Well over its 10th printing and riding high in Amazon's Top Ten Sellers for both bread books and pizza books. The Best Flour Water Yeast Salt Sugar Recipes on Yummly | Korean Short Rib Tacos, Kouign-amann, Pizza. Baguette (Bread Machine Recipe) L'Antro dell'Alchimista. It was “just ok”. Presumably his test kitchen is cooler than mine – the warmer the ambient temperature of the room, the faster the development of the dough. At every restaurant I visit, with every bread basket I’m served, I can’t help myself from examining the bread given. I’m not sure why they charred, normally when baking the dough has been fairly forgiving when left longer in the oven. So the alarm was set for soon after 6am, and I ‘scrambled’ downstairs to making some eggs! After the third day, the yeast water should be quite foamy. This recipe gives you an easy alternative starter if you have struggled with making a sourdough starter or can't find any packaged yeast at your local grocery store. If refrigerated, your bread will stay fresh for about one week if wrapped well. He provides instruction on how to develop four different types of pizza dough. It’s a bread recipe that takes it’s que from making something from whatever you have on hand – a little bit of this, a little bit of that. It’s simple, beautiful and exciting all all at the same time. They were then placed into the fridge for a long cold ferment. All I could think of was breakfast on Monday morning – toasting up a slice of bacon bread, only to be topped with a fried egg, paired with a cup of fresh brewed coffee. How appropriate then that the next bake is a double-fed sweet levain bread! Not withstanding the charred edges and while darker than I would have liked, the loaves looked and smelled great! But I was recently challenged by a friend to bake some bread without a recipe. Again, the recipe times in Forkish’s book run a bit long for my warm kitchen and after about 5 hours the dough had almost tripled! I then shaped them again to add a bit more surface tension and placed them in well floured baskets, covered them and placed them in the fridge for the night. About half an hour later the stone was very hot. Ingredients: 800 grams of white flour; 620 grams of 90 degree water, 21 grams of fine sea salt; 2 grams of instant yeast; 30 grams of wheat germ; and 360 grams of levain. While they cooled I added the final dough ingredients and fully incorporated them together to ensure a good mix. I even toasted a fresh slice then and there. The loaves had great oven-spring. But I did say, I love baking bread! I’d be tempted to slather nutella on a toasted slice from this loaf – that is, if my wife allowed nutella into our house! Either I waited a bit too long, or the ‘warm spot’ became a bit warmer than it should have been as the day progressed. But this bread dough is one that Forkish often uses at his bakery to shape into a 3-kilo boule – yes over 6.5 pounds! I’m suspecting that pure levain bread crusts develop with a bit less ‘char’ or thickness to them than the earlier breads that had some commercial yeast in them have. I only had one problem – my dough stuck to the linen cloth! Most importantly I’ve learned the process of making bread in an organic way that has taught me to think through what I’m doing but also read the dough and let it tell me when it’s time to move along to the next step. If you receive an error message, please contact your library for help. Place your bottle of yeast water in a warm place for 3 days, remembering to shake the bottle twice per day and loosen the lid to release the build up of gases as described earlier. Oink! After all, dough is dough. This is the story of this week’s bake.. All one has to do is look around the web for all sorts of things being added to breads – from olives to cheese, raisins to walnuts. Put the lid on the bottle and shake well until all the sugar and salt are dissolved. The aroma filled the entire house and my self control was tested! Pumpkins abound while little ghouls and goblins are planning tricks! If for no other reason but to be reminded of the shroud of country blond, and how this bake gave rise to discovering the face of dough! To your bottle containing the yeast water, add 2 dates, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt. The first picture below shows the bread minutes after the lid came off – by holding the oven door open for this picture I let out a lot of the steam that the bread released into the oven and likely helped to dry out the crust leading to the charred crust. In Flour Water Salt Yeast, Forkish translates his obsessively honed craft into scores of recipes for rustic boules and Neapolitan-style pizzas, all suited for the home baker. I’ve learned to bake with instant yeast, created my own starter ‘Charlie’ which remains alive and well in the fridge, make amazingly great levain bread, found a new appreciation for rye bread, no longer ‘fear dough’, turned into a discerning bread snob and loved every chubby pound I’ve added to my waistline along the way! Apples, grapes, or berries work best. By about 4pm I mixed 660 grams of white flour, 40 grams of whole wheat four and 540 grams of 90 degree water by hand and let it sit for about thirty minutes to hydrate the flour – autolyse. What a great breakfast bread toasted with eggs on top! Over the past many bakes I have been working backwards from the amount of levain required for the final dough and have modified the scheduled levain feed amounts to end up with only the amount of levain needed for the final dough. But until then, a good ‘trick’! Knead dough for 10 minutes and let rest for 20 minutes. In my case I only had dark whole rye flour at hand, so I ran it through a thinly meshed cooking strainer to sift out the bran and germ from the white flour and used that for this recipe. Over the next hour I stretched and folded the dough a few more times and then left it covered on the counter top. Add enough water to the bottle, leaving about 2 inches of headspace. The 360 grams of levain was established within the week using 10% of my active starter (charlie), 40% white flour, 10% whole wheat flour and 40% water at 85 degrees. I think I’ll call this my “Pompeii bread” – it looks as if it’s been charred mid-rise holding a moment of action frozen in time. Return the yeast water to the bottle. We would make either again without a doubt! Ingredients: 800 grams of white flour; 620 grams of 90 degree water, 21 grams of fine sea salt; 2 grams of instant yeast; 30 grams of wheat germ; and 360 grams of levain. This week’s bake is a play on the theme of making a ‘field blend’ bread using whatever pantry flour remnants are on hand. I let it rest for about half an hour. Otherwise, everything else was the same. In a measuring cup, mix the water and the yeast water starter together. By about 9pm I shaped the dough into two loves, placed them into well floured benetton baskets, placed them in sealed plastic bags and tucked them into the top shelf of the fridge until morning. I’ve come to trust what I see and not the clock. It exceeded my expectations! At 1 1/2 hours, stick your finger in the dough up to your nail bed. It too was flavorful, nutty, earthy and wasn’t overly chewy. What a great journey this has been!