Straight Dough, 5 Hours
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Make a well with the flour.
Dissolve the yeast in about 2 cups of the water.
Dissolve the salt in the remaining water.
Mix all together and pour into the well to form a smooth, tough dough.
Rest and fold
Cover and let it rest in a warm place for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, stretch and fold the dough, then let it rest for another 1½ hours.
Repeat the stretching and folding, then let it rest for an additional 1½ hours before scaling and shaping.
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
- Provides the structure that gluten builds as the dough is stretched and folded.
- Yeast
- Produces gas that makes the dough rise during the long resting periods.
- Coarse sea salt
- Tightens gluten strands and controls the pace of yeast fermentation.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and carries the yeast through the dough.
The step that matters
Keeping the dough warm during the first rest. Yeast activity depends on temperature, so a warm resting place helps the dough develop within the 5-hour schedule. Water temperature at mixing also sets the starting warmth of the dough.
“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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