A Georgetown Table: Simple Dutch Oven Artisanal Bread

The Necessary Hardware

When it is gloomy out, like it was yesterday, I crave comfort food. Nothing goes better with that type of cuisine than a great crusty loaf of bread. It used to be thought that making such bread at home was next to impossible, as the commercial stoves have sophisticated ovens with terrifically hot floors and steam injection to improve the rise of the dough while baking.
But the home cook is actually perfectly positioned to make excellent bread at home, and there are several prophets of home baking that have created techniques that closely replicate the professional cooking processes.

This process provides an excellent loaf with only one piece of specialized equipment: the dutch oven. One can spend a small fortune on such a pot, But I got mine for a Christmas present several years back, and it has served me well. The one above can be had for about $50, and we use for everything from braises to stove-top deep frying. What distinguishes a dutch oven from a large pot? generally they are very heavily walled and made out of cast iron. Some, like mine, are enamel. Their squat design also allows them to fit into most ovens with the lid on. The lid, in the case of our bread, is a crucial element.

We start with a sponge
If you have read our pizza dough entry, you are familiar with our multi-step process that includes creating a sponge, or Biga, the night before one intends to make the dough. The sponge will allow the yeast to ferment in ideal conditions and over a long period, while other regional bacteria will inoculate the mass of flour, imparting their own characteristic tang. Great bread does not take a lot of work, but does take time and planning.

The Ugly, But Important Sponge

Because we are making enough sponge for one loaf, we start with a reduced amount of water than we did when making three pounds of dough for four pizzas. In this case, we use 1/2 cup (room temperature) water, 1/8 teaspoon yeast, and enough water stirred in to make a slurry the consistency of sticky toothpaste. We cover and set aside at room temperature overnight.

A note about yeast

Yeast is responsible for the all-important rise in our breads, and without it we'd be eating crackers. But too much yeast can be a crutch in bread-making. Many times quick inflation due to substantial quantities of yeast can lead to a boring, soft crumb and an uninspired crust. Results like these are more often associated with store-bought white bread. But we are after flavor, texture, and an open crumb. This takes patience. Our reduced quantity of yeast will still do the job, but it will take a little longer to rise. And your last rise after forming the loaf may never double in size. Never fear, oven-spring will take the size the rest of the way there.

Dough

We break out our favorite bread-making discover: the Cuisinart food processor with the sharp metal blade. The final works include 1/3 cup of rye flour (great texture and depth of favor), 1 1/2 cups bread flour, 2 teaspoons of salt (kosher), 1/2 teaspoon dried yeast, and filtered, room temperature water. What could be easier?

Take the dry ingredients for a spin for a few seconds, then slowly add the water through the hole in the cover while the machine is running. The dough will begin to take on a sandy texture, at which point you can stop the machine and add the sponge all at once to the work bowl. Take it for a spin again.

The sponge is particularly moist, and this water will blend with the otherwise dry flour and combine to form a ball in the bowl. Check for texture. The dough should be very soft and pretty sticky. the ball will generally clean the sides of the work bowl at this point. We want it wetter. With the machine running add more water, a tablespoon at at time. What you are looking for is a dough that is just beginning to leave a trail on the work bowl. Then run it for another minute. Stop and do a softness and stickiness test again. Experience helps here, but this is not rocket science. If it feels right to you, then its done.

Turn out the finished dough into a bowl large enough to contain it as it triples in size. No oil on the bowl, no flour. Cover with foil and let sit for at least 3 hours, and as many as 12.

The reward

The dough will triple in size in the period you have waited, developing both gluten and flavor as it rests. when you peel the foil off the top, you will most likely see bubbles popping up on the surface.

Tripled

CAUTION: Do not, at this point, punch the dough down as you may have been told. All those hours rising have created a network of funky holes within the structure, holes we relish as part of this recipe.

Turn the dough, gently, onto a floured surface. gently pull five or six corners toward the center of the dough (this will be the bottom) stretching the surface of the opposite side. Check out the video for better details. Finally, flip the ball over onto a floured sheet of parchment paper and gently finish forming the boule.

Boule Ready For Rise Number Two

Cover with the dirty bowl, and allow this mass to rise for two hours.

Doubled In Size

Now, using the corners of the parchment, slowly transfer the dough to the completely unprepared dutch oven. Leaving the portion of the parchment under the dough, try to cut as much of the parchment away with a knife so that there is only a disk remaining under the dough.

Why this works
In commercial ovens they have the ability to inject steam to the baking area that provides for a higher rise in the bread before the crust sets and further rise is prevented. In our home ovens there are ways to approach replicating these conditions, but not perfectly. The dutch oven method hit closest.

After you have introduced the dough to the dutch oven, spritz some water on the underside of the lid before you replace it. The dough will have a cozy, humid area within the dutch oven to rise substantially further than had it been simply placed in the oven as the environment is self-contained.

But there is one more secret. Put the entire dutch oven into a COLD oven before you set the tempurature to 400 degrees. The slow warming within the vessel will stimulate considerably more oven spring as the oven heats, lightening the crumb and postponing the point where crust development forms.

You're halfway there
Check on the loaf after about 30 minutes. If the top continues to look soft, replace the cover and let another 10 minutes lapse. After this point the crust should have set and the color of the exterior will be a medium blond:

The benefits of the dutch oven are now complete. To finish the bread, we now take it out of the dutch oven and put it directly on the pizza stone for about 20 more minutes, or until the interior reaches a temperature of 195 degree.

To keep the crust crisp, turn the oven off, leave the loaf inside, and leave the oven door ajar while the loaf sets for 15 minutes.