Artisan Free-Form Loaf (Boule)

This week in the bread-baking blog, we started a new series: Making artisan breads using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes technique. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this book from other bread bakers on Twitter and I couldn't wait to try it for myself.

So far this method lives up to its name. Basically, you make the master dough, let the dough rise for a couple of hours, then store it in the refrigerator for up to 14 days. When you want to bake bread, just take out the amount of dough needed for a particular recipe, shape it, let it rise and bake it. How easy is that? There are a couple of other steps but you get the gist. 

The Master Recipe: Boule

(Artisan Free-Form Loaf)

Makes: Four 1-pound loaves

Ingredients:

• 6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3 cups  lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
• 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
• Cornmeal for the pizza peel

First Step: Mixing and Storing the Dough

Add the yeast and salt to the lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F.) in a 5-quart bowl, or in a resealable, lidded (but not airtight) plastic food container. Mix in the flour, measuring it with dry-ingredient measuring cups, using the scoop and sweep method.

Here's the scoop!

Now sweep it with the knife

Use a wooden spoon or a stand mixer (fitted with the dough hook), to thoroughly mix the ingredients.

I mixed the dough with a wooden spoon, and it worked just fine. However, if the dough becomes to stiff to handle with the spoon, you can reach into your mixing bowl (container) with wet hands and press the mixture together. Just don't knead it. Do this until everything is moist and you have a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container. I mixed everything right in the container which makes it really easy to clean up.

Cover the container with a lid that is not airtight.

Allow the dough to rise at room temperature for approximately 2 hours or until it begins to collapse. It may take longer depending on the temperature of the room and the temperature of the water used. You can use a portion of the dough at any time after the rising period. However, it is recommended that you refrigerate the dough overnight or at least 3 hours before shaping a loaf because fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with that dough at room temperature.

I let the dough rest on the counter for a couple of hours, then placed it in the refrigerator for a few days until I had time to bake. Then, I took it out right before I was ready to bake. No need to let it come to room temperature. It's actually easier to shape if it's a little cold.

Baking Day: 1st Try (August 10)

Shaping the Dough

Perform the gluten cloak as explained on page 28 of the book.

First, you prepare a pizza peel (or the back of a baking sheet) by sprinkling it with cornmeal to prevent your loaf from sticking to it when you slide it into the oven.

At this point, I thought to myself, "I should use parchment paper to make sure the dough doesn't stick." However, I decided to do it the way the recipe suggested so I didn't use parchment paper. That was my first mistake. You'll see why in a minute.

Then, you sprinkle the refrigerated dough with flour and pull up and cut off a grapefruit-sized piece.

Hold the dough in your hands and sprinkle with more flour so it doesn't stick to your hands. Stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating it as you go. When it's correctly shaped, the ball will be smooth and cohesive. This shouldn't take very long.

Place the ball on the pizza peel and allow the loaf to rise for about 40 minutes. No covering is necessary.

Baking the Boule

Twenty minutes before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler pan for holding water on any other shelf. Just make sure it won't interfere with the rising bread.

This is the risen Boule

Dust the top of the loaf and make a 1/4-inch slash using a serrated knife. The book offers a few different patterns to choose from.

I decided to do the scallop pattern.

Okay. This was the tricky part. The instructions say to give a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, and slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Well, all I can say is that I should've gone with my first thought of using parchment paper because this part didn't work too well. The dough just stuck to the pizza peel. Oh well!

Instead of trying to bake a blob and not be happy with it, I decided to just start over again. I put the dough back in the refrigerator to try again the next night. That's the good thing about this method. You can always put the dough back in the refrigerator and try it another day.

Baking Day: 2nd Try (August 11)

Okay. Let's try this again...

Sprinkle a little flour over the top of the dough and pull off a grapefruit-size ball.

Then we tightly shape the ball by stretching the surface around to the bottom on all sides.

I placed it on the parchment this time to make sure it would come off in the shape I want it to...there isn't that pretty?

Here is the shaped boule doubled in size. It held it's shape pretty well during the proofing don't you think?

Now we'll make the slashes. I think the slashes worked better this time!

Now we're ready to go!

Now, just slide the shaped and scored loaf onto the preheated baking stone.  Then quickly pour hot water from the tap into your steam pan.  Close the oven door immediately to trap the steam.
Bake the bread for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is browned and firm to the touch.


Remove the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

You can store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in the lidded container for up to 14 days. Just cut off and shape more loaves as you need them.  How easy is that!


Happy Baking
Cathy