A few weeks ago I decided to make some bread for my lunch (I’d bring the bread with some deli meat and sliced cheese – very European I know). I decided to just make two boules and bring one for a co-worker who has asked for me to bring some bread for her previously (little did I know that she’d be out sick). I went back and found an old recipe and tweaked it slightly.
Ingredients:
Preferment:
- 350 g bread flour
- 364 g water
- 3 g yeast
Remaining ingredients
- 350 g bread flour
- 266 g water
- 14 g salt
I mixed up the preferment and let it sit for about 30 minutes. I then added that to the remaining ingredients above. I mixed these up thoroughly and then let it sit for the water to absorb before I kneaded it.
I then proceeded to knead it for approximately 15 minutes until it was relatively smooth and I could do the “window” test – not perfectly but close enough. I then set it in a bowl, covered it and used the proof setting on the oven to allow it to rise (double in size).
I pulled the dough out, did the knead and fold method a few times with 30 minutes in between before dividing the dough into 2.
I formed the dough into a ball and then placed it into a well floured kitchen towel inside of a bowl (one round and one square). I let the dough rise again until I could press down on the dough with my thumb and it would only spring back halfway (since it was warm, this only took about 45 minutes). I pre-heated the oven to 425 F while the dough was rising. I then placed each of the dough balls onto some parchment paper and made some cuts through the top.
I have a pizza steel I use and placed the dough on it and sprayed water into the oven. I repeated the spray after 10 minutes and reduce the temperature to 400 F.
I don’t remember exactly how long I cooked them for but I think it was in the 25-30 minute range (internal temperature was 198 F).
They came out looking pretty good. I ended up giving one of the boules to my other co-worker who hadn’t called out sick. The crumb turned out pretty good as well.
Today I decided to just make one boule for my lunches for the week. I followed the same basic steps above. I did make this one with some wheat flour thrown in.
Ingredients:
- 300 g bread flour
- 200 g wheat flour
- 360 g warm water
- 1 tsp active dry yeast
- 12 g salt
- The only difference was that I put the risen dough into a preheated dutch oven (at 450 F). I left it covered in the dutch oven for the first 10 minutes then removed the lid and dropped it to 390 F for an additional 25 minutes. I haven’t cut into it yet so don’t know the crumb but it looked good from the outside.
-StewsCat
