How To Bake an Outstanding Loaf of Bread in Your Home Kitchen – An Overview
You probably already have most of what it takes to make fine traditional loaves in your kitchen. Because they’re “traditional”, they’ll be baked on a hearth in your oven (a hearth made of tiles, to be sure; more on that later) rather than in bread pans.
Ingredients
Everything you’re going to put into your dough – flour, water and salt (the basics), and herbs, spices, nuts, fruit and all other add-ins – should be, as much as possible, at room temperature. Store your whole grain flour (if you haven’t just milled it yourself) in a tightly covered container in the fridge, but let it warm up a bit before you start using it. (It’s not the end of the world if it’s cold; it just takes a little longer to ferment.) White flour’s generally OK stored at room temperature (there’s nothing really living in there to go rancid), as is, of course, salt. Your starter should be stored in the fridge (see below). Just take what you need and put the rest back in the fridge until you feed it.
As much as possible, I try to use organic ingredients in my bread, both at home and at the bakery. Cost is a real consideration at the bakery, but I’ve discovered that the cost of the (generally organic) ingredients in a loaf of bread at my bakery is about 19% of the sale price of the loaf, which doesn’t seem unreasonable. The labor cost is higher. I’d certainly recommend paying extra to use better quality ingredients at home. Considering how few ingredients there are in a loaf, it makes a big difference.
If you’re going to be using add-ins, remember that they can have an effect on the dough. Some, such as olives, tenderize it, making it smoother and easier to work with. Others, such as nuts, make for a stiffer dough, which takes more effort to work. And still others, such as roasted peppers or hot sauce, add a great deal of liquid to the dough, which can make it quite wet and, thus, challenging.
But as there’s no hard-and-fast rule in terms of how much of which ingredient to use, you can always add more flour to a dough that seems too wet, or add more water to a dough that seems too dry. Just add a small amount at a time until you have a dough that feels right.
So how do you know when a dough feels right? When you bake bread for the first time, you should probably stick to the amounts called for in the recipe and see how it turns out, paying attention to how the dough looks, feels, and smells all along the way. Based on the results, you can adjust amounts the next time you bake.
Bakers have told me, on more than one occasion, that the ambient atmospheric conditions – the temperature and humidity – affect how the ingredients work with each other, which generally means how much water you must add to achieve a certain dough consistency. There may be a slight difference under different atmospheric conditions, but here in Southern California I really haven’t noticed it. The dough’s pretty resilient and forgiving. And, in other parts of the country, heating and air conditioning can have a pronounced mitigating effect.
Tools
OK, here’s a list of the hand tools you’ll need to bake this bread. As I say, you’ll probably have many of these tools already. Others are easily found at a hardware or kitchen supply store.
After the list, I’ll offer details about those tools that require further explanation:
Digital scale, bowls for mixing and fermentation, dough scrapers, plastic and metal rubber spatula, wire whisk, cloth-lined baskets (or bannetons – tightly-woven reed baskets), couches (cotton or linen tea towels – flour-rubbed), baking sheet, plastic grocery bags, oven thermometer, spray bottle, metal spatulas, brick unglazed ceramic tiles – 6 tiles (each 4-inch x 4 inch), metal pan (such as a brownie pan), peel single-edge razor blade, cooling rack
Digital scale – Inexpensive digital kitchen scales are available at department and home goods stores. Make sure you get one that weighs in grams (as well as ounces), that can “zero out”, and that can weigh up to a couple thousand grams (you never know!). It should also have a weighing “platform” that can accommodate a large bowl.
Bowls, mixing/fermentation – You can weigh out individual ingredients in smaller bowls, but the mixing and fermentation should take place in a large, sturdy, plastic bowl with a tight-fitting lid. I’m partial to Tupperware myself (and they haven’t paid me to say this!). I’ve been using their largest bowls (which used to be called That’sa Bowl!) happily for decades and they’re still going strong. If you’re going to be making different doughs at the same time, make sure you get mixing/fermentation bowls of different colors to help keep them straight.
Dough scrapers, plastic and metal – Probably the cheapest and most important tools on the list, particularly the plastic dough scrapers. They’re available at cooking supply stores, and the plastic ones should cost about a dollar. (They used to give them away at bread-baking workshops.) I use the plastic ones to cut up the starter and builds, mix builds and dough, cut the finished dough into loaves, and, as needed, scrape the workspace. (I made the mistake – once – of using a metal scraper to clean off my wooden countertop workspace.) Use a metal dough scraper, if necessary, to clean off a metal or ceramic countertop, to cut dough into pieces (it’s a bit easier than using a plastic scraper, though a plastic one does work), or to dislodge a loaf from the hearth. (A loaf generally only sticks to the hearth if you’ve added cheese to the dough and haven’t mixed it in thoroughly.)
Rubber spatula – Excellent for “helping” the plastic dough scraper to mix the ingredients for the builds and dough and for getting the last bits of dough from the mixing bowl.
Wire whisk – For combining dry ingredients. Don’t use to mix wet and dry ingredients together: too hard to clean.
Cloth-lined baskets – Round or oblong loaves rise in – but are not baked in – these baskets. I line each with a flour-rubbed cloth napkin to keep the unbaked ball of dough from sticking to the basket. I generally buy the cheapest small round baskets (without handles) I can find at a craft or hobby store. Just imagine the size of the loaf you want to bake and buy slightly smaller baskets. The loaves, of course, expand in the oven as they bake. Professional bakers use tightly-woven reed baskets called bannetons. Bannetons are not lined, so they impart a nice pattern to the loaves as they rise.
Couche & baking sheet – If you’re baking longer loaves (batards or ficelles), they’ll rise in flour-rubbed cotton or linen tea towels. Use ones with a short nap: no terry cloth! The couche rests on a baking sheet so you can move it to and from the fridge, where the loaves rise.
Plastic bags – Each loaf, whether in a basket or a couche, rises in a plastic bag to prevent the loaf from drying out. The baking sheet is placed in a larger plastic bag and the baskets each in a smaller one.
Oven thermometer – An essential for keeping track of temperatures in and, to an extent, around your oven.
Spray bottle, metal spatulas, brick, & metal pan (such as brownie pan) – These are all part of the process of generating steam in the oven, which I’ll describe, in detail, below.
Single-edge razor blade – For slashing the dough. If you don’t want to spend money on a professional lame (pronounced “lam”) use a razor blade or a very sharp knife. If you use a razor blade, make sure it’s a single-edge blade to avoid cutting yourself.
Peel – A thick piece of cardboard or wood for loading the loaf (or loaves) onto the oven hearth. For many years, I used a record album cover, but they’re hard to come by these days. Now I use a small cutting board, which works fine.
Appliances
No commercial-grade appliance is required. You should have everything in your kitchen already. Notice that there’s no electric mixer listed!
Fridge – As long as your refrigerator can keep food at about 40 degrees Fahrenheit or cooler, and as long as there’s enough room to store a baking sheet overnight, you’re good.
Sink – I have one of those larger, farmhouse sinks, which works well for washing mixing bowls, but a smaller one or a double sink will get the job done. The only discussion here is whether dough should go down the drain and/or through the garbage disposal. I try to avoid it, dumping larger quantities of dough into the compost bucket. Having said that, a certain amount of dough has, from time to time, made its way into my kitchen’s plumbing. I flushed it through with lots of water, and it hasn’t, to date, had an adverse effect on the pipes or disposal.
At the bakery, we, as much as possible, “dry wash” our dough-covered hands, standing over a trash can and rubbing them with flour, or, better yet, we keep our hands very wet to prevent dough from sticking to them in the first place.
Countertop/Workspace – As I’ve discovered after working in a variety of kitchen spaces, it’s easier if you have a table or an island in the center of the space, not far from the sink, the fridge, and the oven. However, you can make do with a number of different configurations. Assuming you’ll be making a few loaves at a time, you won’t need that much workspace. (As I mentioned above, you should have a staging area for ingredients and a nearby space for mixing and working with the dough.) You’ll do most of the work in the mixing bowl itself, only using the work surface to shape loaves.
I have wooden countertops at home, which have served me well. The bakery has stainless steel work spaces, which are a bit easier to clean. And I’ve worked on stone and ceramic counters, which are also fine. The countertop materials may have different apparent temperatures, with stone, for example, feeling cooler than wood. But these differences are minimal and don’t affect the bread. (They can be more important for pastry.)
Oven – This is the most important piece of equipment for bread baking. The idea is to approximate in your home oven the conditions that exist in a traditional bread oven. While commercial bread ovens come in several different types and can be fueled by gas, electricity, oil, coal, or even wood, they all have a few things in common: they’re big, they bake with even heat, and they generate steam.
For the style of traditional bread that I bake, it’s also essential that the oven have a hearth: a stone or ceramic surface that can be heated and on which the loaves are baked directly. Masonry (brick) ovens are the quintessential bread ovens: they are heated (generally using wood, coal, or gas) for a long period of time, the heat source is then extinguished, the heat is given time to equalize, and the loaves are baked in a sealed chamber. The heat, stored in the brick hearth, walls, and ceiling, radiates evenly from all sides. It sounds romantic, and works well, but I can tell you from first-hand experience, it is a tremendous amount of work. There is a reason modern ovens (gas and electric) were invented! They are much, much easier to use, and the results can be as good as those from a wood-fired masonry oven. (I use my backyard wood-fired masonry oven mostly for roasting veggies and making pizza these days: much less trouble than bread!)
Because I have a gas oven in my home kitchen, I’ll start by talking about it and how much I love it! (Well, I’ve already done that, above, so I’ll just offer a few more details on how it works and how I adapt it for my baking needs.)
As I mentioned earlier in this journey, my old-fashioned gas oven has pilot lights, and it has broilers than can provide unlimited heat to both the baking chambers. The pilot lights make the area above the oven and, to an extent, around the oven the warmest place in the kitchen, and that’s where my builds and doughs rise. Because it’s an old and well-used oven, I confirm the temperature of its baking chambers with an oven thermometer. The gas burners also play an important role, which I’ll discuss shortly.
To temporarily transform your gas oven into one more like a traditional bread oven, start by moving one oven rack to the top third of the oven and removing any others. Next, line the remaining rack with enough unglazed quarry tiles (ceramic tiles) to cover the rack, which, in my small baking chambers, takes six (6) six-inch square tiles, lined up in two columns of three, resulting in a baking area of 12 inches by 18 inches, large enough to bake two batards or boules at one time. A pizza stone or baking stone (which are more expensive) or a larger unglazed floor tile will work, as well. Just make sure you have enough surface area to accommodate a couple of loaves of bread. (The tiles, by the way, will eventually crack, but they are cheap to replace.
The floor of the oven should be fairly level and unobstructed. In a gas oven, it will hold a pan of cold water during baking.
To temporarily transform your electric oven into one more like a traditional bread oven, use the same procedure as above, except keep a second rack in your oven, placing it as low as possible in the oven, but not on the floor. This is where the pan of water will be placed during baking.
There are a number of variations on this method. Some bakers will use two racks in their home oven: one at the top and one in the lower third. The lower rack will serve as the hearth, and the upper one will act as a masonry “ceiling.” Line the lower rack with tiles, as indicated above. Cover the upper rack with ceramic tiles, as well. The idea here is that both racks will absorb heat while the oven is pre-heating and release it evenly while the loaves are baking.
Other home bakers will follow the recent trend of baking in a Dutch oven inside their home oven. By heating the Dutch oven (lid and all) in the oven, dropping in the unbaked loaf when the Dutch oven’s hot enough, and baking the loaf with the lid on the Dutch oven, the steam generated by the baking loaf is sealed in and acts to strengthen and brown the crust. Of course, the Dutch oven pretty much limits you to baking boules (round loaves).
While I’ve found that these alternative methods produce fine results, they are not much better than the one I use, which I find to be easier, particularly if you’re going to be baking several loaves. (By the way, this method is inspired by one found in the second volume of Julia Childs’ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, in which she devotes an entire chapter to French baking.)
In any case, the goal is to create steam, so make sure you have a spray bottle of water handy to help out.
The Recipe
OK…having said all that, here’s an overview of the basic recipe for baking a loaf of traditional French bread at home (or in a bakery, for that matter).
Pain au levain – 30% whole grain, 73% hydration – yields two 600 gram loaves
Some explanations:
“30% whole grain” – 30% of the total flour used will be 100% whole grain flour, generally whole wheat, but please experiment with other whole grain flours “73% hydration” – Again, this is the total amount of water, by weight, in the dough. Water and all other ingredients in the dough are expressed as a percentage of the weight of the flour “Two 600-gram loaves” – You will have enough dough to make two loaves of bread, each comprising 600 grams of dough. Some of the water will boil away during the baking, so the loaves that emerge from the oven will weigh a bit less than 600 grams each. (This is more important for the packaging of commercial loaves, where the net weight is proudly displayed.)
FIRST BUILD
All-Purpose (AP) or Artisan Bakers (AB) Flour – 27 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 10 grams
Distilled Water – 22 grams
Chef Levain (Starter) – 100 grams
Mix all ingredients well in a large, tightly covered mixing bowl. Let stand, 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.
SECOND BUILD
AP or AB Flour – 125 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 20 grams
Distilled Water – 87 grams
Add water to fermented and risen First Build in the mixing bowl, then add the flours. Cover tightly and let sit at room temperature for eight hours (generally overnight). Again, after eight hours it should have risen and be moist and permeated with gas bubbles. You can incorporate this step with making the Dough. (See Dough, below.)
DOUGH
AP or AB Flour – 400 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 200 grams
Distilled Water – 460 grams
Sea Salt – 12 grams
In a second large mixing bowl with a tight-fitting lid, whisk together the flours and the salt. Add the distilled water and mix thoroughly, by hand, making sure all the flour is hydrated. Once this preliminary dough has come together in a rough ball, plop the Second Build on top of it in the mixing bowl. Cover it tightly and let it sit for at least half an hour. This is known as autolyse. You can use this time to wash out the first mixing bowl.
You can also mix the dough as soon as you've created the Second Build. Once you've made both, just plop the Second Build on top of the dough and let it all hydrate and ferment together for eight hours, covered tightly, at room temperature.
Next Chapter: How To Bake an Outstanding Loaf of Bread in Your Home Kitchen - A Step-By-Step Guide
OK…having said all that, here’s an overview of the basic recipe for baking a loaf of traditional French bread at home (or in a bakery, for that matter).
Pain au levain – 30% whole grain, 73% hydration – yields two 600 gram loaves
Some explanations:
“30% whole grain” – 30% of the total flour used will be 100% whole grain flour, generally whole wheat, but please experiment with other whole grain flours “73% hydration” – Again, this is the total amount of water, by weight, in the dough. Water and all other ingredients in the dough are expressed as a percentage of the weight of the flour “Two 600-gram loaves” – You will have enough dough to make two loaves of bread, each comprising 600 grams of dough. Some of the water will boil away during the baking, so the loaves that emerge from the oven will weigh a bit less than 600 grams each. (This is more important for the packaging of commercial loaves, where the net weight is proudly displayed.)
FIRST BUILD
All-Purpose (AP) or Artisan Bakers (AB) Flour – 27 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 10 grams
Distilled Water – 22 grams
Chef Levain (Starter) – 100 grams
Mix all ingredients well in a large, tightly covered mixing bowl. Let stand, 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.
SECOND BUILD
AP or AB Flour – 125 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 20 grams
Distilled Water – 87 grams
Add water to fermented and risen First Build in the mixing bowl, then add the flours. Cover tightly and let sit at room temperature for eight hours (generally overnight). Again, after eight hours it should have risen and be moist and permeated with gas bubbles. You can incorporate this step with making the Dough. (See Dough, below.)
DOUGH
AP or AB Flour – 400 grams
Whole Grain Flour – 200 grams
Distilled Water – 460 grams
Sea Salt – 12 grams
In a second large mixing bowl with a tight-fitting lid, whisk together the flours and the salt. Add the distilled water and mix thoroughly, by hand, making sure all the flour is hydrated. Once this preliminary dough has come together in a rough ball, plop the Second Build on top of it in the mixing bowl. Cover it tightly and let it sit for at least half an hour. This is known as autolyse. You can use this time to wash out the first mixing bowl.
You can also mix the dough as soon as you've created the Second Build. Once you've made both, just plop the Second Build on top of the dough and let it all hydrate and ferment together for eight hours, covered tightly, at room temperature.
Next Chapter: How To Bake an Outstanding Loaf of Bread in Your Home Kitchen - A Step-By-Step Guide