Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Recipes
Makes 2 loaves
Ingredients:
1. 500g flour (11-12.7% protein content)
2. 415ml cooled or cold water (77 - 84% of flour's weight)
3. 10g salt (2 tsp) (2% of flour weight)
4. 10 fresh yeast (12% of flour weight)
5. A handful of rolled oats for sprinkling (optional)
Directions:
1. In a bowl, add 415g water and the 10g fresh yeast and mix well.
2. In another bowl, add 500g flour and 10g salt and mix well.
3. Add the flour mixture bit by bit to the water. Don't worry if it looks wet.
4. Cover and let it rest for 20 - 30 mins (first rise)
5. Lay two glass containers with parchment paper and sprinkle with rolled oats (the latter is optional). You don't need any special bread form, just a oven-proof glass container is fine. my favorite is the IKEA's 365 glass container.
6. Divide into two portions and transfer to a glass container each.
7. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and rest them in the fridge overnight (second rise). The longer you rest it in the fridge, the more flavorful it will be. You can rest it up to 3 days.
8. The following morning, pre-heat oven to 250 deg C.
9. Remove dough from fridge and score it with a sharp knife with a few cuts on the surface (optional, for aesthetics).
10. Sprinkle some rolled oats on top (optional, for aesthetics).
11. Place bread in the oven middle top tray of the oven.
12. To get a golden crisp, pour a glass of boiling water or cold water into the oven bottom tray and close the oven's door.
13. After 15 minute, open the oven door for 5 seconds to vent all remaining steam and lower the oven temperature to 200 deg C (Venting the steam is critical to letting the crust get crispy).
14. Place a digital thermometer into the dough (optional) and bake for another 20 - 30 mins. When the crust turns golden and the core temperature reaches 98 deg C, your bread is done. It will likely take 35 - 45 mins in total.
15. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely for at least an hour before slicing it. If you slice it hot, the steam will escape and the inside will turn gummy.
Tips:
You can add 100-200g sunflowers seeds into the dough if you wish. You can also add cooked what or rye kernels. You can sprinkle with rolled oats with flaxseeds, sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of rolled oats too, or you can do without.
Additional Information:
C and J love this bread.
I sometimes use Olands flour (non-wholewheat), or Salling flour, or Salling Øko flour, but any high protein flour would be fine.
Since the water is hard, I prefer to use boiled and cooled water as distilled water. This softens the water and helps to give the bread the chewy texture.
I prefer to use fresh yeast for its gentle, steady rise and complex, slightly sweet flavor profile.
Keep the salt away from direct yeast and don't add it to the water with the yeast. The concentrated salt can dehydrate and kill yeast cells. Instead mix the salt into the flour and dissolve your yeast in the water first before adding the flour and salt mixture.
Short first rest: Let the dough sit on the counter for just 20 - 30 mins gives the fresh yeast a tiny head start.
Do not leave the dough longer than 30 mins for the first rise, as the fresh yeast will become incredibly active. Putting it into the fridge after it is already fully risen means it will continue growing for several hours while the dough slowly cools down, leading to a deflated, sour and dense loaf the next morning.
Cover the loaf glass in plastic wrap so that the cold fridge air doesn't dry out the top skin of your dough.
Long second rest: Then let the dough rest in the fridge give it a longer fermentation time, which helps the yeast to develop deeper taste profiles. The low temperature (2-5 deg C) dramatically slows down the yeast, but the enzymes in the flour keep working. This breaks starches down into simple sugars, giving the bread a deeply aromatic flavor, a highly extensible structure and a beautifully blistered crust.
Bake cold: If it is puffy and full of air the next morning, do not deflate it. Take it straight from the fridge score the top and put it directly into the pre-heated 250 degree C oven. Placing it in a loaf pan or a glass container in the fridge means that you can bake it as in as it is shaped. Avoid touching or poking it too hard as it can easily deflate and collapse.
Baking straight from the fridge has an added advantage as it maximizes your oven spring. The cold moisture inside the dough will turn to steam the moment it hits the heat, causing the bread to puff dramatically and creating a lighter bread and a beautifully crisp, blistered crust.
Glass loaf container trap steam around the sides. For a perfectly even, crispy crust all around, carefully tip the bread out of the glass loaf container for the last 5 minutes of baking and place the naked loaf directly on the oven rack.
Score immediately: Cold dough is firm, making it easier to cut clean slashes with a razor right before baking. Do this right before it goes into the oven.
Aim for 98 degree C. If it is under 98 degree C, the center will be sticky and wet, although it will still tastes yummy.
If your dough hasn't double its size in the fridge the next morning, leave it on the kitchen counter (still covered) at room temperature for 30 - 60 mins. Once the warmth kickstarts the yeast and it has fully risen, score it and bake it immediately.
If you wish to bake right away, let it rest for two hours in a glass container instead of 20-30 mins. You also need to increase the fresh yeast to 20g.
If you are using wholewheat flour, you will need to increase the total liquid by 5-10% of the total flour weight, in this case 50g of water.
You can also add wheat or rye kernels into the bread. Here is how to prepare the kernels:
1. Bring to boil 1 part whole wheat kernels/ whole rye kernels with 2 parts water. I usually use 200 ml whole wheat kernels and 400 ml water.
2. If you are using whole wheat kernels or rye kernels, once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer boils for 30 minutes. Then let it soak the liquid for another 30 minutes.
3. If you are using cracked wheat kernels or cracked rye kernels, once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer boils for 5 minutes. Then off the heat and let it soak the liquid for another 15 minutes.
4. When they are cooled down, you can use them for the bread, and refrigerate or freeze the left-overs.
5. You should add the cooked, cooled and well-drained wheat kernels near the very end of the kneading process. In our case, adding them after the first rise and before popping it into the fridge for the night. Adding them too early will ruin your bread because the sharp edges of the cracked kernels act like tiny knives, cutting the gluten strands as they try to form. Waiting until the end ensures a strong dough structure that can support heavy grains.
References:
Organic wheat flour from Føtex Supermarket
Add 10g salt (2% of flour weight)
Add 20g yeast (10g if you are resting the dough in the fridge overnight)
Add 400ml + 1 tablespoon water (total 415ml)
Mix well, cover and let it rest for 20 - 30 mins. Cover tightly in plastic wrap and rest them in the fridge overnight (second rise). The longer you rest it in the fridge, the more flavorful it will be. You can rest it up to 3 days.
Remove dough from fridge the following day. You will see that it is puffy and full of air bubbles. Score immediately. Sprinkle with some rolled oats (optional).
Place them in the oven at 250 deg C, and splash a glass of water into the lower tray to generate steam that gives it a golden crust. Close the oven door.
Place them in the oven at 250 deg C, and splash a glass of water into the lower tray to generate steam that gives it a golden crust. Close the oven door.
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