Lately I discovered myself watching “Bread Week” on The Great British Bake Off and considering I wished to attempt making the weird two-tiered crusty bread the contestants have been challenged with, besides with sourdough starter as an alternative of yeast. The bread was a cottage loaf, a centuries outdated rustic fashion of bread from the English countryside with a stacked form believed to be a technique to suit extra loaves into the ovens of the previous.
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The cottage loaf form jogged my memory a little bit of Pan Gallego con Moña from Spain, with its knot on high, however that bread has a really open crumb, whereas cottage loaves have a young, closed crumb. Each use robust flour, however cottage loaves have a a lot dryer dough that’s enriched with lard or butter. The cottage loaf additionally known as to thoughts the traditional bread of Pompei, the Panis Quadratus, which additionally has 8 cuts within the dough and a little bit of tiering from a string tied round it. Provided that Britain was a part of the Roman Empire for over three centuries, I’m wondering if that is may very well be greater than a coincidence.
Historic ponderings apart, the tough a part of a cottage loaf is ensuring the additional weight of the highest dough doesn’t squash the crumb of the underside dough. I aimed for many of the fermentation to occur earlier than the shaping step so the ultimate proof may very well be simply lengthy sufficient to “heal” the indent made by way of the dough balls to stick them collectively, but in addition quick sufficient that the freestanding dough doesn’t compress an excessive amount of. Additionally I used a totally preheated baking stone on the second from the underside shelf of my oven to ship warmth rapidly to the bottom of the dough so it will develop and set rapidly.
Crusty and mushy
Cottage loaves have a enjoyable form and are crusty on the skin and mushy inside. Impressed by Paul Hollywood’s recipe on the “Nice British Baking Present,” this sourdough model has a sluggish fermentation and a variety of taste. It additionally seemingly harkens again to how the bread would have been made earlier than the arrival of business yeast.
Whole Time
1 hour, quarter-hour
Elements
- 500 grams bread flour (3 3/4 + 1 Tbsp)
- 300 grams water (1 1/4 cups)
- 100 grams sourdough starter (1/3 cup)
- 50 grams unsalted butter or lard, room temperature and cubed (3 1/2 Tbsp)
- 11 grams salt (2 tsp salt)
Directions
- See the Picture Gallery after the recipe for goal dough growth and shaping steps.
- In a bowl, combine collectively all of the substances besides the butter.
- Switch to a calmly floured countertop, add the items of butter to the highest of the dough and start kneading them into the dough.
- When the butter is totally integrated and the dough is elastic and clean, place it in a bowl or straighwalled container.
- Let the dough rise till it has doubled in dimension.
- Prep a baking sheet or peel with parchment paper.
- Take away the dough from its container and divide it in two items, roughly 1/3 (320g) and a couple of/3 (641g).
- Gently flatten the items to de-gas them, then fold and roll them into tight balls.
- Place the bigger ball on the parchment paper, and the smaller on high.
- Coat your index and center fingers with flour and poke them into the middle of the highest dough, urgent right down to the underside.
- Cowl the dough with a big bowl and let it proof for about an hour, till the dough has expanded and in addition splayed outward a bit.
- Preheat to 450°F the oven, a baking stone or metal, and a pan beneath for steam — for at the least half-hour earlier than the ultimate proof is finished.
- Boil 1 cup of water to pour into the pan for steam.
- Rating eight cuts across the dough by way of each tiers.*
- Place the dough within the oven on the stone or metal and pour the new water onto the pan beneath earlier than closing the oven door.
- Bake at 450°F for quarter-hour after which decrease the temperature to 375°F and bake for 30 extra minutes.
- When completed baking, the inner temperature of the bread needs to be at the least 190°F and the loaf ought to sound hole whenever you knock on the bottom.
Notes
* In Paul Hollywood’s cottage loaf written recipe and free masterclass on the BBC, he scores the dough earlier than the ultimate proof. On The Great British Baking Show (assortment 11, episode 3), the bakers rating simply earlier than the loaves go into the oven. For this recipe, I used the contestants’ sequence, however for a flatter bread that may bake a bit sooner, you would rating simply after shaping.
