Baking an Outstanding Loaf of Bread in Your Home Kitchen:
A Step-By-Step Guide
Creating & Caring for a Chef Levain (Starter)
You have to start with the starter; that’s all there is to it! The starter – that colony of wild yeast and bacteria that lives in your fridge and which you have to feed regularly – is also known as the “chef levain,” to distinguish it from the levains with which you’ll actually be building your dough. (There are generally two kinds of chef levains, a “stiff levain” and a “liquid levain”. This recipe makes a “stiff levain.”)
The chef levain is just a mix of flour and water that has been left out on your kitchen counter to start the colony growing. Wild yeast and bacteria are everywhere – all over you, floating in the air, on all surfaces, and especially in whole grains. The idea behind starting a chef levain is to mix the milled grain (flour) with water and leave it out so the yeast and bacteria will start growing.
And, really, the whole process of making a loaf of bread is just feeding this colony more and more milled grain (flour) and water over a prescribed period of time and at a given temperature so the colony takes over the entire dough, causing the dough to ferment and expand and, eventually, in the oven, die.
So, let’s get started. It will take about three or four days (though you don’t have to be around for most of it), so plan ahead!
Here’s what you’ll need for the first four builds. It might take more builds, though, depending on how your culture is doing. (This recipe, which I used to start my chef levain several years ago and which is still going strong, is based on the work of Chef Gérard Rubaud.)
Distilled Water – at least 1200 gms
Organic All-Purpose (or Artisan Bakers Craft) Flour – at least 1150 gms
A Mix of Organic Whole Grain Flours – at least 850 gms
Organic Cracked Wheat or Wheat Berries – at least 500 gms
Sea Salt – 7 gms
Barley Malt – 4 gms
All of these, including the barley malt, are available at your local health food store. (The barley malt may be in the cooler there. You just need a few grams of it. It’s also available at stores for home brewers, and there seem to be more and more of those.)
Whole Grain Flour Mix – Again, if possible, mill your own whole grain flour from a mix of organic grain berries, including both spring and winter wheats, as well as spelt and rye. But if you don’t have all those, just buy the freshest organic whole wheat flour you can. The whole grain is where much of the wild yeast can be found, so it’s important to use the freshest flour available. And none is fresher than milling your own!
Chef Levain – First Build
Organic AP (or ABC) Flour – 400 gms
Organic Whole Grain Flour – 400 gms
Distilled Water – 480 gms.
Barley Malt – 2 gms.
Sea Salt – 4 gms.
Organic Cracked Wheat or Wheat Berries – 500 gms.
Either buy at least 500 gms. of organic cracked wheat or use a hand-mill to grind 500 gms of organic what berries into coarse grain. Alas, neither food processors nor blenders work for this. You have to use one of those cheap hand-mills. But it’s not much of a hassle for 500 gms.
(Though wasteful, it’s important to use at least the amounts of ingredients indicated.)
A large plastic container with a diameter of at least 7” and a tight-fitting lid.
Mix the flours and the malt (not the salt, which is added after about a minute of mixing). Add the water, use a plastic dough scraper to mix by hand, then, when all the flour is moistened, add the salt.
Mix until the nascent starter has come together in a shaggy mass, and then work it into a smooth mass with your hand, gently kneading it. When the starter is bouncy and the imprint of your finger remains visible, roll it into a ball, dust it with whole grain flour, flatten it into a disk at least 7” wide, and which will fit at the bottom of the chosen plastic container with a tight-fitting lid.
Then place the disc of starter in the plastic container, resting it on a bed of the coarsely milled whole grain to prevent light and air from filtering through. Cover with another layer of the same mixture (the disc of starter must be entirely buried), and closed the lid tightly.
Let ferment for about 22 hours at 79˚F/26˚C.
Chef Levain – Second Build
Organic AP (or ABC) Flour – 200 gms
Organic Whole Grain Flour – 200 gms
Distilled Water – 260 gms.
First Build crust – 200 gms.
Barley Malt – 2 gms.
Sea Salt – 1 gm.
After 22-24 hours of fermentation, dust off the disc of starter. A crust will have formed. Peel off 200 g of crust and put it in a medium mixing bowl. Pour the water at 86˚F/30˚C over the chunks of crust. When the crust is soft enough (it takes about 15 minutes), use an immersion mixer or blender to mix it with the water. (Most of the wild yeast will be concentrated in the crust.)
Combine the flours and the malt, and add them to the crust/water mixture. Fold the mass over and over, add the salt after a minute or two, and work by hand until you end up with a smooth, plump ball again. Flatten it slightly and place in a sealed container, without the flour and grain coating. Let ripen overnight at 81˚F. When tripled in bulk, proceed to the Third Build.
Chef Levain – Third Build
Organic AP (or ABC) Flour – 250 gms
Organic Whole Grain Flour – 150 gms
Distilled Water – 240 gms.
Second Build Culture – 200 gms.
Sea Salt – 1 gm.
Use a blender to blend 200g of the ripe Second Build culture (put the balance of the Second Build culture in the compost, or, alas, discard) with 240g water at 86˚F. Combine 400g flours, add diluted culture, mix briefly, mix in 1g salt, and gather culture into ball, as above. Place in sealed container, without flour coating. Let ripen for 4 hours at 81˚F. When tripled in bulk, proceed to Fourth Build.
Chef Levain – Fourth Build
Organic AP (or ABC) Flour – 300 gms
Organic Whole Grain Flour – 100 gms
Distilled Water – 220 gms.
Third Build Culture – 200 gms.
Sea Salt – 1 gm.
Use a blender to blend 200g of ripe Third Build culture (alas, compost or discard the rest of the Third Build culture) with 220g water at 86˚F. Combine 400g flours, add diluted Third Build culture, mix briefly, mix in 1g salt, and gather culture into ball, as above. Place in sealed container. Let ripen for 4 hours at 81˚F. Repeat the Fourth Build procedure until culture is 3 times larger than original size. It may take a few times for it to start rising.
The chef levain is ready to use when it has tripled in bulk and a piece of levain floats when dropped in a large bowl of water.
Feeding & Caring For Your Chef Levain
100 grams of chef levain
130 grams of distilled water
130 grams of organic Artisan Bakers Craft flour (or other organic AP flour)
70 grams of organic whole wheat flour
A trace of sea salt (less than 1 gm.)
To feed your Chef Levain, you’ll essentially repeat the procedure for the Fourth Build, above, though it’s fine to chop up the prior build by hand (rather than by blender) using a plastic dough scraper. If you have more than 100 grams of levain to start with, compost the balance and clean out the container in which it was stored. (I use a Glad eight-cup container, with a tight-fitting lid, which seems to work well.)
Mix the remaining 100 g. of Chef Levain with the distilled water. Chop and mix until small pieces of levain are floating in a milk-white liquid.
In another bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients, including the salt.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix, starting out using a dough scraper or spatula and finishing by hand. Make sure all the dry ingredients are thoroughly moistened, then gather the mass into a ball by pressing and turning it. It should end up as a smooth, slightly tacky, three-dimensional oval of stiff dough. This will yield 430 gms. of Chef Levain, more than enough for your next baking adventure!
Place the levain in the container and cover it tightly. Let it rest in a warm place in your kitchen for several hours. It should triple in bulk during that time, filling at least half the eight-cup container with a “loaf” of starter shot through with bubbles. Once it has risen, store it in your fridge, on the top shelf, in the back. (It should be stored at about 40 degrees F.) After a few days, it will deflate somewhat, but that’s normal. Just make sure it’s tightly covered so it doesn’t dry out.
Repeat every week or two, but make sure you always have at least 100 grams of stiff levain on hand so you can grow more of it!
If it appears that the levain has gone dormant, that is, it’s completely deflated with no apparent bubbles, just repeat this process over the course of two or three days, and it should “wake up.”
Builds
Once you have your Chef Levain (starter) and all your ingredients and tools handy, let’s start building the dough. Again, we’ll be making dough for Pain au levain, which is 30% whole grain and has a 75% hydration rate. The recipe yields two 600-gram loaves
The methodology for creating the builds for the dough is basically the same as that for creating the Fourth Build for the Chef Levain, above. You add flour and water to the previous Build (which is essentially a colony of yeast and bacteria) and then let it sit around in a warm place for a few hours fermenting. The Builds (also known as the “pre-ferments”) are the dough’s leavening.
FIRST BUILD
All-Purpose (AP) or Artisan Bakers Craft (ABC) Flour – 27 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 10 grams
Distilled Water – 22 grams
Chef Levain – 100 grams
One of the many nice things about wild yeast is that you don’t need much of it to make a loaf of bread. In fact you can use the same amount, 100 grams, no matter how many dozens of loaves you’re planning to bake.
Place the Chef Levain in a medium-sized mixing bowl that can be tightly covered. Add the water and, using the plastic dough scraper, chop up the Chef Levain until small pieces are sitting in white water. (There won’t be enough water for it to float.) In a second mixing bowl, whisk together the flours. Add the whisked flours to the chopped up Chef Levain and, using the scraper or a spatula, mix thoroughly. Let this mixture ferment, tightly covered, in a warm place for five or six hours. When it has risen, is moist, and is permeated with gas bubbles, it’s ready. I let mine rest just above the oven, which is the warmest spot in the kitchen. (See “ode to pilot lights,” above.)
SECOND BUILD
AP or ABC Flour – 125 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 20 grams
Distilled Water – 87 grams
Add the distilled water to the fermented First Build in the mixing bowl. Using the plastic dough scraper, chop up the First Build in the water until you have small pieces of Build floating in white water. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flours. Add the whisked flours to the chopped-up First Build. Use the dough scraper and spatula to mix completely: make sure all the flour is hydrated by scraping down to the bottom of the bowl and incorporating any flour that may be hiding there. Cover tightly and let ferment at room temperature for eight hours (generally overnight). Again, it should have risen and be moist and permeated with gas bubbles. I let mine ferment on the kitchen counter, somewhere near the oven, but not too close. If it’s fallen a bit and has lines across the surface where the dough has slightly collapsed in on itself, then it’s over-proofed. It should still be OK, but don’t let it proof as long next time or move it to a cooler place in your kitchen for fermentation.
Once you have your Chef Levain (starter) and all your ingredients and tools handy, let’s start building the dough. Again, we’ll be making dough for Pain au levain, which is 30% whole grain and has a 75% hydration rate. The recipe yields two 600-gram loaves
The methodology for creating the builds for the dough is basically the same as that for creating the Fourth Build for the Chef Levain, above. You add flour and water to the previous Build (which is essentially a colony of yeast and bacteria) and then let it sit around in a warm place for a few hours fermenting. The Builds (also known as the “pre-ferments”) are the dough’s leavening.
FIRST BUILD
All-Purpose (AP) or Artisan Bakers Craft (ABC) Flour – 27 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 10 grams
Distilled Water – 22 grams
Chef Levain – 100 grams
One of the many nice things about wild yeast is that you don’t need much of it to make a loaf of bread. In fact you can use the same amount, 100 grams, no matter how many dozens of loaves you’re planning to bake.
Place the Chef Levain in a medium-sized mixing bowl that can be tightly covered. Add the water and, using the plastic dough scraper, chop up the Chef Levain until small pieces are sitting in white water. (There won’t be enough water for it to float.) In a second mixing bowl, whisk together the flours. Add the whisked flours to the chopped up Chef Levain and, using the scraper or a spatula, mix thoroughly. Let this mixture ferment, tightly covered, in a warm place for five or six hours. When it has risen, is moist, and is permeated with gas bubbles, it’s ready. I let mine rest just above the oven, which is the warmest spot in the kitchen. (See “ode to pilot lights,” above.)
SECOND BUILD
AP or ABC Flour – 125 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 20 grams
Distilled Water – 87 grams
Add the distilled water to the fermented First Build in the mixing bowl. Using the plastic dough scraper, chop up the First Build in the water until you have small pieces of Build floating in white water. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flours. Add the whisked flours to the chopped-up First Build. Use the dough scraper and spatula to mix completely: make sure all the flour is hydrated by scraping down to the bottom of the bowl and incorporating any flour that may be hiding there. Cover tightly and let ferment at room temperature for eight hours (generally overnight). Again, it should have risen and be moist and permeated with gas bubbles. I let mine ferment on the kitchen counter, somewhere near the oven, but not too close. If it’s fallen a bit and has lines across the surface where the dough has slightly collapsed in on itself, then it’s over-proofed. It should still be OK, but don’t let it proof as long next time or move it to a cooler place in your kitchen for fermentation.
Dough
In this part of the process you’re just adding the salt, as well as much more flour and water to the Builds and then working it all together to get it to start developing the gluten. During this part of the process, I keep a bowl of warm water on the work surface, dunking my hands in it often to rinse off any dough and to keep my hands very, very wet while working with the dough.
Mixing
AP or ABC Flour – 400 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 200 grams
Distilled Water – 460 grams
Sea Salt – 12 grams
Whisk together the flours and the salt In a large mixing bowl with a tight-fitting lid. (The received wisdom is that you shouldn’t add the salt until everything else has been added, but I don’t find that it makes any difference with this kind of bread.) Add the distilled water and mix thoroughly, using the dough scraper and spatula at first, and then your hands, making sure all the flour is hydrated by, once again, scraping all the flour from the bottom of the bowl and allowing it to mix with the water. Keep your hands very wet to prevent the dough from sticking to them – and to add a bit more water to the dough, which never hurts! Once this preliminary dough has come together in a rough, fairly wet ball, scrape the Second Build out of its bowl and plop it on top of the preliminary dough in the mixing bowl. Cover it tightly and let it sit for at least half an hour. (You can use this time to wash out the first mixing bowl. This part of the process is known as “autolyse” and is intended to make sure the flour is thoroughly hydrated. You can leave it for an hour or two if you need to without affecting the outcome.) When the preliminary dough looks as though it has thoroughly moistened, use your wet hands to fold the dough over the Second Build and fully incorporate it into the dough. Work fairly vigorously (but don’t overdo it!), turning the bowl as you fold the dough over the build, pushing the dough down and working to shape it into a smooth ball of dough. (You might not think the build is incorporating into the dough, but I make a dough in which the build and the preliminary dough are different colors, and you can see that the two are, indeed, blending together.) Once you have a smooth, moist ball of dough that’s not sticking (much) to the bowl, flip it over in the bowl so that the smooth side is up (and there will be a rough side and a smooth side), incorporate any bits of dough that may be clinging to the sides for dear life, and affix the bowl’s tight-fitting lid.
Bulk Fermentation
The dough will now undergo at least three hours of bulk fermentation. This is when the rising takes place. It also used to be the time when it would be subjected to several bouts of kneading, but that process has fallen into disfavor.
These days we’re favoring the approach of treating the dough as gently as possible to preserve its delicate inner structure. Well…. the dough’s somewhat resilient, so don’t worry too much about the way you treat it. On the other hand, don’t be unreasonable!
The dough should ferment in a warm (not hot) place in your kitchen. Again, I usually let mine rest atop my oven, either on the range or in the oven itself. With just the pilot lights, there’s plenty of heat to stimulate the yeast’s growth.
You’ll have to briefly tend to the dough twice during these three hours, so you can’t just set it down and ignore it while doing something else that will totally preoccupy you for the entire time. You can do something else, of course, just be aware that you’ll have to return to the kitchen twice during that time.
During the bulk fermentation we have to strengthen the gluten that’s developing. We do this through a process called… no…. not kneading…. rather, “stretch and fold.” (See below.) The idea is to let the dough rest for an hour. Do a stretch and fold. Let it rest for another hour. Do a second stretch and fold. And then let it rest (and rise) for a third hour. If you’re going to be adding anything to the basic dough (e.g., olives, herbs, raisins, walnuts, cheese, etc.,) do so during the bulk fermentation. (See “Variations”, below.)
Most of the rising takes place during the third hour, when the dough’s nice and warm and the yeast have had a chance to get to work.
When’s it done? The dough should at least double in size. As with the builds, it will puff up and you’ll see bubbles all through it. It will be both delicate and resilient.
The warmer the setting, the faster it will ferment and rise. A clear bowl, of course, gives you a fine view of how fast it’s rising. If it’s rising too fast, perform a stretch and fold and then move it to a cooler part of the kitchen. If it’s not rising fast enough, move it to a warmer place, even, if necessary inside the oven (with the pilot on) or, if, for some reason, your oven doesn’t have a pilot, turn the oven on full blast for a minute, turn it off, and put the bowl in the middle shelf. (The inside of the oven should be warm, not hot!)
Stretch & Fold
The process is simple and straightforward. Have your bowl of warm water handy. You can do this either on the work surface or in the bowl itself (saving you from cleaning the work surface afterwards). Here are instructions for both ways, though I prefer the in-bowl method because it reduces the amount of cleaning….
Using the work surface:
Dust your work surface with some AP or ABC flour. (If the dough seems wet and sticky, use more flour.) Using the dough scraper, gently turn the dough out onto the floured work surface. Gently press the dough down, deflating it if there’s been gas building up, or merely flattening it slightly if the gas has yet to develop. With the dough scraper’s help, lift up one part of the dough’s edge. Stretch that part of the dough fairly taught; but, again, don’t overdo it! Fold it over the dough ball, letting it gently fall atop the rest of the dough. Do this three more times, once in each of the three remaining quadrants of the dough. Turn the dough over. With both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath to tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough. Place the dough back in the bowl, smooth side up. Replace the lid and return it to its rightful resting place.
Working in the bowl:
Using your wet hands or the dough scraper, gently lift up one part of the dough’s edge. Stretch that part of the dough fairly taught; but, again, don’t overdo it! Fold it over the dough ball, letting it gently fall atop the rest of the dough. Do this three more times, once in each of the three remaining quadrants of the dough. Repeat this rotation several times. Turn the dough over. With both hands, you can gently bring the edges together underneath to tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough. Replace the lid and return it to its rightful resting place.
Again, do this after the first and second hours of bulk fermentation. (There’s flexibility on the timing. It’s just easier for me to remember to do it on the hour.)
Loaves
After the third hour of bulk fermentation the dough should be filled with gas bubbles, puffed up, and ready to shape into loaves. If it’s not, let it rise longer in a warmer place. (Unlike with commercial yeast, the naturally leavened dough generally won’t pop the lid off the bowl while it’s fermenting. Its work is subtler than that!) It will eventually be ready.
The first step in the shaping process is turning the dough out from the bowl onto a floured work surface.
Using a dough scraper, gently scrape down the insides of the bowl, separating the dough from the bowl itself. Make sure you go all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. Then quickly flip the bowl upside-down onto the floured work surface. Wait a few seconds for the dough to gently fall from the bowl onto the work surface. If some of it insists upon sticking to the inside of the bowl, cut this loose with the dough scraper and watch it join the rest of the dough on the work surface.
The next step in this process, for the commercial baker, anyway, is scaling: creating pieces of dough, each of which weighs a specific amount, so that you know how much bread is in each loaf. (At our bakery, we typically weigh out 600-gram pieces of dough.) The home baker does not, of course, have to adhere to the rules of trade and, thus, does not have to weigh each piece of dough. However, it’s a good idea to make them all about the same size so that they’ll fit in your oven and take about the same amount of time to bake. But if you’re just making one loaf…. well…. skip right to the shaping part.
If, however, you feel the need for exactitude and wish to weigh your dough into equal pieces, it’s a good idea to use a dough scraper to cut the dough into pieces of about the same size. Just use decisive slices with the dough scraper to cut the dough into pieces that look about the same size. Weigh each and cut off small pieces of each larger piece, moving them from large piece to large piece until the larger pieces all weigh the same.
In this part of the process you’re just adding the salt, as well as much more flour and water to the Builds and then working it all together to get it to start developing the gluten. During this part of the process, I keep a bowl of warm water on the work surface, dunking my hands in it often to rinse off any dough and to keep my hands very, very wet while working with the dough.
Mixing
AP or ABC Flour – 400 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 200 grams
Distilled Water – 460 grams
Sea Salt – 12 grams
Whisk together the flours and the salt In a large mixing bowl with a tight-fitting lid. (The received wisdom is that you shouldn’t add the salt until everything else has been added, but I don’t find that it makes any difference with this kind of bread.) Add the distilled water and mix thoroughly, using the dough scraper and spatula at first, and then your hands, making sure all the flour is hydrated by, once again, scraping all the flour from the bottom of the bowl and allowing it to mix with the water. Keep your hands very wet to prevent the dough from sticking to them – and to add a bit more water to the dough, which never hurts! Once this preliminary dough has come together in a rough, fairly wet ball, scrape the Second Build out of its bowl and plop it on top of the preliminary dough in the mixing bowl. Cover it tightly and let it sit for at least half an hour. (You can use this time to wash out the first mixing bowl. This part of the process is known as “autolyse” and is intended to make sure the flour is thoroughly hydrated. You can leave it for an hour or two if you need to without affecting the outcome.) When the preliminary dough looks as though it has thoroughly moistened, use your wet hands to fold the dough over the Second Build and fully incorporate it into the dough. Work fairly vigorously (but don’t overdo it!), turning the bowl as you fold the dough over the build, pushing the dough down and working to shape it into a smooth ball of dough. (You might not think the build is incorporating into the dough, but I make a dough in which the build and the preliminary dough are different colors, and you can see that the two are, indeed, blending together.) Once you have a smooth, moist ball of dough that’s not sticking (much) to the bowl, flip it over in the bowl so that the smooth side is up (and there will be a rough side and a smooth side), incorporate any bits of dough that may be clinging to the sides for dear life, and affix the bowl’s tight-fitting lid.
Bulk Fermentation
The dough will now undergo at least three hours of bulk fermentation. This is when the rising takes place. It also used to be the time when it would be subjected to several bouts of kneading, but that process has fallen into disfavor.
These days we’re favoring the approach of treating the dough as gently as possible to preserve its delicate inner structure. Well…. the dough’s somewhat resilient, so don’t worry too much about the way you treat it. On the other hand, don’t be unreasonable!
The dough should ferment in a warm (not hot) place in your kitchen. Again, I usually let mine rest atop my oven, either on the range or in the oven itself. With just the pilot lights, there’s plenty of heat to stimulate the yeast’s growth.
You’ll have to briefly tend to the dough twice during these three hours, so you can’t just set it down and ignore it while doing something else that will totally preoccupy you for the entire time. You can do something else, of course, just be aware that you’ll have to return to the kitchen twice during that time.
During the bulk fermentation we have to strengthen the gluten that’s developing. We do this through a process called… no…. not kneading…. rather, “stretch and fold.” (See below.) The idea is to let the dough rest for an hour. Do a stretch and fold. Let it rest for another hour. Do a second stretch and fold. And then let it rest (and rise) for a third hour. If you’re going to be adding anything to the basic dough (e.g., olives, herbs, raisins, walnuts, cheese, etc.,) do so during the bulk fermentation. (See “Variations”, below.)
Most of the rising takes place during the third hour, when the dough’s nice and warm and the yeast have had a chance to get to work.
When’s it done? The dough should at least double in size. As with the builds, it will puff up and you’ll see bubbles all through it. It will be both delicate and resilient.
The warmer the setting, the faster it will ferment and rise. A clear bowl, of course, gives you a fine view of how fast it’s rising. If it’s rising too fast, perform a stretch and fold and then move it to a cooler part of the kitchen. If it’s not rising fast enough, move it to a warmer place, even, if necessary inside the oven (with the pilot on) or, if, for some reason, your oven doesn’t have a pilot, turn the oven on full blast for a minute, turn it off, and put the bowl in the middle shelf. (The inside of the oven should be warm, not hot!)
Stretch & Fold
The process is simple and straightforward. Have your bowl of warm water handy. You can do this either on the work surface or in the bowl itself (saving you from cleaning the work surface afterwards). Here are instructions for both ways, though I prefer the in-bowl method because it reduces the amount of cleaning….
Using the work surface:
Dust your work surface with some AP or ABC flour. (If the dough seems wet and sticky, use more flour.) Using the dough scraper, gently turn the dough out onto the floured work surface. Gently press the dough down, deflating it if there’s been gas building up, or merely flattening it slightly if the gas has yet to develop. With the dough scraper’s help, lift up one part of the dough’s edge. Stretch that part of the dough fairly taught; but, again, don’t overdo it! Fold it over the dough ball, letting it gently fall atop the rest of the dough. Do this three more times, once in each of the three remaining quadrants of the dough. Turn the dough over. With both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath to tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough. Place the dough back in the bowl, smooth side up. Replace the lid and return it to its rightful resting place.
Working in the bowl:
Using your wet hands or the dough scraper, gently lift up one part of the dough’s edge. Stretch that part of the dough fairly taught; but, again, don’t overdo it! Fold it over the dough ball, letting it gently fall atop the rest of the dough. Do this three more times, once in each of the three remaining quadrants of the dough. Repeat this rotation several times. Turn the dough over. With both hands, you can gently bring the edges together underneath to tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough. Replace the lid and return it to its rightful resting place.
Again, do this after the first and second hours of bulk fermentation. (There’s flexibility on the timing. It’s just easier for me to remember to do it on the hour.)
Loaves
After the third hour of bulk fermentation the dough should be filled with gas bubbles, puffed up, and ready to shape into loaves. If it’s not, let it rise longer in a warmer place. (Unlike with commercial yeast, the naturally leavened dough generally won’t pop the lid off the bowl while it’s fermenting. Its work is subtler than that!) It will eventually be ready.
The first step in the shaping process is turning the dough out from the bowl onto a floured work surface.
Using a dough scraper, gently scrape down the insides of the bowl, separating the dough from the bowl itself. Make sure you go all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. Then quickly flip the bowl upside-down onto the floured work surface. Wait a few seconds for the dough to gently fall from the bowl onto the work surface. If some of it insists upon sticking to the inside of the bowl, cut this loose with the dough scraper and watch it join the rest of the dough on the work surface.
The next step in this process, for the commercial baker, anyway, is scaling: creating pieces of dough, each of which weighs a specific amount, so that you know how much bread is in each loaf. (At our bakery, we typically weigh out 600-gram pieces of dough.) The home baker does not, of course, have to adhere to the rules of trade and, thus, does not have to weigh each piece of dough. However, it’s a good idea to make them all about the same size so that they’ll fit in your oven and take about the same amount of time to bake. But if you’re just making one loaf…. well…. skip right to the shaping part.
If, however, you feel the need for exactitude and wish to weigh your dough into equal pieces, it’s a good idea to use a dough scraper to cut the dough into pieces of about the same size. Just use decisive slices with the dough scraper to cut the dough into pieces that look about the same size. Weigh each and cut off small pieces of each larger piece, moving them from large piece to large piece until the larger pieces all weigh the same.
Shaping
While there are many shapes a loaf can take, I’m going to describe how to create loaves in just two of the basic shapes, with the understanding that many of the other shapes are just complex variations of these. These two shapes are the boule (ball) for a round loaf, and the bâtard (well… bastard) for an oblong loaf. From the bâtard, you can easily create baguettes and ficelles (shorter baguettes). But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
All shaping is a two-step process: the pre-shape and the final shape. All pre-shaping is done as a boule, so let’s start with that one.
The Boule: Pre-shape
Both the pre-shape and final shape in this one are boules. The difference is that the pre-shape is a rougher, faster version of the boule, the final shaping is more…. refined.
Gently flatten your piece of dough. The idea is to expel some of the gas without destroying the internal structure that the yeast and gluten have worked so hard to create. Lift up the edge of the dough piece at about six points along the piece’s circumference. Each time, stretch the dough slightly and bring that point of the edge to the center. Rotate the dough piece slightly as you work. When you’ve gone all the way around, flip the dough piece over and, with both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath, as you continue to rotate it to, once again, tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough piece. It should resemble a ball at this point. You may have to turn the piece around a couple of times, all the while bringing the edges together underneath to create a rough boule. Let it sit on the floured work surface for half an hour while you work on any other loaf you’re shaping. (You can drape a tea towel or dish cloth over it to help prevent it from drying out; but I’ve not noticed that this makes much difference in the final product.)
The Boule: Final shape
Make sure that there’s not too much flour on your work surface. The idea in this part of the process is that the dough should gently grip the work surface without sticking to it. This is essential for tightening the gluten on the loaf’s exterior, giving it a way to hold its shape while fermenting and baking. You’ll have to try different amounts of flour to get the proper coating for the work surface.
Gently flatten your pre-shaped boule, expelling some gas that may have accumulated. Essentially follow the same procedure for the pre-shape, drawing the edges of the boule to the center by stretching up and folding to the center as you rotate the boule on the work surface. After going around once (or twice, if you feel the dough demands a second rotation!), flip the boule over and, as above, with both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath as you rotate the boule to tighten the smooth upper surface of the boule. To finish the boule – and this is where the grip-but-not-stick distinction proves important – gently roll the boule on one point of contact with the work surface, feeling it tighten as you rotate it. You should end up with a taught ball of dough, most of which will be a smooth, tight surface. The “underside”, the point of contact with the work surface, will form a small seam where the dough has sealed in on itself.
The Bâtard: Pre-shape
Again, the pre-shape for the bâtard will result in a rough boule.
Gently flatten your piece of dough. The idea is to expel some of the gas without destroying the internal structure that the yeast and gluten have worked so hard to create. Lift up the edge of the dough piece at about six points along the piece’s circumference. Each time, stretch the dough slightly and bring that point of the edge to the center. Rotate the dough piece slightly as you work. When you’ve gone all the way around, flip the dough piece over and, with both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath, as you continue to rotate it, to tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough piece. It should resemble a ball at this point. You may have to turn the piece around a couple of times, all the while bringing the edges together underneath to create a rough boule. Let it sit on the floured work surface for half an hour while you work on any other loaf you’re shaping. (You can drape a tea towel of dish cloth over it to help prevent it from drying out; but I’ve not noticed that this makes much difference in the final product.)
The Bâtard: Final shape
The amount of flour on the work surface for the final shaping of the bâtard is not as critical as it is for the boule. Just make sure the dough doesn’t stick to the work surface.
Gently flatten your piece of dough. The idea is to expel some of the gas without destroying the internal structure that the yeast and gluten have worked so hard to create. Pull the dough slightly until it forms an oval. Place the oval in front of you on the work surface, pointing towards you. Gently lift the dough and pull the oval to lengthen it. Place it back on the work surface, sill pointing at you. Starting at the end farther away from you, grasp the tip of the oval, stretch the dough slightly, and fold the tip over on the rest of the oval, creating a straight line across the top of the oval. Grasp the two “ears” at the top of the oval, stretch them slightly, and fold them towards each other, meeting the center line of the oval, creating another tip at the top of the oval. Repeat this sequence two or three times, until the dough has completely doubled over on itself. With your hands flat and pointing away from you – and at a 45-degree angle to the work surface – gently roll the folded dough back and forth on the work surface by putting gentle, angled pressure towards either end of the folded dough. The idea is to create a cylinder of smooth dough that has a taut skin and has straight, tapered edges towards both ends. Careful: the loaf should not be too long for your oven’s baking chamber. The dough should close in a subtle, though detectable, seam. If no seam is apparent, pinch the edges of the dough together until you create one.
Secondary Fermentation
Once your loaves are shaped, they are ready to receive a long, cold secondary fermentation to enable the yeast and bacteria to produce more and larger gas bubbles and richer flavors by converting more starch into sugars and alcohol. The loaves have to ferment in forms to preserve their shapes and in plastic to preserve their moisture.
If you’ve shaped boules, use small wicker baskets as forms.
Line the baskets with cloth napkins or a dishcloth, letting the edges of the cloth hang over the sides of the basket. Rub some AP or ABC flour into the cloth. (You don’t need much flour if you’ve followed the recipe, above, which makes loaves of fairly low hydration. If you increase the hydration rate, rub in more flour. This is to prevent the loaves from sticking to the cloth.) Plop the boule into the basket, make sure that the seam side, the side that was in contact with the work surface, is up. Fold the edges of the cloth over the dough. Place the basket inside a plastic bag. Twist the bag closed. Place the bagged basket(s) in your fridge for several hours or overnight. (Make sure that the fridge is, at most, at 40 degrees F.
If you’ve shaped bâtards, use a dishcloth on a cookie sheet as a form.
Place the cookie sheet on the work surface, and drape the dishcloth over it. Rub some AP or ABC flour into the cloth. (You don’t need much flour if you’ve followed the recipe, above, which makes loaves of fairly low hydration. If you increase the hydration rate, rub in more flour. This is to prevent the loaves from sticking to the cloth.) Place a bâtard, seam side up, on the floured cloth atop the cookie sheet. Make sure there’s plenty of cloth extending on all sides of the loaf. If you’re baking more than one loaf, bunch the cloth up against one side of the loaf, creating a ridge of floured cloth that makes a sort of cradle within which the loaf will ferment. Position the next loaf alongside and up against the first one, but with the ridge of floured cloth separating them. Make sure the ridge is high enough to accommodate loaves that have risen – the purpose of the ridge of cloth is to prevent the loaves from sticking together. Repeat this process for each loaf you’ll be baking. When all the loaves are resting snugly against each other on the sheet (but separated by that ridge of floured cloth), fold up the cloth on either side of the loaves and lay a long, not-too-heavy implement or other object (I use long, thin blocks of wood) carefully along the outside length of the cloth – along both sides of the “packet” of loaves – to provide some support to the loaves as they ferment. The idea is that the loaves should rise up, not out. Place the entire cookie sheet, with cloth, loaves, and supporting implements, inside a plastic bag. Fold the bag closed. Place the bagged sheet flat in your fridge for several hours or overnight. (Make sure that the fridge is, at most, at 40 degrees F.
While there are many shapes a loaf can take, I’m going to describe how to create loaves in just two of the basic shapes, with the understanding that many of the other shapes are just complex variations of these. These two shapes are the boule (ball) for a round loaf, and the bâtard (well… bastard) for an oblong loaf. From the bâtard, you can easily create baguettes and ficelles (shorter baguettes). But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
All shaping is a two-step process: the pre-shape and the final shape. All pre-shaping is done as a boule, so let’s start with that one.
The Boule: Pre-shape
Both the pre-shape and final shape in this one are boules. The difference is that the pre-shape is a rougher, faster version of the boule, the final shaping is more…. refined.
Gently flatten your piece of dough. The idea is to expel some of the gas without destroying the internal structure that the yeast and gluten have worked so hard to create. Lift up the edge of the dough piece at about six points along the piece’s circumference. Each time, stretch the dough slightly and bring that point of the edge to the center. Rotate the dough piece slightly as you work. When you’ve gone all the way around, flip the dough piece over and, with both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath, as you continue to rotate it to, once again, tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough piece. It should resemble a ball at this point. You may have to turn the piece around a couple of times, all the while bringing the edges together underneath to create a rough boule. Let it sit on the floured work surface for half an hour while you work on any other loaf you’re shaping. (You can drape a tea towel or dish cloth over it to help prevent it from drying out; but I’ve not noticed that this makes much difference in the final product.)
The Boule: Final shape
Make sure that there’s not too much flour on your work surface. The idea in this part of the process is that the dough should gently grip the work surface without sticking to it. This is essential for tightening the gluten on the loaf’s exterior, giving it a way to hold its shape while fermenting and baking. You’ll have to try different amounts of flour to get the proper coating for the work surface.
Gently flatten your pre-shaped boule, expelling some gas that may have accumulated. Essentially follow the same procedure for the pre-shape, drawing the edges of the boule to the center by stretching up and folding to the center as you rotate the boule on the work surface. After going around once (or twice, if you feel the dough demands a second rotation!), flip the boule over and, as above, with both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath as you rotate the boule to tighten the smooth upper surface of the boule. To finish the boule – and this is where the grip-but-not-stick distinction proves important – gently roll the boule on one point of contact with the work surface, feeling it tighten as you rotate it. You should end up with a taught ball of dough, most of which will be a smooth, tight surface. The “underside”, the point of contact with the work surface, will form a small seam where the dough has sealed in on itself.
The Bâtard: Pre-shape
Again, the pre-shape for the bâtard will result in a rough boule.
Gently flatten your piece of dough. The idea is to expel some of the gas without destroying the internal structure that the yeast and gluten have worked so hard to create. Lift up the edge of the dough piece at about six points along the piece’s circumference. Each time, stretch the dough slightly and bring that point of the edge to the center. Rotate the dough piece slightly as you work. When you’ve gone all the way around, flip the dough piece over and, with both hands, gently bring the edges together underneath, as you continue to rotate it, to tighten the smooth upper surface of the dough piece. It should resemble a ball at this point. You may have to turn the piece around a couple of times, all the while bringing the edges together underneath to create a rough boule. Let it sit on the floured work surface for half an hour while you work on any other loaf you’re shaping. (You can drape a tea towel of dish cloth over it to help prevent it from drying out; but I’ve not noticed that this makes much difference in the final product.)
The Bâtard: Final shape
The amount of flour on the work surface for the final shaping of the bâtard is not as critical as it is for the boule. Just make sure the dough doesn’t stick to the work surface.
Gently flatten your piece of dough. The idea is to expel some of the gas without destroying the internal structure that the yeast and gluten have worked so hard to create. Pull the dough slightly until it forms an oval. Place the oval in front of you on the work surface, pointing towards you. Gently lift the dough and pull the oval to lengthen it. Place it back on the work surface, sill pointing at you. Starting at the end farther away from you, grasp the tip of the oval, stretch the dough slightly, and fold the tip over on the rest of the oval, creating a straight line across the top of the oval. Grasp the two “ears” at the top of the oval, stretch them slightly, and fold them towards each other, meeting the center line of the oval, creating another tip at the top of the oval. Repeat this sequence two or three times, until the dough has completely doubled over on itself. With your hands flat and pointing away from you – and at a 45-degree angle to the work surface – gently roll the folded dough back and forth on the work surface by putting gentle, angled pressure towards either end of the folded dough. The idea is to create a cylinder of smooth dough that has a taut skin and has straight, tapered edges towards both ends. Careful: the loaf should not be too long for your oven’s baking chamber. The dough should close in a subtle, though detectable, seam. If no seam is apparent, pinch the edges of the dough together until you create one.
Secondary Fermentation
Once your loaves are shaped, they are ready to receive a long, cold secondary fermentation to enable the yeast and bacteria to produce more and larger gas bubbles and richer flavors by converting more starch into sugars and alcohol. The loaves have to ferment in forms to preserve their shapes and in plastic to preserve their moisture.
If you’ve shaped boules, use small wicker baskets as forms.
Line the baskets with cloth napkins or a dishcloth, letting the edges of the cloth hang over the sides of the basket. Rub some AP or ABC flour into the cloth. (You don’t need much flour if you’ve followed the recipe, above, which makes loaves of fairly low hydration. If you increase the hydration rate, rub in more flour. This is to prevent the loaves from sticking to the cloth.) Plop the boule into the basket, make sure that the seam side, the side that was in contact with the work surface, is up. Fold the edges of the cloth over the dough. Place the basket inside a plastic bag. Twist the bag closed. Place the bagged basket(s) in your fridge for several hours or overnight. (Make sure that the fridge is, at most, at 40 degrees F.
If you’ve shaped bâtards, use a dishcloth on a cookie sheet as a form.
Place the cookie sheet on the work surface, and drape the dishcloth over it. Rub some AP or ABC flour into the cloth. (You don’t need much flour if you’ve followed the recipe, above, which makes loaves of fairly low hydration. If you increase the hydration rate, rub in more flour. This is to prevent the loaves from sticking to the cloth.) Place a bâtard, seam side up, on the floured cloth atop the cookie sheet. Make sure there’s plenty of cloth extending on all sides of the loaf. If you’re baking more than one loaf, bunch the cloth up against one side of the loaf, creating a ridge of floured cloth that makes a sort of cradle within which the loaf will ferment. Position the next loaf alongside and up against the first one, but with the ridge of floured cloth separating them. Make sure the ridge is high enough to accommodate loaves that have risen – the purpose of the ridge of cloth is to prevent the loaves from sticking together. Repeat this process for each loaf you’ll be baking. When all the loaves are resting snugly against each other on the sheet (but separated by that ridge of floured cloth), fold up the cloth on either side of the loaves and lay a long, not-too-heavy implement or other object (I use long, thin blocks of wood) carefully along the outside length of the cloth – along both sides of the “packet” of loaves – to provide some support to the loaves as they ferment. The idea is that the loaves should rise up, not out. Place the entire cookie sheet, with cloth, loaves, and supporting implements, inside a plastic bag. Fold the bag closed. Place the bagged sheet flat in your fridge for several hours or overnight. (Make sure that the fridge is, at most, at 40 degrees F.
Baking
The following step-by-step for baking the loaves will assume that you use a gas oven (like I do). As part of the instructions, though, I’ll indicate how to proceed using an electric oven.
Preparing the Oven
While the loaves are still fermenting in the fridge, remove all but one shelf from your gas oven, or, if you’re using an electric oven, keep two shelves in the oven. Place the remaining shelf in the upper third of your gas oven, or one of the two remaining shelves in the upper third of your electric oven. In your electric oven, place the second shelf on the lowest rung. Line the upper shelf with unglazed 6” x 6” quarry tiles (or the equivalent). Two columns of three tiles each will yield a 12” x 18” baking surface, with room around the sides of the shelf for the heat to circulate a bit. This is enough surface area to bake two boules or two bâtards at a time. A similarly-sized pizza stone will also work. Place an oven thermometer front and center on the tile-lined shelf. Make sure you can read it easily. Turn the oven on as high as it will go. (Mine has a “broiler” setting, which means that the heating element stays on all the time. That’s the setting I use.) When the oven reaches at least 600 degrees F., it’s ready to bake. If your oven is too modern for a broiler setting, then heat it at as high as it will go. Anything above 500 degrees F. will do OK. As soon as you start heating your oven, place a good-quality masonry brick on the range’s front fire ring (gas or electric) directly above the oven door. (If you’re using a wall oven, place the brick on the nearest fire ring of your cooktop. If your cooktop is some distance from your wall oven, you have an oddly designed kitchen and I’ll offer an alternative strategy, below.) If you’re planning for more than one bake (that is, you’ll be using the oven more than once to bake loaves) place a second brick on the adjacent fire ring. Turn on the fire ring(s) to full heat. Fill a metal brownie pan halfway with cold tap water. Place the brownie pan of water, two metal spatulas, and two potholders or oven mitts on the counter near the oven. Place a single-edge razor blade (the lame), some AP flour, and your peel on your work surface near the oven door. There are many items in your kitchen you can use as a peel, the device that transfers the loaves from their forms to the oven. I use a small cutting board, for example. (I’ve also used, in my younger years, an album cover.) You could also use an upside-down cookie sheet or tray. Whatever you use, it must be sturdy, smooth, fit inside your oven, and have no upturned edges.
Loading the Oven
Once the thermometer has indicated that the oven has reached the proper temperature (either pinned at 600+ degrees for “broiler” ovens or 500+ degrees for all other ovens) and the brick(s) have heated up nicely for at least a half hour, you’re ready to bake. Remove the thermometer from the oven.
This is the tricky bit, but if you’re careful and pay attention to what you’re doing, you’ll be fine.
Take the loaves out of the fridge and put the cookie sheet (bâtards) or baskets (boules) on the work surface next to the peel. Smooth a thin layer of flour on the peel to prevent the loaves from sticking to it. Don’t use too much! Boules: Remove the basket(s) from their plastic bag(s). Sprinkle each boule with some AP flour. Again, not too much, just enough to protect the bottom of the loaf and to keep it from sticking to the peel. Turn a basket upside-down onto the peel. (If your peel is large enough and you have enough room in your oven to bake two loaves at once, turn a second basket onto the peel.) Gently lift the basket and cloth from the peel, leaving the boule behind on the peel. Because the boule fermented upside-down, the seam will be underneath and the smooth side will be showing. (If you’re fitting two boules on the peel, make sure there’s plenty of room between them.) Give the peel a little shake to make sure the boules aren’t sticking. (If they don’t move freely, add more flour to the peel.) Bâtards: Remove the cookie sheet from its plastic bag. Sprinkle each bâtard with some AP flour. Again, not too much, just enough to protect the bottom of the loaf and to keep it from sticking to the peel. The bâtard, right from the fridge, should be firm enough to handle without doing much harm. Position the bâtard, on the cloth, so that it is adjacent to the peel. Using the cloth as much as possible, but also your hands, roll the bâtard onto the peel so that it’s upside-down. That is, the seam will be underneath and the smooth side will be showing. (If your peel is large enough and you have enough room in your oven to bake two loaves at once, repeat the procedure with the second loaf, but make sure there’s plenty of room between them.) Give the peel a little shake to make sure the boules aren’t sticking. (If they don’t move freely, add more flour to the peel.)
For both Boules and Bâtards: Open the oven door and place the brownie pan of cold water on the floor of your gas oven or on the lowest shelf of your electric oven. Keeping the oven door open, use the razor blade to slash the loaves, as indicated below. Don the oven mitts and, using the two metal spatulas, lift the hot brick from the fire ring and GENTLY place it in the pan of water on the oven floor (or lowest shelf). I’ve found that using one of the spatulas as a sort of ramp into the water while the other spatula gently pushes the brick, works well. The water will instantly start to boil, emitting clouds of steam. You DON’T want the boiling water to spill all over the oven floor, as this can extinguish the gas flame and you’ll have to relight it to continue baking. So make sure you’re pushing the brick slowly and gently into the water! Still wearing the oven mitts, gently pull out the oven’s upper shelf as far as it will go. (It should catch before it falls off, assuming it’s properly aligned in the oven.) Lift the peel with the slashed loaves, extending its back edge to align with the tiles at the back end of the pulled-out upper shelf. Then, with the cloud of steam swirling around the oven shelf, jerk the peel towards you quickly enough so that the loaves fall directly onto the hot tiles (like that trick with the table cloths!). If you’re loading more than one loaf at once, make sure they’re far enough apart on the tiles not to touch each other when they’ve fully risen. Push the oven shelf all the way back into the oven. Close the oven door. Breathe a sigh of relief.
Slashing the loaves
This is an important part of the baking process, so I wanted to keep it on its own to call attention to it. Slashing the tops of loaves creates an intentional weak point in the crust, ensuring that as the loaves rise and bake in the oven, the crust will split in a controlled and, hopefully, decorative manner. The design of the slash is, of course, up to the baker. But there are traditional designs for specific loaves (traditions you are free to ignore). However, we’ve found at the bakery that a particular type of loaf is most easily and readily identified by the type of slash marks. (For example, olive/rosemary batards bear one pattern and raisin/walnut batards another, making it much easier to spot which is which when loading the display baskets.
Slashing doesn’t take much time and effort and much depends on the sharpness of the blade. For this reason, I recommend using new razor blades as much as possible. (You can also spend ten bucks or so for a genuine French lame, which is what they’re called in France.)
The trick is to make your slash in one steady confident stroke that penetrates a good inch into the crumb; and, most importantly, to hold the blade at a 45-degree angle to the work surface. This gesture, when executed with aplomb, will result in a wave-like formation across the top of the loaf that bakers admiringly refer to as “ears.”
At the bakery, we slash our pain au levain bâtards with a single stroke along the length of the loaf because it’s fast and gives us picturesque results. For our boules, we inscribe a stylized “M” (for miche), but a simple cross also works well.
Just remember to proceed with confidence, but avoid drawing blood.
Baking the loaves
Once the loaves are in the oven with the door closed and, if you’re not planning any additional bakes, the fire rings are turned off, you just have to wait. Take this opportunity to prepare a landing place for the baked loaves. I generally use a wicker basket, but a cooling rack is fine. Whichever you use, set it up close to the oven. The water in the pan should boil away as steam in about six or eight minutes. During that time the combination of heat and moisture will cause the yeast to produce gas at an accelerated rate and, as a result, the loaves will rise. Once you don’t notice any more steam escaping from your oven (or it’s been about six minutes or so), open the door to see how things are going (or look through the door’s window, if you’re lucky to have one that’s clean enough to see through). The loaves should have risen considerably, should not be touching (if there’s more than one), and should be just starting to brown. If it looks like they can rise some more (and this is a judgment call that improves with experience) just close the door again quickly and give it a few more minutes. (You can leave the now dry pan and brick on the oven floor.) Check again, and when they appear to have risen all they’re going to, don an oven mitt (or use a potholder) and turn the loaves 180 degrees to help make sure they brown evenly. (If you’re using a convection oven, skip this step!) From here on out, you’re waiting for the crust to brown nicely without burning. As the inside of the loaf (the crumb) finishes its baking before the surface (the crust), the loaf is ready to remove from the oven when you like the look of the crust. You may have to turn the loaves once again to confirm that they’re browning evenly. Once you like the way the loaves look, turn the oven off (if that’s your last bake), pull the hot loaves out with potholders or oven mitts, and let the loaves cool either standing on end in a basket or resting on a cooling racks. Let them cool for about fifteen or twenty minutes before you move them – they’re still pretty delicate – and I wouldn’t slice into them into they’ve been at warm room temperature for an hour or so.
Electric Ovens
If your electric oven is part of an electric range, follow the baking instructions, above, except make sure you place the pan of cold water on the lowest shelf in the oven rather than on the floor.
If you have a wall oven (either gas or electric) and the range is not near the oven, it’s a bit much to be carrying hot bricks across your kitchen! Though the following won’t result in a loaf with as fine a crust as the “true” steaming method, try it and see what happens.
In lieu of the brick and pan, place a small pan of water on the floor of the oven while it’s heating. This will generate some steam. Also, fill a spray bottle with water and, right before you load the loaves into the oven, spray the upper portion of the oven liberally with water and the lower portion of the oven conservatively (to avoid dousing the flame in a gas oven or doing something equally drastic in an electric one). Shut the door quickly and wait five minutes. Open the door and spray all over the oven’s interior a second time.
Variations
I’ve given you the step-by-step recipe for pain au levain, the basic bread I bake. The most popular loaves at Pagnol (and other bakeries), however, are the ones with mix-ins, the sweet or savory ingredients that create the many, many variations on the theme. A couple – olive/rosemary, walnut/raisin – have become popular enough to enter the bakery’s standard repertoire. Others are offered as specials.
In all cases, though, the procedure is essentially the same. Prepare the mix-ins separately by weighing them out (for example, we use 80 grams of kalamata olives and 10 grams of fresh rosemary per loaf) and chopping them, if necessary, into bite-size pieces.
Mix them into the dough during the first stretch and fold. (This normally means you’ll have to turn the loaf several times, while folding, to make sure all the mix-ins are incorporated, If necessary, you can work them in a bit more during the second stretch and fold. With the addition of these ingredients, of course, each loaf will weigh a bit more. (At the bakery, we just plan that each batch of pains levain with mix-ins will end up with a few more 600-gram loaves.)
And if the ingredients you’re adding contain a lot of water (or, indeed, are liquids, such as tabasco, etc.), it will increase the dough’s hydration, and you may have to compensate for this by upping the amount of flour you use during shaping. We’ve also noticed that the loaves with mix-ins take a bit longer to bake, so keep an eye on that, as well.
The most important part of the process, though, is to try the resulting loaf and see what you think it needs, if anything, to make it even better.
Next Chapter: Afterword
The following step-by-step for baking the loaves will assume that you use a gas oven (like I do). As part of the instructions, though, I’ll indicate how to proceed using an electric oven.
Preparing the Oven
While the loaves are still fermenting in the fridge, remove all but one shelf from your gas oven, or, if you’re using an electric oven, keep two shelves in the oven. Place the remaining shelf in the upper third of your gas oven, or one of the two remaining shelves in the upper third of your electric oven. In your electric oven, place the second shelf on the lowest rung. Line the upper shelf with unglazed 6” x 6” quarry tiles (or the equivalent). Two columns of three tiles each will yield a 12” x 18” baking surface, with room around the sides of the shelf for the heat to circulate a bit. This is enough surface area to bake two boules or two bâtards at a time. A similarly-sized pizza stone will also work. Place an oven thermometer front and center on the tile-lined shelf. Make sure you can read it easily. Turn the oven on as high as it will go. (Mine has a “broiler” setting, which means that the heating element stays on all the time. That’s the setting I use.) When the oven reaches at least 600 degrees F., it’s ready to bake. If your oven is too modern for a broiler setting, then heat it at as high as it will go. Anything above 500 degrees F. will do OK. As soon as you start heating your oven, place a good-quality masonry brick on the range’s front fire ring (gas or electric) directly above the oven door. (If you’re using a wall oven, place the brick on the nearest fire ring of your cooktop. If your cooktop is some distance from your wall oven, you have an oddly designed kitchen and I’ll offer an alternative strategy, below.) If you’re planning for more than one bake (that is, you’ll be using the oven more than once to bake loaves) place a second brick on the adjacent fire ring. Turn on the fire ring(s) to full heat. Fill a metal brownie pan halfway with cold tap water. Place the brownie pan of water, two metal spatulas, and two potholders or oven mitts on the counter near the oven. Place a single-edge razor blade (the lame), some AP flour, and your peel on your work surface near the oven door. There are many items in your kitchen you can use as a peel, the device that transfers the loaves from their forms to the oven. I use a small cutting board, for example. (I’ve also used, in my younger years, an album cover.) You could also use an upside-down cookie sheet or tray. Whatever you use, it must be sturdy, smooth, fit inside your oven, and have no upturned edges.
Loading the Oven
Once the thermometer has indicated that the oven has reached the proper temperature (either pinned at 600+ degrees for “broiler” ovens or 500+ degrees for all other ovens) and the brick(s) have heated up nicely for at least a half hour, you’re ready to bake. Remove the thermometer from the oven.
This is the tricky bit, but if you’re careful and pay attention to what you’re doing, you’ll be fine.
Take the loaves out of the fridge and put the cookie sheet (bâtards) or baskets (boules) on the work surface next to the peel. Smooth a thin layer of flour on the peel to prevent the loaves from sticking to it. Don’t use too much! Boules: Remove the basket(s) from their plastic bag(s). Sprinkle each boule with some AP flour. Again, not too much, just enough to protect the bottom of the loaf and to keep it from sticking to the peel. Turn a basket upside-down onto the peel. (If your peel is large enough and you have enough room in your oven to bake two loaves at once, turn a second basket onto the peel.) Gently lift the basket and cloth from the peel, leaving the boule behind on the peel. Because the boule fermented upside-down, the seam will be underneath and the smooth side will be showing. (If you’re fitting two boules on the peel, make sure there’s plenty of room between them.) Give the peel a little shake to make sure the boules aren’t sticking. (If they don’t move freely, add more flour to the peel.) Bâtards: Remove the cookie sheet from its plastic bag. Sprinkle each bâtard with some AP flour. Again, not too much, just enough to protect the bottom of the loaf and to keep it from sticking to the peel. The bâtard, right from the fridge, should be firm enough to handle without doing much harm. Position the bâtard, on the cloth, so that it is adjacent to the peel. Using the cloth as much as possible, but also your hands, roll the bâtard onto the peel so that it’s upside-down. That is, the seam will be underneath and the smooth side will be showing. (If your peel is large enough and you have enough room in your oven to bake two loaves at once, repeat the procedure with the second loaf, but make sure there’s plenty of room between them.) Give the peel a little shake to make sure the boules aren’t sticking. (If they don’t move freely, add more flour to the peel.)
For both Boules and Bâtards: Open the oven door and place the brownie pan of cold water on the floor of your gas oven or on the lowest shelf of your electric oven. Keeping the oven door open, use the razor blade to slash the loaves, as indicated below. Don the oven mitts and, using the two metal spatulas, lift the hot brick from the fire ring and GENTLY place it in the pan of water on the oven floor (or lowest shelf). I’ve found that using one of the spatulas as a sort of ramp into the water while the other spatula gently pushes the brick, works well. The water will instantly start to boil, emitting clouds of steam. You DON’T want the boiling water to spill all over the oven floor, as this can extinguish the gas flame and you’ll have to relight it to continue baking. So make sure you’re pushing the brick slowly and gently into the water! Still wearing the oven mitts, gently pull out the oven’s upper shelf as far as it will go. (It should catch before it falls off, assuming it’s properly aligned in the oven.) Lift the peel with the slashed loaves, extending its back edge to align with the tiles at the back end of the pulled-out upper shelf. Then, with the cloud of steam swirling around the oven shelf, jerk the peel towards you quickly enough so that the loaves fall directly onto the hot tiles (like that trick with the table cloths!). If you’re loading more than one loaf at once, make sure they’re far enough apart on the tiles not to touch each other when they’ve fully risen. Push the oven shelf all the way back into the oven. Close the oven door. Breathe a sigh of relief.
Slashing the loaves
This is an important part of the baking process, so I wanted to keep it on its own to call attention to it. Slashing the tops of loaves creates an intentional weak point in the crust, ensuring that as the loaves rise and bake in the oven, the crust will split in a controlled and, hopefully, decorative manner. The design of the slash is, of course, up to the baker. But there are traditional designs for specific loaves (traditions you are free to ignore). However, we’ve found at the bakery that a particular type of loaf is most easily and readily identified by the type of slash marks. (For example, olive/rosemary batards bear one pattern and raisin/walnut batards another, making it much easier to spot which is which when loading the display baskets.
Slashing doesn’t take much time and effort and much depends on the sharpness of the blade. For this reason, I recommend using new razor blades as much as possible. (You can also spend ten bucks or so for a genuine French lame, which is what they’re called in France.)
The trick is to make your slash in one steady confident stroke that penetrates a good inch into the crumb; and, most importantly, to hold the blade at a 45-degree angle to the work surface. This gesture, when executed with aplomb, will result in a wave-like formation across the top of the loaf that bakers admiringly refer to as “ears.”
At the bakery, we slash our pain au levain bâtards with a single stroke along the length of the loaf because it’s fast and gives us picturesque results. For our boules, we inscribe a stylized “M” (for miche), but a simple cross also works well.
Just remember to proceed with confidence, but avoid drawing blood.
Baking the loaves
Once the loaves are in the oven with the door closed and, if you’re not planning any additional bakes, the fire rings are turned off, you just have to wait. Take this opportunity to prepare a landing place for the baked loaves. I generally use a wicker basket, but a cooling rack is fine. Whichever you use, set it up close to the oven. The water in the pan should boil away as steam in about six or eight minutes. During that time the combination of heat and moisture will cause the yeast to produce gas at an accelerated rate and, as a result, the loaves will rise. Once you don’t notice any more steam escaping from your oven (or it’s been about six minutes or so), open the door to see how things are going (or look through the door’s window, if you’re lucky to have one that’s clean enough to see through). The loaves should have risen considerably, should not be touching (if there’s more than one), and should be just starting to brown. If it looks like they can rise some more (and this is a judgment call that improves with experience) just close the door again quickly and give it a few more minutes. (You can leave the now dry pan and brick on the oven floor.) Check again, and when they appear to have risen all they’re going to, don an oven mitt (or use a potholder) and turn the loaves 180 degrees to help make sure they brown evenly. (If you’re using a convection oven, skip this step!) From here on out, you’re waiting for the crust to brown nicely without burning. As the inside of the loaf (the crumb) finishes its baking before the surface (the crust), the loaf is ready to remove from the oven when you like the look of the crust. You may have to turn the loaves once again to confirm that they’re browning evenly. Once you like the way the loaves look, turn the oven off (if that’s your last bake), pull the hot loaves out with potholders or oven mitts, and let the loaves cool either standing on end in a basket or resting on a cooling racks. Let them cool for about fifteen or twenty minutes before you move them – they’re still pretty delicate – and I wouldn’t slice into them into they’ve been at warm room temperature for an hour or so.
Electric Ovens
If your electric oven is part of an electric range, follow the baking instructions, above, except make sure you place the pan of cold water on the lowest shelf in the oven rather than on the floor.
If you have a wall oven (either gas or electric) and the range is not near the oven, it’s a bit much to be carrying hot bricks across your kitchen! Though the following won’t result in a loaf with as fine a crust as the “true” steaming method, try it and see what happens.
In lieu of the brick and pan, place a small pan of water on the floor of the oven while it’s heating. This will generate some steam. Also, fill a spray bottle with water and, right before you load the loaves into the oven, spray the upper portion of the oven liberally with water and the lower portion of the oven conservatively (to avoid dousing the flame in a gas oven or doing something equally drastic in an electric one). Shut the door quickly and wait five minutes. Open the door and spray all over the oven’s interior a second time.
Variations
I’ve given you the step-by-step recipe for pain au levain, the basic bread I bake. The most popular loaves at Pagnol (and other bakeries), however, are the ones with mix-ins, the sweet or savory ingredients that create the many, many variations on the theme. A couple – olive/rosemary, walnut/raisin – have become popular enough to enter the bakery’s standard repertoire. Others are offered as specials.
In all cases, though, the procedure is essentially the same. Prepare the mix-ins separately by weighing them out (for example, we use 80 grams of kalamata olives and 10 grams of fresh rosemary per loaf) and chopping them, if necessary, into bite-size pieces.
Mix them into the dough during the first stretch and fold. (This normally means you’ll have to turn the loaf several times, while folding, to make sure all the mix-ins are incorporated, If necessary, you can work them in a bit more during the second stretch and fold. With the addition of these ingredients, of course, each loaf will weigh a bit more. (At the bakery, we just plan that each batch of pains levain with mix-ins will end up with a few more 600-gram loaves.)
And if the ingredients you’re adding contain a lot of water (or, indeed, are liquids, such as tabasco, etc.), it will increase the dough’s hydration, and you may have to compensate for this by upping the amount of flour you use during shaping. We’ve also noticed that the loaves with mix-ins take a bit longer to bake, so keep an eye on that, as well.
The most important part of the process, though, is to try the resulting loaf and see what you think it needs, if anything, to make it even better.
Next Chapter: Afterword