Bread With Homegrown Yeast

My last three posts had everything to do with capturing and cultivating your own, unique yeast. Now, it's time to use the yeast to make your own bread at home.

What you'll need:

FOR THE POOLISH (bread starter)
1 Large bowl and a wooden spoon
1 C starter
1 C spring/filtered water (to avoid the chlorine in tap water)
1 C whole wheat flour
1 lint-free towel/cloth

FOR THE DOUGH
1 Large bowl and a wooden spoon
~5.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 TB Kosher salt
2 Cups spring/filtered water
Olive oil
1 lint-free towel/cloth

TO PROOF THE LOAVES
2 bread pans
2 lint-free towels/cloths
Whole wheat flour for dusting

TO BAKE THE LOAVES
1 large pizza stone
1 pizza peel
Whole wheat flour for dusting
Sharp knife
1 pan of water

Making the poolish (bread starter)- usually done the night before I am going to make bread
1. In the large bowl, mix together the starter, flour and water with the wooden spoon
2. Using warm/hot water, soak the towel, wring it out so the towel is damp and warm
3. Cover and set aside for 9-12 hours

*Replace the starter with 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water

Making the dough
1. To the bread starter, add all the water, 1 cup of the flour and the salt, then stir
2. Add the second cup of flour and continue to stir, then add the third and fourth cup
3. After the fourth cup, the dough should be harder to stir- dust the counter with half a cup of flour and scrape the dough onto the surface- put the rest of the flour over the top and get about 1/2-1 full cup and set that aside, you'll need it to dust the dough while kneading it (fill the bowl with water and let it soak)
4. Knead the dough, incorporating the flour- it will be sticky, but be patient, just keep working the dough by flattening it and turning it, etc.
5. As the dough ball is formed, dust with flour ONLY if the dough ball is excessively sticky- you want it to be moist and tacky, but when it gets too sticky you can dust it with flour
6. Once the dough ball is firm and springy to the point that it rebounds when you poke it, you can set aside and scrape out and dry the bowl
7. Coat the bottom of the bowl with olive oil, place the dough ball into the bowl and lightly coat with olive oil
8. Cover the bowl with a damp, warm cloth and let it sit for at least 3 hours

Second rise
After 3 hours, knock the dough ball down, lightly knead it, then cover and let sit for another hour









Proofing the dough
1. Remove the dough from the bowl, separate into two dough balls, let rest
2. In two bread pans, place the other towels and dust with flour
3. Flatten and roll the two dough balls into loaves and put into the pans- cover and let sit for 2-3 hours
4. One hour before baking, place a pan with water on the bottom rack of the oven, place the pizza stone on the top rack, and preheat the oven to 450 degrees








Baking the loaves (oven at 450 degrees)
1. Dust the pizza peel with flour and gently turn one loaf onto the peel
2. Using the knife cut 3 diagonal slashes into the top of the loaf
3. Open the oven and slide the loaf onto the stone
4. Repeat steps 1-3 with the second loaf
5. Set a timer for 20 minutes- don't open the oven
6. At the end of 20 minutes, reduce the temperature of the oven to 400 degrees and bake for an additional 20 minutes- don't open the oven
7. Using the peel, remove the loaves and put on wire rack to cool (minimum of 20 minutes)



 *Just dust off the excess flour




Don't worry if the dough looks a little flaccid when you put it on the peel and onto the stone, and don't worry about those three cuts you made, as you can see, they are necessary for what happens in the oven.  Once you put the dough onto the 450 degree hot stone and close the door to the 450 degree steam bath you've just created for it, the phenomenon known as "oven spring" occurs.

In that 40 minutes of baking (20 in 450 degree and 20 in 400 degree) the loaf springs up and becomes plump. The crust will be chewy and hard and the inside will be soft and flavorful. There is nothing about this bread that I don't like. It's hearty, soft, nutty, buttery, and chewy all at the same time. There are no flavors outside of yeasty, sourdough.

The lengthy fermentation process has made this bread significantly more nutritious than anything you can buy in the store. There's even some argument that the lengthy fermentation process might alleviate some of the adverse symptoms of diseases involving gluten intolerance.

And the cost? Well, once you have all the equipment (which isn't all that much), a bag of whole wheat flour costs about $5-6 and it takes about half of that bag to make these two loaves- well worth the risk of trying. You can also make these into round loaves using the exact same process with just different pans... so the possibilities are numerous.

Storage
I always take one loaf, put it in a gallon bag and into the freezer - to thaw, I let it thaw naturally inside the plastic bag until it is completely thawed

For the other loaf, I cut slices to order from one end and place the bread on that end, upright and cover it with a towel

*the loaves last for about 3-4 days before becoming stale, let it sit out much longer and it will become a host environment for mold