HOW TO MAKE RUSTIC BREAD First of all - some basic information and tips. These are things that I have learnt over the years when making bread. Some of it I wish I knew from the start. Some of this information may sound complicated but when you make the first recipe (at the end of this information session, you will understand what everything means NEVER rush the process! This is SLOW bread I say this because fast bread is what bakeries make namely bread that still ferments in your stomach making you burp and giving you heartburn. With slow bread, the fermentation processes are complete by the time you eat the bread much better taste and no heartburn. So what does slow bread mean? It means that it will take you timeat least 4-5 hours to make the bread. That does not mean you work for that time there is a lot of waiting for the magic to happen. Tools and equipment

You need a decent mixing bowl there is nothing worse than a crappy bowl. I have a large deep stainless steel bowl so I can double up on the recipes for more than one loaf

A digital scale dont even think of using cups as a measurement and forget about an old fashioned scale they are not accurate enough to design a recipe. (You will understand this when you read the information on hydration below).

A dough cutter . This is essential to scoop up sticky dough. Most artisan bread is made with sticky

dough (thats what makes it taste so good!) You use it for scooping the dough ball off the counter

into your hands for folding. It also scrapes off sticky dough on the counter.

Dough scraper. This is another useful item it scrapes dough off the sides of your bowl

You should invest in a couple of proofing baskets like this:

They are made from plastic. The basket keeps a good shape for the artisan loaf. The baskets are for rising the bread (yes, lots of flour sprinkled in the basket so the dough doesnt stick). The baskets

kind of give a net pattern on the bread - I am sure you recognise the pattern! But - not for ciabatta! Its way to sticky and thin dough - it would pour through the basket! Also, its not the shape you want

Instead of the baskets, you can use bread baking tins but then you will have a conventional looking loaf I like the roundish shape because it has more crispy surfaces

A good baking tray I bought a great one from Checkers for R79 Teflon coated and heavy not those thin steel pans that buckle when hot. Some people use a baking tile I cant seem to find one but apparently you can use terra cotta tiles (provided they have no lead content). The advantage of tiles - or a heavy tray is that it holds the heat well. If you are baking in a pizza oven, then you dont need either because you place the bread on the bricks. (but then you need one of those pizza spades

Your working surface is the part your kitchen counter where it is the coolest not next to the stove and not in the sun. The work surface should be oiled with olive oil never use flour because that would add to the flour in the recipe and change the nature of the bread. Always oil the surface after each stretch and fold and before placing your boule on the counter surface. The boule is explained in the kneading section below

You need two small cereal bowls, one with some flour in it and another with olive oil in it both essential for keeping your hands clean and for handling the dough. Keep a bowl of olive oil next to you when folding - and always dip your fingers in and spread liberally on your hands. Never touch the dough without oily hands. To get dough and oil off your hands - rub with flour kept in the bowl where you work.

A cooling rack/grid to place your bread on when it comes out of the oven so it does not get soggy on the bottom as it cools

No. you dont need a mixing machine you only need your handsbut note that your hands must be well oiled when you touch the dough

Yeast Steer clear of fresh yeast! That stuff is too unreliable; you dont know how long it has been on the shelf in the supermarket. It often loses its potency. Also, dont use dry yeast either it is not consistent. The best yeast to use is the instant yeast that you get in little sachets in the supermarket but make sure that it is well before expiry date. You dont have to mix it with water you just add it to the flour mix as is. I find this to be the best and bring the most consistent results Water Dont use warm water cold water is best. In fact, when the weather is hot, I use fridge water. The colder the water, the slower the ferment, the better the bread Flour Depending on the bread you want to make. I use cake flour (bread flour is a bit heavier and does not make the nicest bread).Never use self-raising flour only plain flour. I try to use organic cake flour when I can find it and make sure its stoneground. The brands are Harvest Mills or Eureka Mills (usually you can get Harvest at a Super Spar) Stone ground is always best because flour ground in a big mill is ground very fast and it heats up and the nutrients are degraded and apparently toxins can be created). Stone ground is ground cold so it does not have that problem. It is a little courser and darker in colour but tastes really good. Brown flour makes for heavy bread I sometimes mix brown and cake flour. Dont use rye flour that requires a different technique. However, you can add 5-10% of rye to the flour for taste. If you are using brown flour you will need to increase the hydration level (see section on hydration below) Adding stuff into bread Provided you use dry seeds, herbs etc. your hydration levels will not be affected. Do not add more than about 20-30% total of seeds. Dont use that stuff called crackly wheat unless you are interested in baking

bricks! If you want to make an olive loaf, sundried tomato loaf etc., add 20-30% of the weight of the flour during the third stretching and folding (see stretching and folding section below and the recipe at the end) Some science! Categories of Hydration The first thing to learn is about categories of hydration in breads. It may sound a bit complex but once you get this concept, then making any kind of bread is possible. Hydration is measured in percentages this allows you to precisely get the balance of the ingredients right using cups as measurements is a waste of time and not accurate enough. What do the percentages mean? Instead of using cups for measurement - use percentages of hydration - that way things never go wrong! Remember that the wetter the dough, the bigger the crumb (the large cavities in the bread) - and the bigger the crumb the better the taste. In the oven, the water makes steam that creates the cavities, so the wetter the dough the more steam and bigger the cavities (like ciabatta). The magic of the cavities is that their inside surfaces caramelise when baking and this give the bread a nice sweet taste. So how does hydration work? Firstly remember that the amount of flour always adds up to 100% and the remaining ingredients are a percentage of the total flour, and its always by weight, not volume. The percentage hydration dictates what bread you are making:

50-57% hydration makes a stiff dough like a bagel

57-65% hydration makes a standard dough like the bread that you buy in the shop

65-85% hydration makes a wet dough for rustic bread like ciabatta etc. (when I make ciabatta I use 80% hydration and for a traditional artisan loaf I use 70% - but more on the recipes later)

Once you get the hang of it, you can play around with these percentages and create your own special bread Kneading Get conventional kneading out of your mind there is no need to knead rustic bread. Anyway, the dough for

any rustic breads is highly hydrated and is impossible to knead because they are so wet and sticky. What we

will do instead is stretch and fold. Stretching and folding allows the glutens to develop without breaking the

strands that way you get a chewy bread rather than a crumbly bread. Conventional kneading aerates the

dough. As its repeatedly folded over and compressed, pockets of air are trapped and squeezed into smaller,

more numerous pockets. The more pockets formed during kneading, the finer the texture of the final bread.

Most of the air pockets are incorporated as the dough reaches its maximum stiffness this makes a fine

crumb bread. Whereas stretching and folding makes an open crumb (big cavity) and crispy bread like

ciabatta

Nothing competes with the open crumb and lofty structure of the stretched and folded dough. The act of

stretching and folding is not particularly time consuming, but the dough does require attention every 45 min

to an hour for a few hours. You cant just walk away from it (remember its SLOW bread you are making).

Another reason you don't need to knead the no-knead breads is that gluten strands (which give bread its

structure) form naturally over time as the dough sits for a long period, rather than through the kneading

process. The stretch and fold method strengthens and bonds long gluten chains.

So how does stretching and folding work? Firstly you put your dough ball on an oiled work surface, oil your

hands by dipping into a little bowl of olive oil. Always keep your work surface well oiled! You then stretch the

dough out into a rectangular shape (about the size of an A4 sheet), pushing the dough from top to bottom

and then out from the sides using your fingers. Then fold the stretched dough by pulling the bottom edge

up 2/3 of the way up and then the top edge 1/3 of the way down like you would fold a letter. Then fold

the dough 2/3 from the right and 1/3 from the left. At this stage it will almost look like a ball. After the last

fold pick up the dough and then "boule" it by basically making it into a ball by tucking the folds into the

centre underneath while the rest of the dough stretches into a ground ball - difficult to explain but you can

check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtCu9hYGhOU&feature=related. The folding is

explained in the pictures below:

NOW YOU ARE READY TO MAKE THIS BREAD

Ingredients: Flour 400g (100%) Water 280g (70%) 2.8g (0.7%) instant yeast - 2/4 teaspoons. 8g (2%) salt - 1 and 1/3 teaspoons NOTE: Remember to follow the tips and instructions above! This makes a single loaf

1. Mix all the ingredients into a bowl. No need to knead, just make sure that everything is combined.

When you mix the ingredients - use one hand for mixing the ingredients and the other one to hold

the bowl (that way you always have a clean hand). In the first mix of the ingredients - dont knead -

just bring it all together into a ball which will look pretty furry like the picture below. The dough will

be sticky and look a little unmixed, but that is OK.

2. Once combined, take the ball and place it on an oiled surface and leave to rest for 10 minutes. This

gives the flour and water a chance to properly combine and to begin glutenising. After 10 minutes

are up, oil your hands and stretch the dough out into a rectangular shape (about the size of an A4

sheet) and stretch and fold as explained above. Then make your boule and place it on the oiled

surface and leave it to rest for 45 -60 min.

3. Repeat the stretching folding and bouling three more times with 45 -60 min rest period between

each process (so in the end this will have been done 4 times). When stretching do it gently with

your fingertips rather than your palms, that way you dont disturb the fermentation process. Take

care not to break the dough, breaking the dough destroys the gluten strands which is what

reinforces the structure of the bread

4. After the final fold, and after you have bouled the dough push into into a rectangular shape - the

longer side roughly the size of your basket (or baking tin if you decide to make it in a tin). Place the

dough into the proofing basket that has been well sprinkled with flour. (By the way, you never wash

the proofing basket, just tap out excess flour after use eventually it becomes a non-stick basket).

5. Place the basket in a cool place and let it rise for an hour or two until the dough becomes puffy

but not quite doubled in size. Meantime preheat oven to 220c or hotter .

6. When the dough has risen, tip the dough out the basket onto a baking tray sprinkled with mielie

meal or polenta. Never oil the baking tray the mielie meal or polenta will stop the bread from

sticking on the tray - and oily tray to wash, simply dust the tray off!

7. Before placing in the oven, give the loaves one or more slashes with a sharp serrated knife to create

a pattern on the top. Place in oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until nicely browned and hollow

sounding when you tap underneath

8. Take it out of the oven and place on a cooling rack. Never cut the bread when it is hot because it still

continues to bake and you will let the heat escape. If you cut the bread while hot, it will stop

cooking.