Boule - Master - Artisan Bread 5 Mins A Day

By mariannefeldman

The New Artisan Bread in 5 Mins A Day, p53, Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois
Yield: 4 loaves, slightly less than 1 pound each.

Ingredients

• Variation: Herb Bread:
• Lukewarm water: 3 cups ( = 1 lb = 8 oz = 680 grams)
• Granulated yeast: 1 tbs ( = 0.35 oz = 10 g)
• Kosher salt: 1 1/2 tbs ( = 0.9 oz = 25 g)
• All Purpose Flour: 6 1/2 cups (scoop & sweep)( = 2 lbs = 910 g)
• Optional: add soy lecithin 2 tablespoons per 3 cups of flour. Improves shelf life of yeast breads & allows you to cut back on the fat in your recipe.
• Optional: Potato Flakes or Potato Flour: Replace 1/4 cup all purpose flour with 1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup potato flakes per loaf.
• Add potato flour to the wheat flour in your recipe and whisk together before adding. If you add potato flour directly to liquid, it will clump and make lumps.
• add 1 tsp dried thyme (or 2 tsp fresh) & 1/2 tsp dried rosemary (or 1 tsp fresh) to the water mixture.
• _______________________
• Half recipe:
• Lukewarm water: 1 1/2 cups ( = 1/2 lb = 4 oz = 340 grams)
• Granulated yeast: 1 1/2 tsp ( = 0.17 1/2 oz = 5 g)
• Kosher salt: 2 1/4 tsp ( = 0.45 oz = 12.5 g)
• All Purpose Flour: 3 1/4 cups (scoop & sweep)( = 1 lbs = 455 g)
• Optional: add soy lecithin 1 tablespoon - Improves shelf life of yeast breads & allows you to cut back on the fat in your recipe.
• Optional: Potato Flakes or Potato Flour: Replace 1/4 cup all purpose flour with 1/4 cup potato flour or 1/2 cup potato flakes per loaf.
• Add potato flour to the wheat flour in your recipe and whisk together before adding. If you add potato flour directly to liquid, it will clump and make lumps.
• Variation: Herb Bread:
• add 1/2 tsp dried thyme (or 1 tsp fresh) & 1/4 tsp dried rosemary (or 1/2 tsp fresh) to the water mixture.

Preparation

Step 1

1) Water should be a little warmer than body temperature, about 100 degrees.
By using warm water the dough will rise to the right point for storage in about 2 hours. You can use cold water & get the same final result but the first rising will take longer (Tips & Techniques, page 14)

2) Add yeast & salt to the water in a 6 quart bowl or or preferably in a lidded (but not airtight) food container or food grade plastic bucket.
Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3) Mix in the flour - kneading is unnecessary. Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry ingredient measuring cups or by weighing the ingredients.If you measure with cups use the scoop & sweep method, gently scooping up flour, the sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don't press down into the flour as you scoop or you will throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a wooden spoon or a heavy duty stand mixer with paddle until the mixture is uniform. If you are hand mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate flour with the spoon you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don't knead! It isn't necessary You're finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and it will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.

4) Allow to rise. Cover with a lid that fits well to the container but can be cracked open so it's not completely airtight-most plastic lids fir the bill. If you are using a bowl, cover it loosely with plastic wrap. Towels don't work-they stick to wet dough. Lidded (or even vented) plastic buckets are readily are readily available. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), about 2 hours , depending on the rooms temperature & the initial water temperature -then refrigerate it & use over the next 14 days.
If your container is't vented, allow gases to escape by leaving it open a crack for the first couple of days in the fridge you can usually close it. If you forget about your rising dough on the counter don't worry - longer rising times at room temperature, even over night, will not harm the result (though egg enriched dough should go into the fridge in 2 hours.
You can use a portion of the dough any time after the 2 hour rise.
Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature, so the first time you try our method it's best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or for at least 3 hours) before shaping a loaf. Once refrigerated the dough will seem to have shrunk back upon itself and it will never rise again in the bucket-that's normal.
Whatever you do do not punch down this dough.With our method you're trying to retain as much gas in the dough as possible, and punching it down knocks gas out and will make your loaves denser.

5) On baking day: The gluten cloak: Don't knead, just "cloak" and shape loaf in 20 - 40 seconds.
Prepare a pizza peel with cornmeal or parchment paper to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven (the parchment paper slides right onto the stone along with the loaf).
Dust the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit sized) piece of dough, using a serrated knife. Hold the dough and add more flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands.
Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all 4 sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off, it's no intended to be incorporated into the dough.
The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends but it will flatten out & adhere during resting & baking.
The correctly shaped loaf will be smooth ad cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 20 - 40 seconds-don't work the dough longer or your loaves may be dense.

6) Rest the loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel-Place the shaped ball on the prepared pizza peel & let it rest for about 40 minutes. It doesn't need to be covered during the rest period unless you're extending the rest time to get a more "open" crumb. (see p 58 & 35 for tips)
You may not see much rising during this period, much more rising will occur during baking (oven spring).

7) Preheat a baking stone near the middle of the oven to 450 degrees, which takes about 20 - 30 minutes. Place an empty metal broiler pan for holding water o any shelf that won't interfere with rising bread. Never use a glass pan to catch water for steam-it's likely to shatter.
If you dont have a pizza peel & baking stone-rest the formed loaf on a baking sheet prepared with oil, butter, parchment paer or a silicone mat. Then just place the baking sheet on an oven rack when ready to bake.

8) Dust & slash- Dust the top of the bread liberally with flour, which will prevent the knife from sticking. Slash a 1/2 inch deep cross, scallop, or tic tac toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife held perpendicular to the bread. Leave the flour in place for baking-tap some of it off before eating.

9) Baking with steam- slide the loaf onto the preheated stone: Place the tip of the peel a few inches beyond where you want the bread to land.
Give the peel a few quick forward & back jiggles, and pull it sharply out from under the loaf.
Quickly but carefully pour abt 1 cup of hot water tap water into the broiler tray & close the oven door to trap the steam (see p 20 for steam alternatives).
If you used parchment paper instead of cornmeal, pull it out from under the loaf after about 20 mins for a crisper bottom crust.
Bake for a total of about 30 - 35 mins, or til the crust is richly browned & firm to the touch.Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments in baking time (see p 36). Because the dough is wet, there is little risk of drying out the interior, despite the dark crust.
When you remove the loaf from the oven a perfectly baked loaf will audibly crackle or "sing" when initially exposed to room temperature air.
Allow to cool completely (up to 2 hours), preferably on a wire cooling rack for best flavor, texture & slicing.
The crust may initially soften, but will firm up again when cooled.
If you are ot getting the browning & crispness you want, test your oven temperature with an oven thermometer
Temperature of bread: use an instant read thermometer:
lean dough-(no eggs) should be 205 - 210 degrees
Egg Enriched dough (such as challah & brioche) should be 180-185 degrees.

10) Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded or loosely plastic wrapped container and use it over the next 14 days.
You'll find that even 1 days storage improves the flavor & texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14 storage period.
If you store your dough in your mixing container you'll avoid some clean up.
Cut off & shape more loaves as you need them. We often have several types of dough stored i our refrigerators at once.
Lean dough (those made without eggs, sweetener or fat) can be frozen in 1 pound portions in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks and defrosted overnight in the refrigerator before use.