Josey Baker Bread

You have to throw out part of your starter because lots of these little creatures die valiantly for your cause, and also eat up all the available nutrients in the flour. In the process, they also produce a bunch of acid and alcohol, which is great in small amounts, but too much is not good for your bread.

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.

This flour/water/yeast mixture goes by many names, but we will call it a pre-ferment. The point is to use a little bit of yeast and let it really work for you. By letting the yeast sit in the flour and water for 8 to 12 hours, you’re letting the magical process of fermentation run its course.

11. Let your loaf rise. If you want to bake bread in about 3 hours, let the loaf sit out somewhere in your kitchen. Or if you want to bake bread anywhere from 6 to 24 hours later, stick the loaf in the fridge (or just outside if it’s cool out—about 45°F/7°C).

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 only issue with the Dutch oven method is that loading your bread into it can be tricky. I’ve flopped many a loaf into a 500°F/260°C Dutch oven only to have the bread land lopsided or deflate from the impact of being dropped. That being said, if you don’t have a baking stone, a Dutch oven is still a wonderful way to bake a hearth loaf.

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

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

There are a million different opinions on the matter, but let’s just agree that for this sourdough bread, its bulk rise (see the info below) is done when it’s grown in size by about half. A