I live in a state of bread anxiety. On Thursdays I revive my sourdough starters and begin the tortuous process of choosing the bread to bake on the weekend. That evening you’ll find me on the sofa, surrounded by bread books, notebooks, pens, pencils, stickers, and close to a computer with multiple open tabs: The Fresh Loaf, Wild Yeast, Makanai, Dan Lepard, King Arthur, Northwest Sourdough… My beloved husband knows it’s useless to converse with with me when I’m in such a “bread daze,” and I can’t come out of it until I make my choice.
This weekend’s pick was an impressive loaf from Maggie Glezer’s book Artisan Baking. She ranks each of her recipes according to its level of difficulty, and this one forewarned “advanced” at the top of the page. But, that didn’t stop me, which ultimately resulted in quite a bit of pain for this baker.
THOM LEONARD’s COUNTRY FRENCH BREAD
(from Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking)
Make the levain on the evening before baking by mixing:
25 g fermented firm sourdough starter
140 g lukewarm water
140 g bread flour
Allow it to sit at room temperature for 12 hours, or until it has expanded and just started to sink in the center.
(click to enlarge)
On baking day:
Prepare the whole wheat component, by measuring 350g whole wheat flour and sifting it with a fine strainer. This will remove the large flakes of bran (you can use it to make muffins). Measure 250g of the sifted product, and start making the dough.
(click to enlarge)
250 g sifted whole wheat flour
750 g bread flour
30 g rye flour
660 g water
23 g salt
all of the levain made the previous evening
Add the three types of flour to the bowl of a large KitchenAid type mixer. Mix the water with the levain to dissolve it, and add it to the flours. Using the dough hook, mix it for 10-15 minutes, until the dough is very smooth and almost cleans the bowl. Add the salt and continue mixing for 5 more minutes.
(click to enlarge)
Place the dough in a very large bowl and let it rise for 3 hours, folding three times (at 30, 60, and 90 minutes). After the final folding, just leave it undisturbed for the final 90 minutes. Remove the dough from the container, form it into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten (that makes it easier to shape).
(click to enlarge)
Shape it into a large round loaf, and place it in a suitable container for proofing, lining it with a heavily floured linen, with the smooth side down. Proof at room temperature for 4 hours, or until an indentation made in the dough will not bounce back right away.
(click to enlarge)
Carefully transfer the bread to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, slash the surface and bake with an initial burst of steam, in a 450F oven. Bake it for 70 to 80 minutes, rotating the dough after 30 minutes, and reducing the temperature to 400F if it starts to get too dark. Allow it to cool on a rack for several hours before slicing it.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: I had high expectations for this bread, because once the kneading was over and the fun part started (the folding!), the elasticity of the dough surprised me: gluten development at its best! The shaping went smoothly and the dough rose beautifully in my improvised banneton: a pasta colander, lined with my improvised baker’s linen. However, improvised is a dangerous word to use twice in the same description.
At the end of 4 hours, the dough was all airy, absolutely perfect! The oven was ready, with baking stones blazing hot, and I was on top of the world! As I inverted the dough on the parchment paper, I could not help but day dream… “When I submit this masterpiece to Susan for Yeastspotting, she’ll call me on the phone to personally compliment me!” …. “The Fresh Loaf will feature this bread on their front page, and leave it there for a year or two“…. “I’ll have my own show on PBS: Bread Baking with Sally“….
Then, reality interfered. The improvised baker’s linen would not peel off. It was stubbornly glued to my beautiful, airy, gorgeous dough. I screamed and howled in pain! As I was wrestling the fabric off, my beautiful, airy, gorgeous round loaf began to spread sideways and collapse right before my eyes! It was horrible: no glory for me, no phone call from Susan, no highlight on The Fresh Loaf, and definitely no show on PBS. Finally, with the dough threatening to slide off the baking sheet the linen came free and I rushed the loaf into the oven, without slashing, without steam, with just frantic moves and a few well chosen words that are unfit to print.
A major lesson learned: a 4.6 pound dough demands a perfect proofing environment, particularly for a 4 hour rise. Now, after helpful advice from the crowd at The Fresh Loaf, I’m seriously considering one of these.
Back to Thom Leonard’s country loaf. Aside from the top crust of my bread , which looked like the aftermath of Freddie Krueger, the crumb was open and the bread was incredibly flavorful. It’s a bread that begs to be in a Croque Monsieur! We shall comply shortly.
A bread that can survive the abuse I inflicted on this dough is worth saving in your personal repertoire. Try it. But do yourself a favor, and use the right tools for the job. You might just get that phone call from Susan….
I am submitting this post to Yeastspotting…
NQBWC92RPPUQ
Bewitching Kitchen 
Sally, I think your loaf looks lovely, despite the sticking linen. My tip – dust with anything other than white flour, but preferably rye flour, and secondly, have a spray bottle of water on standby. If the dough sticks, spray the underside of the linen with water – really soak it – and the dough should come away cleanly. Swearing tends to help too. 🙂
I love the way you and Joanna and others are always challenging yourselves to try new recipes. I have a reliable standby that I use almost all the time – my variants tends to be a slight change in flour, or a different mix of inclusions. I love the repetition and consistency of outcome, so I rarely waver from the few bread recipes I know will work well! 🙂
Celia
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I also have my “default breads” – white levain from Lepard, and the Vermont sourdough from Hamelman. Those never failed me (knock on wood)…. But it’s true that I am always looking for different breads to try… Joanna is much more adventurous than me, though
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But your loaf looks wonderful from my end.
& what a super write-up.
Isn’t the sticky teacloth just a nightmare.
I made the mistake last year of resting a beauty in a “ridged” tea towel I have. Not only did it stick – the dough sealed itself into every pattern indent.
I shaped it again, and it made a loaf of sorts I guess. 😦
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I thought about re-shaping, but with such a long proofing time, I was afraid there was not enough left in the yeast to make it rise again. At least it had a happy ending! 🙂
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Sally,
I made the same loaf this weekend. We are enjoying it. Enjoying your post. I made two loaves, which were easier to handle.
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I saw yours, so beautiful! Indeed, cutting the recipe in half would make it a lot easier to handle, I still cannot believe how huge the bread was
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Love how open this crumb look. Very well done. I’m bookmarking the recipe.
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I hope you try it, Elra – half the recipe makes a pretty decent sized loaf, and as Anne Marie pointed out, much easier to handle.
But you are a great baker, I’m sure you would not get in all the trouble I did 😉
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Sally, this post was great! I was giggling at your descriptions, while recalling my own swearing-inducing experience with my very first sourdough, an improvised banneton, and an improvised linen. (Only my linen was so stuck on that the whole loaf ended up in the garbage/sink/floor/counter.) So impressed that yours turned out so well; the crumb looks beautiful!
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I feel your pain….. In the garbage, that’s horrible….
I lucked out this time, but learned a lesson. Let’s hope I don’t make the same mistake twice
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I think the final loaf looks good Sally.
I seem to have a perfect proofing temp in my apartment as I have great success with doughs. Not so with pastry though. I have all sorts of problems here I didn’t experience when we lived in New Zealand.
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Sally, I think this was a terrific post. I know you had trouble with this, but from where I’m sitting it is a beautiful loaf of bread. I hope you have a wonderful day. Blessings…Mary
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Blimey Sally! I’ve just crawled off the sofa where I’ve been watching Avatar and I’m completely exhausted by that and now your post! I could hear your howl through the time vortex between the blogs across the world…. I feel your pain…. but we will rise again to bake! Onwards and upwards! or sideways stickily 🙂 Well done that baker!
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LOL reading your adventure – laughing WITH you of course 😛 We all have moments like this, lessons learned and next time it will be PBS worthy!
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Do they have support groups for bakers like us?
I think the bread looks amazing anyway. I can’t wait to see what it looks like after you get your banneton.
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Oy. You sound like me when I’m trying to decide what to cook for the week. Cookbooks end up in every corner of my room, I have about sixty tabs open. It’s not pretty.
But you know what IS pretty? This bread! Looks delicious.
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My sympathy for the sticking dough. I tend to use all vessels that are avialable when I run out of proper brotforms. As long as I remember (sometimes I do not) to flour the tea towels I use very well it works fine, too.
But even with the dough sticking to the linnen the bread turns out great! The crumb is impressiv. And next time you do it you know more about how to handle it and then it comes out perfectly (including phone calls and offers for tv shows) 🙂
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I’ve been there, done that, too! I LOVE Thom Leonard’s bread but I make this into two more easily handled loaves in well floured bannetons. Also, because I cook in a Dutch Oven instead of on a stone (it works so much better than trying to steam my oven) I have only enough room for the 2 lb. loaf.
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