You’ll get the hang of timing once you bake a few loaves.

Making Homemade Bread

Because bread dough has been supercharged with yeast, it is improved nutritionally. Yeast is an excellent source of protein and vitamins, especially the B-complex vitamins, as well as minerals and other cofactors required by the body to make amino acids for growth. It is also naturally low in fat and sodium.

You’ll need some good equipment if you are going to make fine bread at home. The following equipment can be purchased from the Baker’s Catalog. (See contact information
here
.) The catalog itself is full of excellent bread-baking information as well as tools.

A baking stone really helps give your bread a professional finish. It’s a heavy, rectangular, ceramic block that fits in your oven and soaks up intense heat. When you slide your bread dough onto it, the stone gives positive bottom heat to your bread, which helps it rise and finish properly. If you don’t have a baking stone, you can line a baking sheet with parchment paper. It’s good to have a peel—a large, flat-bladed wooden paddle used for sliding dough into the oven, moving loaves as needed, and removing breads when they’re done.

You’ll need a cutting tool like a razor blade, X-Acto knife, or lame, the latter being a French tool for slashing the tops of your loaves before putting them in the oven. Unless a knife is literally razor sharp, it tears at the dough and partially collapses it.

You may want to buy some dough-rising baskets made of coiled wooden dowels to give your bread a professional beehive look. And you may want to purchase a couche—an untreated baker’s cloth made of flax into whose folds you lay your dough for rising. Finally, do you have one of those cast-iron cornbread molds, the ones with eight depressions that turn out cob-shaped cornbread? They’re perfect for getting the right amount of steam into the oven for the first ten minutes of the bake.

This recipe takes several days. Time it so that you’ll be around all day on baking day. The previous days take only a few minutes’ work.

On the first day,
in a large bowl, mix 2 cups of all-purpose organic white flour with 2 cups of lukewarm water, ¼ cup of sourdough starter or ½ teaspoon of dried commercial yeast, and 1 heaping tablespoon of sea salt. The salt retards the development of the yeast. Don’t be afraid that you’re not adding enough yeast. This recipe takes enough time for the scant amount of yeast added this first day to multiply manyfold. Stirring is done with a wooden spoon just until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel wet with hot tap water and wrung out, with a plate set on top to hold the towel in place. Set the bowl on a warm kitchen counter away from any drafts.

Couche with baguette loaves

On the second day,
stir in ½ cup or slightly more lukewarm water, 1 cup of
white
whole wheat flour, ½ cup of rye flour, and a good handful of rolled organic oats. Wet the dish towel again and cover the bowl with the towel and the plate.

On the third day,
it’s time to bake. Soon after getting up in the morning, take out your largest bowl and mix 5 cups of all-purpose organic white flour with about 2½ cups of lukewarm water—enough so that the dough holds together. Remove this sticky mass to a floured board and gently knead it for 2 to 3 minutes, then return it to the large bowl and let it rest for 30 to 40 minutes. The exact amount of time isn’t critical, but the resting period is responsible for heightened flavor in the final bread.

After the resting period, uncover the bowl containing the poolish, as the mixture that’s been sitting for two days is called. Now the mixture is supercharged with active yeast and other microbes ready to go into action. Using a spatula, scrape the poolish into the large bowl with the rested dough, getting as much as possible. You may want to remove any rings from your fingers at this point. Using your hands, squeeze and mix the poolish and the new dough together until they are fairly well incorporated. Flouring the hands is more ritual than practicality, for this mixed dough will be powerfully sticky. Wetting your hands works better. With both hands stuck full of dough, transfer as much of the mixture as you can to a board heavily floured with all-purpose white flour. Scrape the sticky stuff off your hands and fingers and push it into the dough, which will be runny—and may even try to run off the board. Don’t let it. Heavily flour the top surface of the dough and push it back into the flour on the board with your hands. Once you’re sure that the dough will behave itself and stay put, quickly wash your hands (this will be a relief), dry them, and flour them.

Now fold the dough in half, then gently pull it out to its former size. Give it a half turn, fold, and pull. Use as much flour as you need to keep the surface from being so sticky you can’t fold and pull. Knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes to work up the gluten that causes the bread to be stretchy and chewy. If it begins to stick to the board, use flour to prevent that. A pastry scraper is helpful. At the end of the kneading time, the dough will stay put on your board, although it will still be moist. Go to the sink and thoroughly clean and dry your largest bowl. Wipe the inside of the bowl with a paper towel moistened with a little olive oil. Use both hands to transfer the dough from the board to the bowl. Cover the top with a damp dish towel. Set the bowl aside in a warm (75 to 80ºF is ideal), draft-free spot to let the dough proof for at least 4 hours. At the end of that time, it should have doubled or nearly tripled in size.

Gently pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl and deflate it. Cover it again and allow it to rise for another 2 hours, when it will have at least doubled in size, if not tripled.

Gently remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured board. If you want 3 smaller loaves, divide it into thirds. If you are making 2 large round loaves, divide the dough into equal halves. If you want baguettes, slice it into 4 equal pieces. Try not to deflate the dough any more than you have to during these procedures.

For 3 loaves, use 3 coiled-dowel baskets well dusted inside with flour. For 2 large round loaves, use 2 round-bottomed baskets about 10 or 11 inches in diameter and about 8 or 9 inches deep. Line them with fine cloth napkins well dusted with flour. If making 4 baguettes, dust the couche with flour to prepare it.

Once the dough is divided, either gently pat it into large rounds and place them with their smoothest side down in the baskets, or gently form them into 4 baguette loaves about 4 inches across and about 12 inches long. These get carried to the couche one by one. Fold the couche into hills and valleys and lay each piece of dough into a valley so that it is given a fold in which to proof. To prevent the couche from flattening out, prop up either end of the flax with a jar or bottle of water—whatever’s heavy enough to prevent the couche’s folds from flattening out. Then lightly dust the top of the dough, whether basket or couche, with organic yellow cornmeal.

The final rise takes about an hour or two, depending on the strength of your starter. Remove the racks from your oven except for the middle one and the one below it. Place your baking stone on this middle rack and place your cast-iron cornbread mold (or cast-iron skillet if you don’t have the mold) on the bottom rack. When the final rise is half over—that is, when there’s about a half hour to go—turn on the oven to 500ºF. It takes a good half hour for the oven and the baking stone to reach an even 500ºF.

After the final rise, have 8 ice cubes ready. Get your razor blade and a glass of water. Quickly open the oven door and sprinkle the stone with a light dusting of cornmeal. Close the door quickly.

For round loaves, have your peel lightly dusted with cornmeal. Place it over the top of the round loaves and invert the baskets. The basket, whether the round dowel type or one lined with a floured cloth, should lift right off. Make your slashes with the lame, dipping it in water between cuts. For round loaves, use 3 slashes that cross in the center. It may take some practice to be able to make quick, sure slashes that don’t tear and deflate the dough.

Open the oven door and slide the dough off the peel and onto one side of the stone. Close the door. Slash and insert the second loaf onto the other side of the stone. Toss 1 ice cube into each of the 8 segments of the iron cornbread mold, or all 8 into the iron skillet. Close the door immediately.

For the baguettes, flip a loaf from one end of the couche onto a lightly cornmeal-dusted wooden board about 6 inches wide and at least a foot long, take it to the peel, and slide or flip it on. Repeat until all 4 loaves are on the peel, or place them on the peel and in the oven one by one—whatever seems easiest to you. Using the razor blade, make 4 equally spaced oblique slashes across the top of each long loaf. You can be creative with your slashes if you wish, making one long one, a wavy one, or whatever. Four obliques do the job well and give a pleasing appearance. It helps to dip the blade in water after each slash.

Slide the loaves off the peel onto the stone or baking sheet with a quick back-and-forth shake, quickly add the ice cubes, and close the door. The reason for the ice cubes is the same reason professional ovens have steam injectors. The ice cubes turn to steam and evaporate over the first 10 minutes or so of the bake and produce a beautiful, crisp crust.