Making Bread
March 24, 2020
Poolish
Made the night before.
- 500g Strong White Bread Flour
- 500g 30 °C Water
- ¼ tsp Allisons dried instant easy bake yeast
Sit covered in plastic wrap at room temperature for 12 to 14 hours.
Loaf
Made in the morning.
- 500g Strong White Bread Flour
- 21g Salt
- ¾ tsp Allisons dried instant easy bake yeast
- 250g 40 °C water
- All of the poolish
- Add the water to the poolish to loosen it from the sides of the bowl and scrape it into the flour mixture.
- Keeping a bowl of water nearby to wet your hands, mix the ingredients with your hands by folding and pinching alternately for about 3 minutes, until the ingredients are integrated and there is no apparent dry flour. The dough will be very shaggy.
- Stretch and fold every 30 minutes for the first 90 minutes.
- Leave for a further hour.
- Put dough on floured surface and cut in half. Shape each half into boules and place each boule seam side down into floured bannetons or floured towel lined bowl. Alternatively, keep one boule in the fridge for a day and then remove an hour before the next step.
- Set oven to 220 °C Fan (240 °C conventional oven).
- Place dutch oven in oven and allow an hour to heat up and for the dough to rise.
- After an hour, transfer the dough from banneton onto parchment paper and lift into the dutch oven.
- Bake for around 30 minutes with the lid on, then around 15 minutes with the lid off.
Written by Jim Pickard who runs a pub by day and develops software by night. You can follow him on Twitter