I've made two batches of the Rustic Bread from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes and they have turned out excellent. Pretty, too: for once my loaves are decently shaped. I'm not sure it is has so much to do with the recipe or just that, after 4 months of constant baking, I'm starting to get pretty good at this.
I love the simplicity of this one: 2 lbs flour, 1 tablespoon salt, just over 1/2 teaspoon yeast, and enough water to hydrate it all. It still amazes me how the best bread is made with the fewest ingredients.
I want to do a lesson on shaping soon, as well as one on pre-ferments. So I'm not going to cover those steps in the level of detail I should here, but I'll get enough of the recipe down that most people shouldn't have trouble following it.
Rustic Bread
Put the yeast in the water and stir. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and pour in the yeasted water. Mix until the flour is hydrated, adding more water if necessary. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the pre-ferment out at room temperature overnight (up to 16 hours... if you need more time before baking put it in the refrigerator).
To make the final dough, combine all of the ingredients except the pre-ferment in a mixing bowl. Chop the pre-ferment up into small pieces and mix or knead it into the final dough until they are thoroughly combined. This is quite difficult to do by hand: Hamelman assumes the baker has a mixer and can mix it for 5 minutes by machine. I mix and knead my dough by hand for about 10 minutes. At the end of that time the new and old dough aren't perfectly combined-- you can still see a few streaks of the lighter colored pre-ferment in it-- but they are sufficiently combined that loaves bake evenly.
Place the dough back in a greased bowl and ferment for 2 1/2 hours, punching down or folding the dough twice during that time.
(Folding the dough consists of taking the dough out of the bowl, spreading it out a little on a clean surface, folding it in thirds like a letter, rotating it 90 degrees and folding it up again, and then returning the dough to the bowl and covering it again. Like punching down, folding degases the dough some, but it also encourages gluten development. More on this topic in a future post.)
At the end of the fermentation, divide the dough into two pieces and preshape each into a ball. Cover with a clean towel and let each rest for 5 to 10 minutes before shaping into the final shape. Once shaped, cover the loaves with a clean towel and set aside for a final rise, approximately 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.
Halfway though the final rise, begin preheating the oven to 450 degrees. If you are using a baking stone, preheat it as well.
Right before placing it in the oven, score the loaves. Place them in the oven and use whatever technique you use to create stream in the oven (squirt bottle, skillet full of hot water, etc) to encourage proper crust development.
After 20 minutes of baking, rotate the loaves 180 degrees so that they'll bake evenly. Bake until an instant read thermometer reads around 200 degrees, which took approximately 35 minutes for my batard ("football") shaped loaves.
Related Recipe: Italian Bread
I love the simplicity of this one: 2 lbs flour, 1 tablespoon salt, just over 1/2 teaspoon yeast, and enough water to hydrate it all. It still amazes me how the best bread is made with the fewest ingredients.
I want to do a lesson on shaping soon, as well as one on pre-ferments. So I'm not going to cover those steps in the level of detail I should here, but I'll get enough of the recipe down that most people shouldn't have trouble following it.
Rustic Bread
Makes 2 large loaves
Preferment:
1 lb. bread flour (3 1/2 cups)
9.5 oz. water (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/8 teaspoon instant yeast
Final dough:
10 oz. bread flour (2 1/2 cups)
6 oz. whole wheat or rye flour or a mixture of them (around 1 1/2 cups)
12.5 oz. water (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
all of the preferment
Put the yeast in the water and stir. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and pour in the yeasted water. Mix until the flour is hydrated, adding more water if necessary. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the pre-ferment out at room temperature overnight (up to 16 hours... if you need more time before baking put it in the refrigerator).
To make the final dough, combine all of the ingredients except the pre-ferment in a mixing bowl. Chop the pre-ferment up into small pieces and mix or knead it into the final dough until they are thoroughly combined. This is quite difficult to do by hand: Hamelman assumes the baker has a mixer and can mix it for 5 minutes by machine. I mix and knead my dough by hand for about 10 minutes. At the end of that time the new and old dough aren't perfectly combined-- you can still see a few streaks of the lighter colored pre-ferment in it-- but they are sufficiently combined that loaves bake evenly.
Place the dough back in a greased bowl and ferment for 2 1/2 hours, punching down or folding the dough twice during that time.
(Folding the dough consists of taking the dough out of the bowl, spreading it out a little on a clean surface, folding it in thirds like a letter, rotating it 90 degrees and folding it up again, and then returning the dough to the bowl and covering it again. Like punching down, folding degases the dough some, but it also encourages gluten development. More on this topic in a future post.)
At the end of the fermentation, divide the dough into two pieces and preshape each into a ball. Cover with a clean towel and let each rest for 5 to 10 minutes before shaping into the final shape. Once shaped, cover the loaves with a clean towel and set aside for a final rise, approximately 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.
Halfway though the final rise, begin preheating the oven to 450 degrees. If you are using a baking stone, preheat it as well.
Right before placing it in the oven, score the loaves. Place them in the oven and use whatever technique you use to create stream in the oven (squirt bottle, skillet full of hot water, etc) to encourage proper crust development.
After 20 minutes of baking, rotate the loaves 180 degrees so that they'll bake evenly. Bake until an instant read thermometer reads around 200 degrees, which took approximately 35 minutes for my batard ("football") shaped loaves.
Related Recipe: Italian Bread
I shall bake this bread tomorrow, looking forward to it.
Can this be baked in a Dutch Oven?
I love the look of it so much.
I wonder if we could substitute the yeast for Sourdough or just add a bit of Sourdough as flavour enhancement alongside the yeast.
I shall do that after I tried it first with your original recipe.
I've got to admit that I've taken Floyd's contribution here, scaled it down a bit after converting the weight to grams, and shamelessly exploited it for all it's worth. The next time I'm in Norwich, VT, I'll look for Mr Hamelman and tip my hat to him as well.
My metric version of the formula won First Prize in the ethnic breads class at the Leavenworth County Fair on Monday and was part of my handouts for the class I taught today. That experience is described in my blog post from 1 August.
If you haven't baked this bread yet, you've got to try it at least once. If you have baked it once, you've probably baked it again. Pass it on to another baker.
Care to provide your metric measurements that produced the winning bread?
This is the conversion to metric that I figured out on paper. I never bothered to learn how to use a spread sheet effectively so these numbers aren't precise but the formula does work. I scaled the ingredients down to 80% for my fair entry and still had success so I'm confident that the numbers can work for other bakers.All you have to do is follow the link to my blog.
If you go back a few posts, you'll find a conversion that's much more complete by ericreed, getting into the bakers math aspect, desired dough temperature, and a few other points. It's a really good.
http://chaosamongstthefloursandflowers.blogspot.com/2013/03/another-show-and-tell-loaf-for-class.html
While I was rereading my blog, I found that I had listed the ingredients for the County Fair loaf in a recent post. This is the cut and paste list.
Preferment
220 g bread flour
118 g water at 85F
4 g kosher salt
1/8 tsp active dry yeast
Dough
126 g bread flour
32 g rye flour
43 g whole wheat flour
All of preferment
156 g water at 85F
4 g kosher salt
1/4 tsp ADY
I hope that this is easier for people to replicate. The loaf turns out to be of practical size for a small family or even a married couple such as Mrs PG and I.
I know that this post is over a year old but I just used this recipe to make the best loaf I have ever made. I registered just to be able to comment on it. The taste is incredible! I didn't quite follow the baking method though. I baked it in a dutch oven and threw a quarter cup of water on top of the loaf just before putting the lid on. I baked it for 30 minutes with the lid on and then another 15 with the lid off. This is one recipe I am sure to make again!
Can I use a Dutch Oven to bake these beautiful loafs?
Yes, I would definitely think so.
Sorry for the late reply, I shall bake this bread the day after tomorrow, looking forward to it.
I think we shall eat it with a nice bowl of Goulash Soup:)
I have used this as my go-to loaf the last few months and am trying something tonight.
i added a cup of peanut butter and will see how it goes. I love the taste of peanut butter, especially when part of the wheat bread and the smell of peanut butter bread baking is heavenly. I am hoping this dough is a good base for these experiments. In fact, if I am bold tomorrow, I might try to dust the top with cayenne to get a little heat on the crust. I didnt want to mix it in because it seems to hurt the yeast.
i will post my loaf when I am done.
I divided it in half, rolled them both out, spread peanut butter in them an then rolled them up...
Here is a gallery of the loves http://imgur.com/a/SJAsM
I could have used more cayenne and doubled the amount of peanut butter.
Larry
[edit: I noticed that the peanut butter swirl inside the rectangular loaf was to heavy for the crumb and it collapsed.]
Made this recipe today and it was a hit. One comment that I heard was, "this bread is to die for." Making the bread my one thought was, that is a lot of salt. But the bread was very good. I will make it again.
Thanks for the recipe.
Actually at 1.8% the salt is on the low side of normal. Salt is usually between 1.8 and 2.2% (although I think in the UK several people are now using 1.5%).
Glad the bread turned out well.
Salt should be 2% of total flour but as with everything else in baking you'll find many opinions. Salt is a dough conditioner and controls the yeast. You don't want too much (a little goes a long way) as that will inhibit the yeast but you will still get good results with slightly less.
I have been using a quick (5 Hour rise) rustic bread recipe and have been looking for a traditional one. I can hardly wait to try this one. I'm new to this forum and am already learning so much about bread making. I can see more bread adventures in my future.
This is a great recipe, tastes better than my cheat's sourdough - thank you! It was quite tricky though using fresh yeast in such miniscule quantities, especially that I scaled down to half, for one loaf. I added 1-2g to the preferment and 2-3g to the main dough.
I made this recipe this weekend, and baked the bread in my grill. Came out great!! Excellent bread
Floyd - I just noticed today that the formula you posted at the top of this thread differs slightly from what is in my 2004 copy of Hamelman. I presume that is because you posted what you did rather than what is in the book, but I thought I would ask.
It has been some time but, yes, I'm certain I did not post Hamelman's recipe verbatim. I simplify and cut corners in places where I don't discern a significant difference.
My experience with Hamelman is that he has polished and tweaked his formulas to the point of perfection for his bakery. I found a case where I discovered something and when I went back to check on what he had done, discovered that he had made a very fine adjustment that was not even noted in the text (a case where a more sour loaf needs more salt to balance the flavor profile). And that is what it takes to produce award winning product. But I understand your point. Thanks for the clarification.
I don't disagree for a moment and would never compare my baking expertise to Hamelman's. He is a master craftsman who has baked these recipes hundreds, if not thousands, of times. I just want to share something tasty my family and friends enjoy. If cutting a corner here or there makes baking it simple enough that I'll (or others) will bake it often, that is far better than something complex that gets baked once (or not at all).
thanks for the post of this fantastic bread, I will save the recipe and most cerently make one this weekend!
once again thank you so much~~~
made the bread this weekend and they looked great after the final rise bit when I tried to transfer them to the baking stone one caved a lot and the other a little. One looked like I punched it down and the other not so bad. I just baked them because my stone was hot and they were on there. The flavor was good but it definitely was denser than they should have been. I kept them wet so they could rise (they did) in the oven but pre bake they looked beautifu. Until I can figure it out I'll just let them rise on a baking sheet.
to me like it may have been over proofed.
I'm not sure, I followed the proofing times and even went a little fast with the last one. Maybe during the "fold" portion I didnt degass the dough enough. When shaping it into a ball before the football shape are you supposed to be degassing it? I think I just shaped it waited the 5-10 minutes then shaped it again.
What have you experienced with the character of the crust in this "Rustic" bread. On the continuum between thin /making a sound when you slice it, crusty and . . . . . . . . . . . . thick chewy, break your jaw; where does this bread fall? Does baking in a cloche vs. on a stone make a difference in the character of the crust? Please advise. Thanks much. Jim Burgin
New to baking, and ready to try my first artisan loaf. "Rustic Bread" recipe looks perfect. Wondering about a few things before I jump in:
1. Recipe says " add water and mix until flour is fully hydrated ". Does this mean that I keep adding water while mixing only until fully absorbed by the flour?
2. Any missing info, or possible pitfalls that i should be aware of?
3. Recipe makes two boules. OK to swap for a batard shape? Any change to recipe if I do this this?
Looking forward to the end result. I'll let you know how it goes.
Gerry
I made some pretty big mistakes (I initially had the dough a little too wet and like a dope, I formed the loaves on the kitchen counter and had to transfer them to a baking sheet after the final rise). I was sure they would be a total loss. As it turns out though, they were among the best loaves I've ever made. I'd give more details about my experience, but there are plenty of good comments here. Thanks for the post Floydm!
So I baked this loaf and it came out... quite squat and with a lot of holes. See pics for detail (with banana for scale, lol). I would love some feedback from the community! I'm still quite new to baking, but I think maybe I over-proofed it? Also, I ran out of time to bake it the day I made the final dough, so I popped the dough in the freezer after forming the rounds (but before shaping the final loaves and doing the final rise). I thawed the bread out in the fridge later and then let it sit at room temperature for 3 or so hours before shaping and doing the final rise. Maybe I didn't let it sit out at room temp for long enough? The dough was still a little cold, but I was rushed so I just went ahead. It did rise a little during the final rise, but not a ton... So, either I overproofed it, the yeast were too cold for the final rise, or something else happened? What do you all think?
Using this recipe, can one of the loaves we stored in the refrigerator or freezer for later baking?
I've never tried it but I don't see why not.
Can one of the loaves be left in the refrigerator and baked later? If so where in the recipe would the one that is saved for later refrigerator/
I would try retarding it after shaping.
So super tasty and very spongy center but it didn’t really get golden brown like everyone’s pictures. I spritzed water during first ten minutes or so of baking. Also holes not large at all. That all being said, delicious. Can anyone offer me crush help?
The pre-ferment, after sitting overnight, was very dry and didn't seem to do much of anything. I'm used to pre-ferments being wet and bubbly. Is this what it's supposed to look like?
I'm deciding if I need to start over or if I can use my starter today.
Although my rustic (artisan) bread tastes good, I can never get it into a nice round shape with a skin. I've watched other people do it on videos, but still can't do it. Any hints or secrets anyone can share with me would be appreciated.