Bread: I Want To Make It With You

Ah. . . Bread.

No country in the world values bread like France. Today, bread is rarely baked inside a French home, as the country subsidizes and controls the price of their national treasure, the French baguette. You will find your daily baguette at a reasonable .99 euros at all boulangeries in France. During my last trip to Antibes, the shopkeeper wore an apron with a pocket to quickly return the one cent euro coin change. Well-prepared for high volume sales with low technology.

Bread is the origin of the word pantry, so frequently used in conversations today. The French word for bread is pain (pan) and after baking, ancient French homemakers would place the coveted poofs in a room or cupboard to retain freshness. Voila - a pantry!

Yeast is used to make bread rise, as well as making beer and wine. Cheers! Its use in making bread can be traced back to the Egyptians. Until World War II, when commercial dry yeast was introduced, bakers around the world relied on a homemade yeast or sour dough starter for their daily bread. In fact, homesteaders on the Oregon Trail carried their starter around their necks to retain its ambient temperature.

During this pandemic, dry yeast was one of the first products to go missing from grocery store shelves. That seemed like a good launching point to share my recipe for sour dough starter! You can find many recipes on the internet, but this one I made myself. It works - be patient. This uses simple ingredients, but it does take time; no muscle, just time. Flour is abundant on store shelves again so grab some whole wheat and bread flour. If possible, rye flour will be useful for future loaves to mix it up. You will need either rye or wheat with bread flour being essential in each loaf.

Sour dough starter begins with making a batch of starter called the mother. This will take 5 days to develop.

At the end of 5 days, you will test a spoonful of the mother to see if it floats. If it does, you will create a batch of leaven from the mother to use as an ingredient to make your first loaf of bread!

The mother remainder can continued to be fed for repeated baking of loaves, or it can be refrigerated and fed weekly to be kept alive for future baking. Just bring to room temp, feed over 5 days and you can create another leaven.

First, for baking it really is necessary to measure ingredients using a digital scale as shown in the photo. They cost $10-15 on Amazon. I converted the mother starter to tablespoons, so you can make that while you wait for delivery of your scale. You will love your scale! During this period, purchase your 3 types of flour mentioned above.

Here are the steps and tools:

Tools: digital scale and pot with lid to withstand 475 degree oven. Bowl or brotform to proof in refrigerator overnight, lame or sharp blade to score the loaf before baking. Link at end for Amazon proof bowl and lame like shown in photos.

Timeline:

5 days for mother starter to grow
1 day for loaf to shape and proof overnight in refrigerator
1 day to bake (actually bakes for 45-50 minutes)

Mother Starter:
Day 1
2 Tablespoons whole wheat or rye flour (best) or all purpose
4 Tablespoons bottled water NOT tap as the chemicals will prevent bacteria needed to grow.
When using a digital scale the conversion is:
25 grams flour
50 grams water

In a quart size glass jar combine above with a spoon and cover with a lid or I used a basket coffee filter. A reused plastic tub like Cool Whip works perfectly, too. Place in a dark warm place on kitchen counter on top of a towel if counter is stone or cold. You want ambient heat.

Days 2-4
At the same time each day add another 2T flour and 4T water to the jar and mix. Return to covered spot. This is called feeding the starter or mother.

Day 5
Before feeding, take a small spoon sample and drop it into a glass of room temp water. This can be from the tap but it can not be warm or cold. If the starter floats, you can start making the leaven for bread. If it drops to the bottom, feed the starter again, and repeat the test the next day. You can not make the leaven until the mother floats. It can take a day or 2 more.

Make the Leaven - early in day as it need 3 hours to rest

Once the sample floats, you will remove from the mother starter jar add these ingredients into a bowl on your digital scale. Leftover leaven can be refrigerated for later use. Just bring to room temp before repeating the recipe steps below.

25 grams of mother starter
100 grams of bottled water NO tap
50 grams bread flour
50 grams wheat OR rye flour
Combine and let sit on the counter covered for 3 hours.

Mix the Bread Dough

One loaf (double for 2)

100 grams of the leaven you just made
300 grams bread Flour
200 grams wheat or rye flour
375 grams room temp bottled water (if cool heat briefly in microwave to 98 degrees)

Mix the above measured ingredients with a spoon or your hands for 3 minutes just to consolidate all the flour and water. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. It is very sticky. SET A TIMER.

Add at this mixing period add:
13 grams table salt
Blend the salt into the mixture by hand until you can no longer feel the grit. It is still very sticky. About 4 minutes.

Ferment Period - About 4 hours 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set timer for 30 minutes.

When the timer goes off you will now be doing four turns of the dough inside its bowl by pulling it up onto itself. Think of it as north, south, east, west. This folding over a period of the next 2 hours is the equivalent of kneading traditional dry yeast bread. For sour dough starter bread this is called fermenting.

Second turn: After 30 minutes uncover the dough and make the 4 turns. Recover. Set timer 30 minutes. Dough will begin to be less sticky. Yeah!

Third turn: same.

Fourth turn: set the timer for 2 hours.

When the 2 hour rest period timer goes off, now you will begin the shaping process as you ready the dough to be put in the refrigerator overnight.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place on work surface. Cover with a towel and rest it 30 minutes.

Now, add some wheat flour on the surface just a little so it doesn't stick. Make 4 folds onto itself north, south, east, west. Move the blob of dough away from the edge of the surface. You will now roll the blob onto itself as you roll it toward you. You are shaping it into a very round ball keeping the dough as tight as possible. Do this about 4 times so you don't overwork the dough. You are creating air pockets inside the tight ball that will rise when you bake it.

Lightly sprinkle some flour inside the proofing bowl or the bowl you will use for overnight proofing in the refrigerator. Place the tightened dough ball inside the bowl. Cover with a towel and let it sit on counter for 30 minutes.

Put Dough to Bed

Final preparation step:
Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough ball in the brotform (shown) or bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and place the bowl in the refrigerator for 12-14 hours.

Bake the Loaf

Remove bowl dough from refrigerator and let it sit for 30 minutes while preheating oven and pot with lid on in oven at 475 degrees 30 minutes. The pot and lid need to be the same temperature as the oven before you add the dough. After 30 minutes, ease the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper so the bottom of the dough that was in the bottom of the bowl will now be the top of the bread. Gently score your dough with a lame or sharp knife in any shape you would like. This helps the bread release air pockets. If you do not score, the bread will create its own release by bursting a bit.

Quickly take out the preheated pot and cover - it will be VERY HOT and steamy when you release the top of the preheated pot so be careful. Quickly place the parchment paper with the dough on it inside the steaming pot. Close the lid and return to the 475 degree oven. Set the timer for 25 minutes. Quickly open the oven and remove the lid from the pot. Set timer for 15 minutes. At that buzzer turn the pot inside the oven and turn it 180 degrees. Set the timer for 12 minutes. When the buzzer goes off the bread is done! Allow it to cool on a rack 30 minutes before cutting.

Looks professional! Roasted artisan sour dough bread.

Samples of digital scales from Amazon see link below.

The Mother Starter must float to be ready to mix into leaven.

Measure by grams for perfect bread. So easy!

Dough after turn and resting 30 minutes.

Dough resting after 4 turns and 2 hour rest. 

Dough after rolling into a tight ball. Very little flour used.

Dough placed in brotform for overnight rest.

Dough after 25 minute bake lid just removed.

Proofing basket and lame and digital scales on Amazon when back in stock Amazon proof and lame

Planning Focaccia Perfection

You cannot whip up a perfect focaccia by using up ingredients you think you have on hand. You will need to do a little planning ahead to make sure you have the few crucial ingredients that will make this focaccia recipe perfect.

It is not difficult or time consuming, but you do need to follow the recipe for this taste of heaven. This recipe will take 3 hours total from prep to palate, but it is EASY! Actual work time is about 30 minutes.

I have thrown away more dry yeast than I have ever cooked with. Yeast has to be fresh, so check the date on the package even at the store before you purchase it.

This recipe is based on Italian best practices, so you cannot substitute all purpose flour for the seminola or the bread flour. Seminola flour is made from durum wheat, and it is the basis of all homemade pasta created in Nonnas' kitchens in the old country. Both the bread and seminola flours contain higher levels of protein. They are readily available on your grocery shelf.

I only make this recipe using my Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook. So easy! The alternative is to mix by hand, build your muscles, and enjoy your sticky hands. It will work using the same time method as the machine.

Finally, a tip when making yeast dough: I let my dough rise in a plastic container not on my marble counters. I find stoneware to be a bit cold and also marble counters are cold. The cold interferes with the warmth the yeast needs to bloom during rising. I place the plastic container of rising dough on my wood butcher block or a wood cutting board placed on top of the marble counter. Toasty! It works perfectly.

Read directions before starting! 

Time estimate: 20 minutes to assemble dough and mix. 1 hour dough rising in container. 1 hour dough rises in 9 X 13 pan. 20 minutes to bake. Total prep to eat time: 3 hours.

Ingredients for One 9 X 13 pan of Focaccia:

2 cups bread flour
2 cups seminola flour
1 teaspoon sugar
2 packages dry yeast (fast acting or regular)
2 cups warm water from tap not boiled just luke warm
2 teaspoons of salt

After rising will add these ingredients for toppings:
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoons dry oregano or rosemary or both

1 cup rough chopped plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes halved (squeeze tomatoes in bowl to removed liquid you want them dry when added to top of dough)
1 cup olives dried or mushrooms or vegetable of your choice

Method:
Combine flours, sugar, and yeast NOT salt in mixer fitted with the dough hook stir on low just to combine. Add the warm water slowly and then mix on medium 5 minutes. Dough will be sticky. Cover bowl on the stand with plastic wrap and rest it 10 minutes.

Now add the 2 teaspoons of salt and mix the dough on medium 5 minutes. It will come together like the photo below.

Sprinkle rising container with extra virgin olive oil and with oiled hands place the dough in the plastic container to rise. Shape it in the container as a rectangle so it rising to the shape of the baking pan.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rise for 1 hour on a wood surface or someplace not cold.

Gently roll the dough into a olive oiled 9 X 13 pan that will be used for baking. Gently stretch it to fit the pan. This should be easy with your hands oiled. Try to not work the dough only touch it barely. With your pinkies make random presses into the dough, not all the way to the bottom, just to give it a slightly rugged surface.

Sprinkle the dough with the salt, oregano and toppings and more extra virgin olive oil as shown below.

Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1 hour while you preheat the oven.

Bake (heat oven during the second rising):

Preheat Oven to 500 degrees place a pizza stone in the oven to preheat (if you have one) or I use a cookie sheet so the 9 X 13 pan heats evenly on the bottom.

Bake 20 minutes. Remove and cool in pan 5 minutes. Remove gently from pan and cool 15 minutes.

Buon Appetito!

Dough will look like this after mixing.

Dough olive oil added placed in plastic container for 1 hour rising
covered with plastic wrap.

Looks like this after 1 hour rising. Gently move to 9X13 pan.

Add toppings and let rise again for 1 hour cover with plastic wrap.

Cooled in pan 5 minutes and moved gently
to rack for 15 minutes. Mangia!