Day 22

I promised you a recipe, my journal, and here it is. I know everyone's inside baking bread. This recipe is just four ingredients, not the worlds most sophisticated bread, but it's what we're eating in the habitat this evening.

Starter

I use an equal-weight starter, half whole-wheat flour, half water. Normally I'd say get your starter from a friendly baker, but these are isolation days. To start your own, mix 150g flour with 150g luke warm water. You don't need a yeast source, but if you want to kick start it, add a teaspoon of raw honey. Let sit in a jar on the counter covered with a light towel or cheese cloth. After the first day, cover with a loose lid. Once a day for a week, take out 200g of mixture and replace with 100g whole wheat flour and 100g water. By the end of a week, there should be enough yeast present to make plenty of bubbles in the mixture. They say it's ready when a spoonful of starter floats in water. I say some of us sink and some float and we're all fine people.

Once a [unit of time], remove 200g of starter, and add 100g of water and 100g of whole-wheat flour. Let it sit out, covered, for a few hours, and return to storage.

[Unit of time] =
1 day, if storing at room temperature
1 week, if storing in the fridge
1 month, of storing in the freezer

Bread

Ingredients:
200g starter
400g water
600g bread flour
14g salt

Simple, and totally workable directions:

- Mix ingredients to form a dough. It will be pretty wet. Let it sit 20 minutes, then knead for ten minutes.

- Proof in a lightly-oiled container.

- Knock it down a few times by folding gently.

- Form a round loaf and let rise.

- Bake at 450 degrees until it sounds hollow when you tap it on the bottom.

Less-simple directions:

Get a big plastic container for proofing, a colander, a thin kitchen towel, a lidded dutch oven, a razor blade or sharp knife, and a spray bottle for misting. I mix and knead with a stand mixer, but doing it by hand is the pro move.

Feel free to screw up any step except the ingredients. You'll still have tasty bread. Unless you really burn it, I guess. Or undercook it so bad it's doughy. Don't do those things.

Mix all the ingredients except the salt in a stand mixer bowl. Use the dough hook to mix, letting the machine continue running to knead for 2 or 3 minutes after it comes together. Cover bowl with a towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

Add the salt. Let the machine knead for another 6-8 minutes, or knead by hand for at least ten minutes. My best results have been kneading with the mixer, and then turning out the dough and kneading by hand a few minutes longer.

Transfer to a large, lightly-oiled plastic container. Let the dough proof in a cool oven with the oven light on. The light will heat the oven just enough to make it nice and warm for rising.

After 3 hours, or when it's risen a lot, stretch gently and fold one side toward the middle, then stretch the second side and fold to overlap the first. Stretch and fold the two ends. Repeat the process in another hour or so. A half-hour after the second folding, form a round loaf on a counter or cutting board, pinching the bottom. Let set for 20 minutes, lightly covered with oiled plastic wrap.

Place a thin kitchen towel in a round colander. Dust it with 50/50 rice flour and bread flour to prevent sticking. Gently transfer your formed loaf into the colander, top down.Dust the bottom (now on top) with gently with flour, fold the towel over to cover the dough. Let rise twenty minutes, then store in the fridge overnight.

-The next day-

Take out the dough and let it warm up for at least an hour.

Place a round or oval dutch oven into the oven, lid included. Preheat to 500 degrees for at least a 45 minutes.

Take the hot dutch oven out of the oven. Gently transfer the dough into the dutch oven. (Dropping the dough too hard will cost some lovely bubbles. Burning yourself will cost a trip to the hospital. Balance your attention accordingly. I use a big round spatula to transfer the dough out of the colander into the dutch oven.)

With the razor blade or knife, cut two to four slashes about a centimeter deep into the top of the dough. (Any design you like)

Mist the inside of the dutch oven with water, and immediately place the cover on.

Return dutch oven to heated oven. Reduce heat to 475 degrees as soon as the door is closed.

After 20 minutes, remove the dutch oven lid. Reduce heat again to 450 degrees.After another 10 minutes, start checking the crust color. When it's as dark and caramel-colored, take out the dutch oven, carefully remove the bread, and make sure it sounds hollow.

Continue baking uncovered in the dutch oven until hollow-sounding.

Cool completely on a wire rack. Reheat later, if you want to eat it warm.