No special equipment or technique required, just your hands and some planning ahead. To have a freshly baked loaf on Saturday morning you need to start the process Thursday evening by waking up your starter. Then on Friday you mix, fold, pre-shape and shape. Sounds like many verbs, but each action takes under 5 minutes, fermentation and proofing takes time. But the result is so rewarding!
Ingredients:
- Active leaven – 100 gr
- Room temperature water – 350 gr
- All purpose flour 450 gr
- Whole wheat sprouted (spelt) flour – 50 gr
- Chopped olives (2-3 tbsp)
- Salt – 10 gr
Directions:
- Mix 20 gr cold starter with 50 gr water and 50 gr all purpose flour into a jar (or tall container)
- Leave on a counter top overnight (10-12 hours at least or till it raises 2.5-3 times in volume)
- In a bowl mix your active leaven with room temperature water
- Add flour, salt, chopped olives
- Mix everything with spatula just to incorporate
- Cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm place for 30-40 minutes
- Fold the dough 4 times every 30-40 minutes (depending on how warm is your house). You should feel the dough elasticity increase with every folding.
- Leave it on the counter top for the bulk fermentation for a couple of hours.
- After 2 hours (the dough should raise about 40-50%) put the dough onto working surface lightly dusted with flour.
- Using the scraper pre-shape the dough onto a ball by pulling a dough from each side and flipping each side into the center (letter fold) Leave your ball sim side down to rest for 15-20 minutes
- Prepare your proofing bowl or basket, it can be any bowl lined with tea towel sprinkled with flour (rice flour is best for that, but any flour will work).
- Make a final shaping into a boule or batard and put the dough inside your vessel seam side up.
- Leave on the counter top to proof for another 2-3 hours till your dough rises about 20-30%
- Put it in the fridge overnight for cold fermentation.
- The next morning place your heavy pan (dutch oven works best) into the oven and heat it for about 20-30 minutes to 500° F
- When the oven is pre-heated pull your dough from the fridge, flip it over the piece of good parchment paper.
- Using very sharp knife make a cut in the dough so it can raise
- Sprinkle with some herbs or spices of your choice (optional), I use bread dip blend
- Using gloves very carefully remove hot pan from the oven, open the lid. Quickly place your dough inside, cover the lid and put the pan back into the oven.
- Bake on 500° F for 20 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 20 min (or till your bread is golden brown)
- Remove the bread from the pan and put on the rack to cool. Let it coll completely before cutting.
