This is the bread that we make every week. We eat it fresh out of the oven or stored for a week or more – it’s always deeply satisfying.
Makes one loaf
(we usually double the recipe because one is never enough)
Takes around 24 hours from start to finish
Around 20-30 minutes all up of actual making, the rest is waiting patiently!
Spelt, wheat or rye?
We follow the same basic recipe for all our flours – sometimes it’s pure dark rye, other times golden wheat or sweet brown spelt. Most of the time it’s a combination of the three, depending on what we have on hand. While each flour feels different while we’re making it, amazingly this method works for all three.
Disclaimer:
We’re farmers, not professional bakers. We bake bread in a way that fits in with our days and doesn’t take a chemistry degree or 2am mornings. This recipe is intentionally simple and straightforward. And we reckon it tastes incredible!
(we usually double the recipe because one is never enough)
Takes around 24 hours from start to finish
Around 20-30 minutes all up of actual making, the rest is waiting patiently!
Spelt, wheat or rye?
We follow the same basic recipe for all our flours – sometimes it’s pure dark rye, other times golden wheat or sweet brown spelt. Most of the time it’s a combination of the three, depending on what we have on hand. While each flour feels different while we’re making it, amazingly this method works for all three.
Disclaimer:
We’re farmers, not professional bakers. We bake bread in a way that fits in with our days and doesn’t take a chemistry degree or 2am mornings. This recipe is intentionally simple and straightforward. And we reckon it tastes incredible!
|
Ingredients:
To multiply and feed the starter:
|
Multiply and feed the starter
Make the bread:
- Use a spatula to empty the jar of starter into a large mixing bowl and mix with 80g rye flour and 120g water.
- Put enough of the mixture back in your starter jar (no need to wash it) to bring the amount of mix in the bowl to around 200g.
- Put your jar of starter on the bench for a few hours before popping it back in the fridge with the lid sitting loosely on it.
- Pop a teatowel over your bowl and sit it in the kitchen until it’s ready to go in around 4 to 10 hours. If the weather is warm it’s best to get back to it sooner, but if it’s winter and the kitchen is cold, we usually leave it for the whole day or overnight.
Make the bread:
- Once the bowl of starter is bubbly and active, we’re ready to mix the dough and form the loaves.
- Add the flour, water and salt to the bowl of starter and mix using a large spoon or your hands until it’s all well combined. It’s not necessary to knead the dough, just make sure it’s well mixed.
- If you have the chance, allow it to sit for half an hour or so – this will make it easier to roll it into a loaf.
- Scatter a handful of the extra flour onto the benchtop and gently roll the dough into a ball. Make sure it’s well covered in flour, but don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect!
- Scatter a medium sized bowl lined with a tea towel (or proving basket if you have one) with flour and drop the dough ball into the bowl. Dust with extra flour to ensure it doesn't stick.
- Cover it with a tea towel and allow it to rise. Again, this can take anywhere from a couple of hours to overnight – basically you want it to grow around half as big again. We’ll sometimes slow down the rise by placing the bowl in the fridge if we don’t have time to bake until much later, or we place it above the hot water cylinder if we want to bake it sooner.
Add the flour, water and salt to the bowl of starter and mix using a large spoon or your hands until it’s all well combined. It’s not necessary to knead the dough, just make sure it’s well mixed.
|
Scatter a handful of flour onto the benchtop and gently roll the dough into a ball. Make sure it’s well covered in flour, but don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect!
|
Scatter a medium sized bowl lined with a tea towel (or proving basket if you have one) with flour and drop the dough ball into the bowl.
|
Bake the bread:
- Once your loaf has risen enough (around 1.5 times the original size), place a round casserole dish with lid (or dutch oven) in the oven and adjust to 220 C. Allow to pre-heat for around 20 minutes.
- Remove the casserole dish from the oven, place on benchtop and remove the lid. Quickly tip your loaf into the hot dish (it might need a tap to drop out of the bowl), put on the lid and place back in the oven. If you like, you can score your loaf before putting it in the oven by cutting slits in the top with a sharp knife - it's not necessary but it looks nice.
- After 30 minutes, remove the casserole dish lid and reduce temperature to 180 C.
- Bake for a further 25 minutes, remove from oven, tip out of casserole dish and cool on cooling rack.
- Professional bakers will tell you to leave it to cool for an hour or two before cutting it… we’ve been known to slice it as soon as it’s cool enough to touch and slather it in butter and devour it then and there. But it will hold its shape and slice better once it’s cooled!
Allow your loaf to rise to around 1.5 times the original size - it will rise more in the oven.
|
Quickly tip your loaf into the hot dish (it might need a tap to drop out of the bowl), score it with a sharp knife if desired, put on the lid and place back in the oven.
|
After 30 minutes, remove the casserole dish lid and reduce temperature to 180 C.
|
Other loaves:
This is our basic bread recipe. Its flavour is complex and delicious just with those three ingredients, or of course you can experiment. Some of our favourite things to add include caraway or fennel seeds, rosemary, dried fruit, nuts, rolled oats, sprouted grains, sunflower seeds, linseed and so on…
This is our basic bread recipe. Its flavour is complex and delicious just with those three ingredients, or of course you can experiment. Some of our favourite things to add include caraway or fennel seeds, rosemary, dried fruit, nuts, rolled oats, sprouted grains, sunflower seeds, linseed and so on…
