BREAD THROWDOWN
Written by Scotia48 on June 27, 2008 – 2:11 pm -SLOW RISE YEAST BREAD
This recipe is an adaptation from the Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC as reported in the NYT by Mark Bittman. All ingredients need to be as fresh as can be. Do not toast the wheat bran. The yeast is a range, experience will tell you what works. I live in a bit of a cold climate and I need more yeast to compensate for the cool house. I also wrap the bowl in a terry towel and put at the back of the stove with the oven heat at 170 degrees. I’m more on the 24 hours than the 18. Also, if you make your own cheese or Greek style yogurt save the whey and use it in the bread in place of some of the water. Salt, if you use salted butter the 1 1/4 tsp would be fine, if you use unsalted butter like I do you may want to increase the salt. I’ve done this turned around with 2 C whole wheat flour and 1 C unbleached white flour. Make it several times until you get it to your taste. While I’ve never tried it, you might experiment with other flour additions, I think buckwheat, spelt, rye, maybe some corn flour. Well, you get the idea.
2 C unbleached all purpose flour (I like King Arthur-it’s 100% employee owned)
1 C whole wheat flour (I like Bob’s Red Mill organic 100% stone ground)
1/4 C wheat bran (Bob’s Red Mill again)
1/4 - 1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 5/8 C lukewarm water
wheat bran & a little white cornmeal for topping
In a large non-metallic bowl combine flour, bran, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 C water & stir till blended. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and then with a large bath towel and let rise 18-24 hours in a place that is about 70 degrees. I use the back of my stove.
When surface of dough is bubbly, turn out onto floured surface and fold over two or three times then cover with plastic wrap and towel and let sit for 15 minutes. Dough will be wet and tacky.
Turn dough onto floured surface and fold over another two to three times into a ball with the seam side up. Using a tea towel or linen towel covered with sprinklings of wheat bran and a little cornmeal, turn the dough ball onto the towel seam side up. Wrap up with another bath towel and let sit for 2 hours or so at 70 degrees. Dough needs to double in size and when ready, will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
About 30 minutes before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees and place a heavy covered pot (preferably cast iron)*. into the oven to heat. (It doesn’t need to be oiled beforehand) When dough is ready, remove pot from oven and turn dough ball into pot, seam side down. Shake pot to distribute dough, put lid back on and place in oven. Bake for about 30 minutes covered, then uncover and bake about 15 minutes more until loaf sounds hollow when tapped. It will be crusty! Remove from oven and place loaf on rack until cooled a bit.
*The cast iron pot I have is 8″ across and 3 1/4″ deep. It’s called a chicken fryer, I think. I got it about 25 years ago. A pot that is 6-7″ across would make more of a bolla loaf ( higher and rounder). You might use le cruset or even a round pyrex. The pot MUST have a lid.
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Off to the store, be back later to answer any questions.
NKB! I’ve had very good luck with this basic approach, and it makes a wonderful crusty bread. I use my small Dutch oven, and it’s perfect.
(Oh, and I almost always rise my breads in a stainless steel bowl with no apparent ill effects, for what it’s worth.)
(Sorry to hijack thread, but I seem to have lost my diary-writing permission–is it just Wordpress, or have I been gone too many days?)
Anne, you should be able to write a diary. Let me tinker with the controls and see what I can find out.
Try it now, Anne. If it doesn’t work, holler!
I use my microwave oven for rising bread. I just put in a bowl of water and heat on high for 4 minutes, then put the dough on top of the bowl of water. It does not need to be covered because the humidity is 100%. That is good for about 2 hours. If you need longer, just take out the dough, reheat the water, and put the dough back in. Warmest regards, Doc.
I make buckwheat bread, and it’s simply heavenly stuff, although it often comes out as a very *heavy* bread.
But it has such a nice taste to it that I would love to try this recipe on it.
As for saving the whey and adding it to bread - heck yea! I’ve done that!
Have you ever seen a bread book by James Beard? It has the best recipes, including one for an onion walnut bread that’s to die for. I made it all the time ’til I found out I was celiac. In fact, it was either by gorging myself on it or a homemade rye bread that I realized the reason I had migraines *all the time* was because of wheat!
So I’m a bit indebted in a round-about way to James Beard. Besides, killer recipes!
Wow, I also feel much better without alot of wheat in my diet, but I’m not celiac. I enjoy making this loaf about once a month. We really don’t eat alot of bread. I do have an old James Beard book that was my mother’s. You are right, it does have some really great recipes. I also have my mother’s Fannies Farmer cookbooks, one from the 60’s and one from the 20’s. Both have taught me alot about cooking.
Oh, I had a Fannie Farmer at one time.
I have no idea what happened to it. Eek. Hazard of geographical cures, I suppose.
If you noticed, this bread dough is NOT KNEADED! Yup, just risen and folded a few times. That’s why you need the long rising and constant 70 degrees temp. It really makes a good crumb texture.
Anne, what size is your dutch oven? And how much flour do you use for a loaf? I probably need to adjust the mix to increase the size of my loaf.
I had two other pictures but couldn’t get them to stick with the diary.