THE GOOD BREAD
As a child and young adult, I couldn’t stand baking. I vividly remember all the times I tried to bake, only to end up with half the dough on my fingers, some on the table, and a little in the bowl. And the breads never turned out very exciting.
However, I do remember the holidays from my childhood. Especially in Southern Europe. I recall the rustic Italian, flour-covered breads with dark crusts and large air holes and a chewy crumb.
But it took many years before they appeared back home in North Jutland. Initially, bakers began with half-hearted attempts they called ‘ciabatta’ or something ‘rustic’. That wasn’t it. Supermarkets also got in on the act with something slightly reminiscent. But that wasn’t it.
The first time I remember a truly rustic bread was at Penny Lane in Aalborg. It was my aunt who took me there. They also had exotic items like olives and ‘sun-kissed tomatoes’.
I moved to Switzerland at 17. Here I encountered a mix of German, French, and Italian culture. And the chewy Italian breads from childhood holidays became everyday fare. Here, I learned to cook and clean. But I didn’t learn to bake bread. And in that way, there was still something mysterious; yes, magical about those breads.
It wasn’t until, by chance, I worked with a woman whose husband had worked as a baker at Emmery’s that I got my first lesson in baking what I later discovered was a wet dough.
Since then, it has become everyday food, and baking books fill the shelves – Meyer’s Baking School, Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread (the good bread), ‘The World’s Best Bread’, etc.
SO, WHAT IS IT?
In this section, I will review the most important elements, for me, that one needs to know to make delicious rustic breads with a chewy crumb and large air holes.
LIQUID
The keyword here is WET DOUGH. And it is literally a wet dough because it contains much more liquid in relation to the amount of flour. In regular Danish rolls, you might have 600 g of flour and 300 g of liquid – in the wet dough, there might be 600 g of flour and 500-600 g of liquid
YEAST/SOURDOUGH
Something is needed to make the bread rise. If you bake often and/or have the time to care for and maintain a sourdough, it is definitely the tastiest. There is more flavor in a sourdough, and the bread stays fresh and delicious much longer. Yeast, on the other hand, is more stable and thus easier to handle. If you plan 10-12 hours in advance, you can make a starter dough that has some of the same properties as a sourdough. Many recipes use WAY too much yeast. There is no reason to use more than 25 g of yeast for 600 g of flour – and that’s the max! I prefer not to use more than 10 g.
FLOUR
Fine wheat flour contains the protein gluten. It’s the gluten that gets stretched long and chewy when you knead the dough. There must be at least 12 g of protein in the flour, preferably more. For instance, you can buy Manitoba flour. Additionally, there shouldn’t be too much whole grain. A good starting point is 2/3 fine wheat flour and 1/3 coarse flour (rye, whole wheat, etc.)
AUTOLYSE
Autolyse is about activating the flour. The good thing is you don’t really have to do anything. You mix water, yeast, and flour. It just needs to be stirred enough to look like a dough. And then it should stand for ½-2 hours and mind its own business. I typically let it stand for ½-1 hour, depending on whether I’m busy with something else. If you forget the autolyse, it takes much longer to knead the wet dough.
KNEADING
A wet dough needs to be kneaded differently. A regular firm dough can be poured onto the table and kneaded by hand. A wet dough should either be gently folded over itself 8-10 times with 30-minute intervals (Chad Robertson), as was done in the old days, or it can be placed in your Kenwood, Kitchen Aid, or Bjørn Teddy and give it full throttle for 10 minutes (Meyer, etc.)
TIME
Time has a huge impact on the taste and texture of the bread. You can speed things up with: more yeast, sugar, vinegar, and heat. You can slow things down with: less yeast, less sugar and vinegar, and lower temperature. More time = more flavor!
TEMPERATURE
When you put the bread in the oven, it should ideally get a shock! This causes the air in the holes in the bread to expand, making the bread rise. Additionally, the dark crust gives a lovely flavor. I bake at 300 C for the first 5 minutes and then lower it to 220-250 for the rest of the time. You can choose to bake in a cast iron pot or on a baking steel to maintain the high temperature in the oven.
There are many opinions on how it should be done. But it really is up to oneself. My starting point is that you should learn the rules and then break them afterward. Or try the different approaches and choose the model that fits. And then you should practice a few times before it becomes easy. Just like with anything else.
Enjoy.