davepolaschek

Based upon this simplified peasant bread recipe, this works fine for me at 6900 feet altitude, though my scale told me 512 grams of flour was about 3¼ cups, rather than the 4 called for in the recipe. My version therefore uses a mix of units. If you have a kitchen scale, you should be fine. If not, you’ll need to use your judgement.

Note also that I’ve cut the original recipe in half.

Ingredients

• 2C flour – I use 256 grams, which with the flours I use is more like 1½ cups
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 C lukewarm water

For greasing the bowl:

• 1 Tbsp butter

Special Equipment

• Pyrex 1 quart glass oven-safe mixing bowl

Directions

• Put all the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. 2 quart capacity or better will give you room to stir. Don’t mix the yeast and salt (put them on different sides of the bowl).
• Add a cup of lukewarm water and mix with a fork until everything is pretty uniform.
• Cover with plastic wrap (if in a dry climate) or a tea towel, set in a warm area, and let rise until it has doubled in volume. About 90 minutes does the trick here in Santa Fe, but might take longer at sea level.
• Grease the Pyrex bowl with about a tablespoon of butter.
• Using a fork, pull the dough loose from the sides of the mixing bowl, and fold it on itself so it loses most of the air (punch it down). Scoop it into the greased baking bowl and set it (uncovered) near the oven.
• 
• Begin preheating the oven to 425F.
• When the oven is ready, and the bread dough has risen to the edge of the bowl or slightly above, pop it into the oven for 15 minutes at 425F.
• Turn the oven down to 375F and bake the bread for 15-17 minutes more.
• When the bread is done, dump it from the bowl onto a cooling rack.
• If the crust looks underdone, put the bread in the 375F oven (out of the bowl) for up to another 5 minutes.
• Let the bread cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into it.
• Enjoy!

Above, I don’t specify what type of flour. I’ve made this with at least 1 cup of bread flour every time, but the remainder of the flour has been corn, rice, and rye (so far). They’ve all turned out well, though the rye needed a little extra water to be the right consistency. Feel free to experiment! It’s a small batch, and goes pretty quickly. I could see making a loaf of this every day if I didn’t have so many other hobbies.

#recipe #bread

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