Possible Bread-Baking Schedules (PBBS) WHAT YOU’RE DOING PBBS #1: “AFTER DINNER” PBBS #2: “EARLY BIRD” PBBS #3: “LUNCH BREAK” mix pre-ferment (step 2) after dinner, say 8 P.M. before you go to work/school, say 8:30 A.M. during your lunch break, maybe 12:30 P.M. mix dough (step 4) before breakfast, say 8:30 A.M. after dinner, say 8 P.M. about 10 or

The consistency of your dough—a wetter dough will ferment faster than a drier dough

the magic happen. Leave the dough alone until it has increased in size by about half, which will take 3 to 4 hours.

5. Let the loaf rise. Spray or brush the top of the loaf with oil (so the foil doesn’t stick to it), and then cover the loaf with aluminum foil. Tent the foil so that there’s room for the dough to rise about 2 in/5 cm. Now for the hard part: Leave it alone for about 4 hours. Put it somewhere out of the way so it won’t be disturbed, like on top of your

WHAT TYPE OF LOAF PAN SHOULD I USE? This recipe makes about 2 pounds/900 grams of dough, which will fill out a pan that is 81/2 by 41/2 by 2 in/21.5 by 11 by 5 cm. If you have strong feelings about the final shape of your loaf, you’ll need to get a pan that matches your vision, but all of the bread recipes in this book assume a loaf pan of dimensio

5. Knead a few more times. After 1/2 hour, stretch and fold the dough another ten times. Cover the dough, and leave it alone for another 1/2 hour. Do this another two times, at 1/2-hour intervals.

First you mix up a little whole-wheat flour, water, and yeast, and let that sit overnight. This is called your “preferment.” In the morning you mix in the bread flour, water, and salt and basically do everything the same as with the first loaf. “But

When you’re measuring the flour, take your bag (or whatever your flour is in), dig into it with your measuring spoon, and “fluff” up the flour a little bit before you scoop it.

The starter is usually ready to be made into a pre-ferment 12 to 24 hours after its last feeding, depending mostly on temperature and how sour you want your bread to be.