as good as bread
Give us this day our daily bread. Lately I have been baking almost a daily loaf, spurred on by love for good bread and a flourishing sourdough starter (he’s named Billy Bob, and I name all of the loaves too… this one was Claudette). I haven’t been on social media for months, perhaps you’ve noticed, perhaps not. Thank you, truly, everyone who has written to say hello and enquire how I’m doing. The short answer is I am wonderful, really. I stepped away originally just for a week as an experiment to see how heavily I relied on having my phone, and honestly I loved not using my phone so much, that I kept going…. and going. Time has marched steadily on, as it does, and now I am here. Things I previously thought I didn’t have time for, now I “magically” do, like baking daily bread, making fresh pasta weekly, reading, gardening daily, going to bed early, having long and juicy conversations, journaling... the list goes on.
I’m toying with the idea of simply having a landline house phone and ditching the cell phone altogether, or perhaps having a flip phone to have for necessary calls when out. Joel teases me that I’ve become a little old lady, which I don’t mind at all. I do have some gray hairs, after all, and I love a good dried prune, and I do start yawning past 10 o’clock. I don’t know when or if I will be back to Instagram, but not because of any drama or bad feelings, and not particularly about Instagram at all. Just simply because I do not feel the desire to use a phone regularly, or share as often, and I’m honoring that. I really do appreciate you dearly, and the community there, and your support over the years. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I hope to continue posting here on the blog semi regularly, where things seem slower and I have plenty of room to unfold and unfurl all my thoughts. Most likely, I will write in when I have something nice to share, like posting a letter off to a friend to share some good news or good recipes. Such as Claudette, and how you can make your own lovely loaf.
There’s a little kind of saying in Italian, to be “as good as bread”, like the English idiom of being as good as gold. Bread is much nicer than gold, I think, especially the good crusty kind, honest and not too perfect to look at, with the most humble ingredients. Flour, salt, water, and yeast. The alchemy of time transforming these most simple things into something as good as gold. It connects people. I’ve given little dollops of starter to friends and acquaintances and strangers, freshly birthed into new households, connecting us in a simple but profound way, through the universal language of food. Last night, I had a dear friend over, I showed her how to make this loaf, and today I thought to share here as well. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do, and that when it graces your table it brings you all the simple pleasure in the world. In a little way, we will be breaking bread together, no matter how near or far, companatico companions.
no knead sourdough boule
Cross my heart and hope to die, this is an extremely easy loaf with very little hands-on time, making it completely do-able to make, even if you’re a new or a just-sometimes bread baker. You can make this, promise. If you aren’t fond of the idea of making/keeping a starter around, you can omit it and just use the yeast (no need to increase the amount, just omit the starter) and it’ll work just fine still. You can dress it up if you like, by adding in chopped herbs, seeds, some dried olives, etc. but I always just make it just so, as I like the option to go sweet or savory (This makes excellent toast, which I’ve been eating with marmalade I made- will post that recipe, too, soon, if you’d like it). I will also add a video of this whole process as soon as I get around to editing it, hopefully sooner rather than later, because I know it’s quite helpful to see things, reading about it makes it all seem rather complicated, which it really isn’t. update, video is here. and embedded below, scroll down.
450 g flour (I use King Arthur AP)
9 g sea salt
1/4 tsp yeast* optional- see note below
315 g water
30 g sourdough starter (I use 100% hydration, 100% rye- instructions here )
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and yeast. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, mix together the water with the starter to dissolve. I use a fork for this. Pour the liquid into the flour mix and, using your fork or your hands, mix throughly to form a shaggy dough. No kneading, just as long as everything is mixed and there’s no flour at the bottom of the bowl, you’re good. Place a well fitting plate over the top of the bowl and let sit on your counter at room temperature for at least 12 hours and up to 20 (I usually go about 18, making the dough after dinner, and baking the next morning). An aside- after I’m done mixing the dough, I also feed my starter while I have the scale out, 30g water and 30g flour, I feed mine once or twice a day because I bake so much. If you won’t bake again that week, you can put your starter in the fridge. Feed it, let it bubble up and rise again, then place in fridge till the night before you will use it. Take it out of the fridge then, stir it and feed it, and let it fully rise and bubble before using for bread again.
dough, fermented 18 hours, lively, smelling wonderful, and ready to be shaped.
Flour your hands and a smooth work surface (counter, table etc) and scrape the dough out onto it. The dough will seem quite wet. Form a boule (watch this and this first if you need to learn). Set the shaped dough onto a piece of parchment paper or into a well floured banneton (proofing basket) and dust a fine layer of flour on the top. Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise about two hours. The dough is ready to bake when you poke it gently with your finger and it doesn’t spring back right away.
About 45 minutes before you bake, preheat an empty dutch oven with the lid on in your oven to 500f/260c. When ready to bake, score the dough with a sharp razor blade, bread lame, or very sharp knife. Pick up the parchment with the bread (use the corners like a sling) and transfer the whole thing, parchment and all, to the dutch oven. Replace the lid and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes with the lid ON. Remove the lid, reduce the heat to 460f/240c and continue to bake for another 20-30 minutes with the lid OFF. Using the corners of the parchment, carefully remove the bread to a wire cooling rack. Let it cool at least 2 hours- this is a matter of the utmost importance, do not disregard. The bread is finishing “cooking” on the inside and if you cut too early, too much moisture will be trapped and you will end up with a gummy, dense loaf.
* I use this small amount of yeast, as I feel it lends an extra reliability / omits variables that I find makes the bread process easier for me. You can absolutely leave it out, though, especially if you have a nice, active starter- simply increase the starter amount to 60g instead of the called for 30g. UPDATE: Keeping my starter in a warmer place (on top of my water heater) made it very active, and I have not been using any yeast, just the 60g starter, and fermenting about 12 hrs before shaping.
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