Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the dough
Combine the flour and salt in a large earthen pan.
Cover the mixture with a cloth and warm it by the fire.
Make a hole in the center large enough to hold the pint of water.
Mix the yeast into the warm water until smooth.
Pour the yeast mixture into the hole in the flour.
Sprinkle some flour over the hole to cover it.
Cover the dough with the cloth.
Let it sit by the fire until the flour cracks in several places.
Work the mixture into a light dough using only your fingertips.
Knead the dough until you see small air bubbles.
Let the dough rise by the fire until it feels very light.
Shape and bake
Tear off pieces of dough (do not cut).
Shape the dough pieces as desired.
Place the shaped dough on a floured baking tin.
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until the loaves rise, crack, and are golden brown.
Once out of the oven, cover the loaves with a cloth to keep them warm.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the dough's structure as its proteins hydrate and develop gluten.
- German yeast
- Produces gas as it ferments, making the dough rise and become light.
- Warm water
- Hydrates the flour and activates the yeast so the dough can develop.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds flavor and controls the pace of yeast fermentation in the dough.
The step that matters
Let the dough rise by the fire until it feels very light.. Rising depends on yeast gas being trapped by the gluten network. Under-proofed dough stays dense, while over-proofed dough loses structure and collapses.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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