Country Loaf Recipes

SOURDOUGH COUNTRY LOAF RECIPE

Steps:

• 12 hours before you plan to mix the dough, add the ingredients to make ½ cup (100 g) of active sourdough starter to a clean jar. Stir until combined, loosely cover the jar and let the starter rise at room temperature. (The ingredients will create a total of 115 g active starter but, because some of it will stick to the sides of the jar during the transfer, we are making a little more than needed.) The sourdough starter is ready to use when it has doubled in size and there are plenty of bubbles on the surface and sides of the jar.
• Autolyse (1 hour): In a mixing bowl, add 330 grams of water and 100 grams active sourdough starter, stir to combine. Add 50 grams whole wheat flour and 450 grams bread flour and use your hands to combine the ingredients until there are no dry bits and the dough looks like a shaggy mass. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest on the counter for 1 hour.
• Add salt (1 hour): Add 10 grams of salt to 30 grams of water in a small bowl and stir to dissolve. Add the salt water to the dough and use your hands to work it in until well combined. Cover the bowl and let rest on the counter for 1 hour.
• Bulk Fermentation (3-5.5 hours): Perform 3 sets of stretch and folds, 30 minutes apart. To perform a set, while the dough is still in the bowl, pick up one side with a wet hand. Pull it up and over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat this action on 4 sides of the dough until the bowl has come full circle. (See notes)Cover the dough and allow to ferment at room temperature for 1-3 more hours according to the following temperatures. 68°F (20°C) 2-3 hours70°F (21°C) 2-2.5 hours72°F (22°C) 1.5-2 hours75°F (24°C) 1-1.5 hoursThe dough is ready for shaping when it has risen about 20-30% and has bubbles around the edges of the bowl.
• Shaping: Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and use a bench scraper to form it into a loose ball. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Lightly flour the surface of the dough ball and use a bench scraper to turn it over. Final shape the dough by pulling the side nearest yourself up and towards the center of the dough. Repeat on all fours sides of the dough. Flip the dough over, seam-side down, and use your hands to twist the dough on the counter. Cup the dough with your hands and gently pull it towards yourself to create a tight skin on the outside. Flour the outside of the dough ball. Flour the inside of a banneton and place the dough ball into the banneton, seam-side up. Cover the bowl with a large plastic bag and let rest on the counter for 30 minutes.
• Second Rise (8-36 hours): Place the covered dough in fridge to cold ferment 8-36 hours.
• Score and Bake: Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven, with the dutch oven inside, to 500°F (260°C) for 30 minutes.Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and score the top with a razor. Remove the dutch oven and place on stove-top. Use the parchment paper as a sling and lift the dough up and into the dutch oven. Cover, turn oven down to 450°F (232°C) and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and bake an additional 25-30 minutes or until the crust is at the desired color.
• Let the bread cool on a cooling rack for 2 hours before cutting.

COUNTRY LOAF

Steps:

• Mix 2 cups of the flour, the sugar and yeast in large bowl. Add warm water. Beat with wire whisk or electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let stand about 1 hour until bubbly.
• Stir in oil and salt. Stir in enough remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until a soft, smooth dough forms. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep dough from sticking, until dough is smooth and springy.
• Place dough in large bowl greased with shortening, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place about 1 hour or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
• Grease uninsulated cookie sheet with shortening. Place dough on lightly floured surface. Gently shape into an even, round ball, without releasing all of the bubbles in the dough. Stretch sides of dough downward to make a smooth top. Place loaf with smooth side up on cookie sheet. Spray loaf with cool water. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in warm place 45 to 60 minutes or until almost double.
• Place square pan, 8x8x2 or 9x9x2 inches, on bottom rack of oven; add hot water to pan until about 1/2 inch from the top. Heat oven to 425°.
• Spray loaf with cool water; sprinkle lightly with flour. Carefully cut three 1/4-inch- deep slashes on top of loaf with sharp serrated knife.
• Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until loaf is deep golden brown with crisp crust and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool.

TARTINE'S COUNTRY BREAD

Steps:

• Make the starter: Combine 1,000 grams white-bread flour with 1,000 grams whole-wheat flour. Put 100 grams of warm water (about 80 degrees) in a small jar or container and add 100 grams of the flour mix. Use your fingers to mix until thoroughly combined and the mixture is the consistency of thick batter. Cover with a towel and let sit at room temperature until mixture begins to bubble and puff, 2 to 3 days.
• When starter begins to show signs of activity, begin regular feedings. Keep the starter at room temperature, and at the same time each day discard 80 percent of the starter and feed remaining starter with equal parts warm water and white-wheat flour mix (50 grams of each is fine). When starter begins to rise and fall predictably and takes on a slightly sour smell, it's ready; this should take about 1 week.(Reserve remaining flour mix for leaven.)
• Make the leaven: The night before baking, discard all but 1 tablespoon of the mature starter. Mix the remaining starter with 200 grams of warm water and stir with your hand to disperse. Add 200 grams of the white-wheat flour mix and combine well. Cover with a towel and let rest at room temperature for 12 hours or until aerated and puffed in appearance. To test for readiness, drop a tablespoon of leaven into a bowl of room-temperature water; if it floats it's ready to use. If it doesn't, allow more time to ferment.
• Make the dough: In a large bowl, combine 200 grams of leaven with 700 grams of warm water and stir to disperse. (Reserve remaining leaven for future loaves; see note below.)
• Add 900 grams of white-bread flour and 100 grams of whole-wheat flour to bowl and use your hands to mix until no traces of dry flour remain. The dough will be sticky and ragged. Cover bowl with a towel and let dough rest for 25 to 40 minutes at room temperature.
• Add 20 grams fine sea salt and 50 grams warm water. Use hands to integrate salt and water into dough thoroughly. The dough will begin to pull apart, but continue mixing; it will come back together.
• Cover dough with a towel and transfer to a warm environment, 75 to 80 degrees ideally (like near a window in a sunny room, or inside a turned-off oven). Let dough rise for 30 minutes. Fold dough by dipping hand in water, taking hold of the underside of the dough at one quadrant and stretching it up over the rest of the dough. Repeat this action 3 more times, rotating bowl a quarter turn for each fold. Do this every half-hour for 2 1/2 hours more (3 hours total). The dough should be billowy and increase in volume 20 to 30 percent. If not, continue to let rise and fold for up to an hour more.
• Transfer dough to a work surface and dust top with flour. Use a dough scraper to cut dough into 2 equal pieces and flip them over so floured sides are face down. Fold the cut side of each piece up onto itself so the flour on the surface remains entirely on the outside of the loaf; this will become the crust. Work dough into taut rounds. Place the dough rounds on a work surface, cover with a towel, and let rest 30 minutes.
• Mix 100 grams whole-wheat flour and 100 grams rice flours. Line two 10- to 12-inch bread-proofing baskets or mixing bowls with towels. Use some of the flour mixture to generously flour towels (reserve remaining mixture).
• Dust rounds with whole-wheat flour. Use a dough scraper to flip them over onto a work surface so floured sides are facing down. Take one round, and starting at the side closest to you, pull the bottom 2 corners of the dough down toward you, then fold them up into the middle third of the dough. Repeat this action on the right and left sides, pulling the edges out and folding them in over the center. Finally, lift the top corners up and fold down over previous folds. (Imagine folding a piece of paper in on itself from all 4 sides.) Roll dough over so the folded side becomes the bottom of the loaf. Shape into a smooth, taut ball. Repeat with other round.
• Transfer rounds, seam-side up, to prepared baskets. Cover with a towel and return dough to the 75- to 80-degree environment for 3 to 4 hours. (Or let dough rise for 10 to 12 hours in the refrigerator. Bring back to room temperature before baking.)
• About 30 minutes before baking, place a Dutch oven or lidded cast-iron pot in the oven and heat it to 500 degrees. Dust tops of dough, still in their baskets, with whole-wheat/rice-flour mixture. Very carefully remove heated pot from oven and gently turn 1 loaf into pan seam-side down. Use a lame (a baker's blade) or razor blade to score the top of the bread a few times to allow for expansion, cover and transfer to oven. Reduce temperature to 450 degrees and cook for 20 minutes. Carefully remove lid (steam may release) and cook for 20 more minutes or until crust is a rich, golden brown color.
• Transfer bread to a wire rack to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing. The bottom of the loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Increase oven temperature to 500 degrees, clean out pot and repeat this process with the second loaf.

WHOLE GRAIN SOURDOUGH RUSTIC COUNTRY LOAF

Steps:

• Combine salt with flour in a mixing bowl, then add water and mix either by hand or with a dough whisk until fully incorporated into a "shaggy mass."
• Add starter and mix / squish by hand until fully incorporated. The process of incorporating the starter is a bit of primary kneading and should result in the dough smoothing out some, but don't go nuts. As soon as the starter is fully incorporated, you're done.
• Cover mixing bowl and let sit.
• First Bulk Fermentation Period
• The first (of three) bulk fermentation period is at room temperature which for me is 73 - 75 degrees F, and lasts about 10 hours.
• At about an hour in, do 5-10 minutes of hand kneading (see notes and video below) until the dough develops some strength and elasticity and becomes noticeably smoother. Cover and let sit.
• Every 1-2 hours (exact timing is not important - really!) do a short round of stretching and folding to re-develop the dough's elasticity (see notes and video below). Then re-cover and let sit.
• Second Bulk Fermentation Period
• After about 10 hours, or whenever the dough has risen to about 1.5 times its original volume, put the covered bowl of dough into a cold (~40 F) refrigerator and let sit (for me, this is overnight) for about 10 hours.
• Third Bulk Fermentation Period
• Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature again.
• As the dough warms up, resume periodic stretch and folds. Dough should be feeling progressively more lively, developing a bit of sour aroma, and eventually starting to bubble some.
• This final bulk fermentation period is the hardest to put a time length on. Getting it right matters, and it will totally depend on how active your starter is, how warm your kitchen is, and a whole host of other mostly invisible things. You are shooting to finish this period when the dough has risen to 2 - 2.5 times its original volume and ideally is actively blowing a few bubbles. I've had this take anywhere from 4 - 8 hours depending on this and that. Your mileage may vary. Try not to overshoot this - you'll probably have a better result erring on the too soon side than the too late side.
• Shaping and Proofing
• (See notes and video below)
• Prepare a lined proofing basket by generously flouring the inside and set it aside.
• Lightly flour a large work surface and turn the dough out onto it.
• Wet your hands, punch down the dough and then stretch and flatten it into a large thin rectangle.
• Fold dough in half from top to bottom and press top into bottom, flattening again but not as big as the initial rectangle. At this point, you want the height of the dough rectangle to be right about the length of your proofing basket (no more than that).
• [Optional] Lightly flour the top of the dough (and your hands).
• Start at one end and roll the dough rectangle into a cylinder.
• Keep track of the seam and transfer the dough cylinder into the lined, floured proofing basket seam-side up.
• Cover and let sit for 1 - 1.5 hours.
• Baking
• From 30 - 60 minutes after transferring dough into proofing basket, pre-heat oven and clay baker to 450 degrees F ~ about 20 - 30 minutes.
• Uncover dough and transfer from proofing basket into base of clay baker, score top of dough, cover and bake at 450 F for 25 minutes.
• Uncover clay baker, reduce oven temperature to 400 F and bake uncovered for another 20-25 minutes (or until desired crust color develops).
• Remove bread and place on cooling rack for at least a couple hours before cutting.