the conquest of bread

Bread has long been the foundation of western civilization and been made by people around the world for at least ten thousand years.

early yeasters

I've made sourdough for about 15 of those 10,000, since I first discovered Jim Lahey's no knead method. I enjoyed cooking, and especially baking since I was a child, but the discovery of fermentation changed how I thought about making food. No longer was I working alone, I had thousands or more likely millions of microscopic helpers on my side. All they needed was time and a safe environment to work in.

For the first half of this period, white flour was my medium. It results in light fluffy bread with a large open crumb. Due to the fermentation it takes on a yellowy translucent character, unlike industrially produced white bread. This colouration and large crumb was the standard I was working towards.

I told myself this was a healthy food as it was fermented, the reality is that anything alive is killed by the cooking process. Albeit white sourdough is probably still somewhat healthier than industrially produced bread, both as it lacks whatever additives they add, also the flour is partially digested and the theory goes, easier on your digestion.

During this time I had often experimented with a partially whole wheat loaf, but the addition of all that additional "stuff", took away from the pure unadulterated pumping power that results in those high rises. Brown breads were denser and you lost that yellowy glow. Nevertheless, I persevered with a 50/50 split, trading off rise for some nutrition. As white flour has close to zero nutritional value, its primary carbohydrate with ~10% protein. It was a battle of sense, whats good for me, against what is perceived as more delicious.

And then I found Bitman's latest book; Bitman Bread.

Link

Which is filled entirely with 100% whole wheat recipes, from breads, to muffins, to cookies, to cakes, all whole wheat.

Mark has been in bread for a while now, he was the guy that wrote about Jim and helped popularise the no knead method. Bitman Bread, starts from a place of ~20 years of learning and experience of bread making. And goes straight to assuming you want to make the best bread possible and are taking the appropriate steps; you are using a live culture which you feed from loaf to loaf, and you are milling your own flour.

As it happens, I had been maintaing a sourdough culture from the start. Sadly not the same one as I had moved countries a few times in that period. I had also been milling my own flour for the last five years.

The foundational changes from the original no knead method are two fold, the jump starter and its now more 'low knead' than no knead.

No knead involved mixing all your ingredients together and leaving them to sit for 12-18 hours, then putting them in a pre heated pot in the oven. This generally worked, though did lead to a few sticky flops and the odd wrist burn, with a 250C pot being moved around.

In the new method, you have the same pot, and a similar total ratio but you start with a jump starter, rest it for ~12 hours, then mix in the remainder of the ingredients, do four folds over a two hour period and then put it into a cold pot in a cold oven.

My big boule is technically double the standard recipe in the book, as long as you maintain the ratios you should be able to change it up or down without issue, to accommodate how much bread you want and or how big a pot you have. Keeping in mind your cooking time may need to be adjusted.

The boule has been my primary way of making bread from the start, I had experimented with other formats but always come back to the boule. Recently I've also stared making a tin loaf as the kids prefer less crust.

the recipe

big boule

step 0 : required tools




step 1 : Jump starter (12 hours)

- Mix together, feed your starter the flour/water you took out and rest for 12 hours




step 2 : First mix (1 hour)

- Mix together, rest for an hour.




step 3 : First fold (30 minutes)

- After the first hour, add the salt and do a couple folds to incorporate.


step 4,5,6 : Three more folds (30 minutes each)

- Every 30m, wet your hands, fold the dough once and put back in.

step 7 : Put into covered pot (15 minutes rest)

- After the fourth fold, line your baking pot with baking paper and put your dough into rest for 15

step 8 : Into cold oven set at 250C (40 minutes)

- Slash the top to help it open, using a lame or sharp knife. put into the oven covered and turn the temp to 250C and set a 40 minute timer.

step 9 : Turn oven down to 200C, take out of pot and put directly into oven (20 minutes)

- After 40 minutes, take the bread out of the pot and put it directly into the oven for another 20 minutes at 200C

step 10 : Out of the oven onto a cooling rack

Three hours between mixing jump starter and putting into pan, 15m rest and then into your cold oven for 60 minutes total.

loaf

step 0 : required tools



step 1 : Jump starter (12 hours)




step 2 : First mix (1 hour)




step 3 : First fold (30 minutes)





The recipe is almost identical to the boule, the primary difference is the size and different cooking temperature and times due to the difference in vessel. Three hours between mixing jump starter and putting into pan, 15m rest and then into your cold oven for 70-80 minutes.

🏷️ #others #food #bread #baking #sourdough #noknead #milling #diy

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