If you haven’t bakedbreadin the past year, have you really lived through thecoronaviruspandemic? After all, it appears that every single person you’ve ever met is baking bread—whether it’s through the arduous process of maintaining asourdough starteror simply going the easy route and bakingno-knead breadwith your handy friend (if you’re lucky enough to have some!), instant yeast. But no matter what you’ve seen or done, it is certainly necessary to at leastlearna little bit about the art ofbaking bread.
That’s the goal of “How to Raise a Loaf,” a bread baking manual by baker Roly Allen. In his bread-baking starter kit, Roly walks both novice and experienced bakers through his tips and tricks for baking great bread at home, from explaining the anatomy of a grain to a great method for making your ownstarterat home. He talks through a few important tools you should definitely have on hand—like akitchen scaleand kitchen scissors—and provides step-by-step visuals on his kneading and folding techniques, so you always know what you should be doing.
Along with a classic sourdough recipe, Roly encourages bakers to have fun with bread, offering recipes for poppy seed rolls, walnut rye bread, and chocolate-studded sourdough. But if you simply are looking to perfect your sourdough bread at home, test out Roly’s recipe, found below. His version can be done overnight, rising for about 10 hours, then baked in a casserole orDutch ovenuntil the top is dusty brown. He also provides techniques for kneading bread—for those who are upgrading from theno-knead variety—which is an imperative part of the bread-baking process. His biggest suggestion? Don’t make it too complicated: The only three actions you’ll need to maintain are stretching, folding, and turning.
Once you complete that first loaf—and post it to social media, as it is wont to do—you’ll be ushered into the not-very-exclusive pandemic bread baking club. Welcome! We’re glad to have you.
Excerpted from How To Raise a Loaf by Roly Allen Copyright © 2020 by Roly Allen. Excerpted by permission of Laurence King Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Techniques: Kneading
Most of the recipes in this book use a simple pull-fold-and-rotate action to work the dough, but when a recipe calls for a knead, use this basic method.
Chances are, if you think of bread making, you think of kneading: it’s the skill that we all associate with baking, and it’s one that some top bakers (often working with very wet dough) take very, very seriously indeed. That said, there’s no need to make it too complicated: the fundamental steps of stretching, folding and turning are all you need to organise the gluten molecules in your dough, turning it from a sticky blob into a smooth ball.
Lightly dust your work surface with flour so that the dough doesn’t stick to it. Take your dough from the bowl and let it fall onto the surface.
Pull the ball open with your fingertips…
… and stretch, with your far hand holding the ball and your near hand pulling it towards you
Fold the stretched dough back in on itself. Rotate through 90 degrees (a quarter-turn)…
… and repeat. You’ll notice that the dough will get smoother and more elastic each time. The recipe will tell you how long to knead for.
When you’re done, use the scraper to gather the ball together neatly, ready for transfer into your proving basket, or banneton.
Overnight White Sourdough Recipe
Many home bakers use a casserole (or Dutch oven) for their regular baking, as it means minimal work, and minimal washing up. With only a small amount of starter, the dough needs to have a high water content, and a long prove, to allow the yeast to multiply and spread through the dough.
Overnight White Sourdough
Makes:1 loaf
