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Country White Bread

An honest loaf
This recipe produces delicious artisan-style bread. It has a thick, crisp, beautifully browned crust and a soft center with excellent cell structure and just the right chewy resistance to be deeply satisfying without being annoying. This recipe may not be for novices. See the notes before attempting.

Ingredients

Country White Bread

Starter
  • 1 cup lukewarm water
  • 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1 1/4 cups White Bread flour
  • 1/4 cups Multi-grain Bread flour

Dough

  • Prepared Starter (from ingredients above)
  • 1 cup warm water
  • 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 3 1/2 to 4 cups White Bread Flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Directions

  • In a large bowl, mix starter ingredients together until completely mixed and sticky. 
  • Cover with plastic wrap and leave it overnight or for about 10-16 hours. 
  • Once starter is ready, stir the bubbles out with a spoon
    Starter rested overnight
  • Stir in the 1 cup of water, 3/4 tsp yeast, 1 tbsp sugar, 3 1/4 cups of flour, and the 1 1/2 tsp salt to make a sticky dough. Let stand for 15 minutes and then work it for a minute or two until it is smoother and ready to knead. 
  • Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Add flour as needed and work until it is a soft spongy dough.
  • Lightly oil another large bowl, put the dough in and turn to make sure there is a sheen of oil on the dough. 
  • Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let rise until about doubled. How the bread rises depends a lot on temperature and humidity. It can take as little as 40 minutes or so or as long as 90 minutes or more.
  • Split the dough into two portions and gently form them into two loaves being careful not to lose two much air. 
  • Store one loaf in the fridge for baking in the next day or two. 
  • Place lightly dusted parchment paper onto a baking sheet. Gently place the remaining loaf on the sheet, seam-side down.
  • Cover the bread gently with lightly greased plastic wrap, and let rise for 40 to 90 minutes until proofed dough will spring half way back when poked gently with your finger. If it dents and springs right back it is not ready. Be careful because when it dents and won't spring back at all it is over-proofed and your bread will fall and be heavy. 
  • 30 minutes before baking, preheat oven with covered casserole dish or dutch oven to 450 °F.
  • When ready, carefully (dish is very hot) and gently (you don't want your dough to fall) shift the loaf into the heated dish. 
  • Slash the bread with a lame, if you have one, or a very sharp knife or razor blade. 
  • Cover dish and bake the bread for about 30 minutes, until golden brown. 
  • Remove lid and bake for another ten minutes or so until crust is nicely browned. 
  • Remove the dish from the oven, and dump the loaf out of the dish on to a rack to cool for about 20 minutes. 

    Notes

    There are a number of things you need to know that are not explained here. If you are not familiar and comfortable with making bread, you should study up online to learn how to knead properly, how to do 'the poke test', etc.

    There are a lot of variables that affect timing and so you need to learn to recognize when things are in the correct state.

    You can experiment with types of flour, but should stick to flour made especially for bread. All purpose flour does not have enough protein.

    Instead of the 1/4 cup of Multigrain flour in the starter, you can use all white bread flour if you prefer. 

    If you can't leave the starter overnight, let it set for at least 2 hours. The longer it gets to set the better the flavor will be.

    For the first rise you can let the dough rise slowly in the fridge if you need to. If your dough has been refrigerated, allow it to come to room temperature before shaping; it'll warm up and rise at the same time.

    The dough you saved in the fridge is ready for that last 40 to minute rise but because it is cold and has to warm up, you need to give it about 30 to 60 minutes longer. The 'poke test' is your guide to when it is properly risen.

    Alternate Measures

    Starter

    Amount
    Item Measure x1 x1.5 x2
    Water cup 1 1.5 3
    Yeast tsp 0.5 0.75 1.5
    Flour cup 1.5 2.25 4.5

    Dough
    Water cup 1 1.5 3
    Yeast tsp 0.75 1.125 2.25
    Sugar tbsp 1 1.5 3
    Flour cup 3.5 5.25 10.5
    Salt tsp 1.5 2.25 4.5


    Finished Bread

    Close up of crust
    Cell Structure

    Closeup of Cell Structure



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