Rustic Country Bread

Important Note:  if you do not have a temperature controlled kitchen, do not attempt to make bread on a humid or rainy day.  The bread dough will just not rise properly.

Preparation:

Get a big ceramic bowl and oil the sides and bottom with extra virgin olive oil.  Set aside and have a clean linen towel ready.

I suggest that you go down to Home Depot and buy six large ceramic tiles and put them on the bottom rack of your oven for bread making.  They are a lot cheaper purchased this way then buying a baking stone for bread and pizza.

Bread Dough

2 tbl. of active yeast

Measuring cup and ¼ of tepid water

3 cups of all purpose unbleached flour

1 tsp. of salt

1 tsp. of sugar

2 tbl. of heavy cream

1 pat of butter

¼ cup of water

You can cover the bread dough with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, etc. after the dough rises.  Just sprinkle a little on the counter and roll the finished loaf in the seeds.

Prove Yeast

Put yeast in dry measuring cup.  Add ¼ cup of tepid water.  Let sit for five minutes.  The water temperature is crucial to proving the yeast.  If your water is too hot, it will kill the yeast and your dough will not rise. 

Put dough hook in food processor.  Add flour, salt and sugar.  Pulse.  When yeast is ready (it will look milky and smell yeasty, add the yeast to the flour mixture and pulse for ten seconds.  Add cream, butter and a couple tablespoons of water (room temp).  Pulse.  Add water accordingly as the processor turns the flour into dough.  Stop adding water when the dough is coming off clean from the sides of the processor. 

Put dough in prepared ceramic bowl and cover with the linen towel.  Allow the dough to rise for one hour.  Punch the dough down after first rise.  Roughly knead the dough and turn it over for second rise.   The dough should have risen to fill the bowl halfway.  When you punch down the bread dough, turn the dough over a few times and smooth it into a nice round ball.  Second kneading will be more important.

Kneading the Dough

Spread out a large linen cloth on your counter (if you don’t have marble or granite).  You do not need this if you are working on marble or granite.  You will need several cups of flour.  Spread some flour on your counter or your cloth.  Put the dough in the middle and knead the dough with buttered hands.  Add flour sparingly as you do this, just to keep the dough consistency correct.  Knead for about five minutes, until you have a smooth round ball of dough.  The goal here is to remove any large air pockets.  You want to press and roll the dough out at the same time, allowing the large air pockets to fill in as you work the dough.  Let the dough rest for a couple of minutes after kneading.

Heat  Oven to 350F

Boil Water

This sounds a little strange but have several cups of boiling water ready before you put the bread dough in your oven.

If you have a bread peal, have it handy.  Put bread dough on the bread peal and place it on the heated oven stones.  Throw a cup of boiling hot water in the bottom of your oven and quickly shut the door of the oven. (This step is totally unnecessary if you have a brick oven.)

Bake your bread for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Bread is done when the crust is golden and when you tap it, you get a nice crisp sound.  Or, you can stick a toothpick in it and if it comes out clean, bread is done. 

Baking