A Boule Dough Recipe For Your Very Own Homemade Bread!!!!

Pin It Now! In my quest in becoming Susie Homemaker, I picked up probably the coolest cookbook ever: Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Each page is filled with awesome bread baking recipes that stem from a handful of basic doughs.

This weekend, my parents will be having close friends of the family over for dinner. Upon looking through my new favorite book, I volunteered to make baguettes from an awesome recipe I found in my newly cherished Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook, as well as a wheat thins recipe I found while perusing my newly treasured Whole Grain Baking cookbook from King Arthur Flour.



I prepared the Boule recipe last night. It is incredible what Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois have done; they have truly revolutionized the way one can make homemade bread (I would have to assume, to be honest, considering this will be my first attempt at making homemade bread!!!). What is amazing is that I made this dough last night, after it raised (and you don't have to punch it, or knead it, or anything that is seemingly tedious about baking bread), I put it in the refrigerator, saving it for tomorrow afternoon, when I will be baking up a storm!! Not only will the dough will keep, but it is preferable to refrigerate the dough to use for a later time (as it keeps the dough wet and easy to manipulate).

So here's the very simple boule dough recipe, which I will be using tomorrow to bake baguettes! C'est magnifique!


The Master Recipe: Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)
Courtesy of Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or halved.


3 cups lukewarm water
1-1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (1-1/2 packets)
1-1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6-1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
Cornmeal for pizza peel


Mixing and Storing the Dough

1. Warm the water slightly: It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature, about 100°F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours. You can use cold tap water and get an identical final result; then the first rising will take 3 or even 4 hours. That won't be too great a difference, as you will only be doing this once per stored batch.

2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket. Don't worry about getting it all to dissolve.

3. Mix in the flour—kneading is unnecessary: Add all of the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don't press down into the flour as you scoop or you'll throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor (14 cups or larger) fitted with the dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook until the mixture is uniform. If you're hand-mixing and it becomes too difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach into your mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don't knead. It isn't necessary. You're finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.


Ready to go!!! Hopin' she'll rise!!!

Allow to rise: Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you're using. Do not use screw-topped bottles or Mason jars, which could explode from the trapped gases. Lidded plastic buckets designed for dough storage are readily available (see page 14 of the book). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours, depending on the room's temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So, the first time you try our method, it's best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf.


It's alive!!!!! :o)

[Side note]: The scoop-and-sweep method gives consistent results without sifting or weighing. It's easier to scoop and sweep if you store your flour in a bin rather than the bag it's sold in; it can be hard to get the measuring cups in a bag without making a mess. Also: Don't use an extra-large 2-cup-capacity measuring cup, which allows the flour to overpack and measures too much flour.

Jeff and Zoe tell ya to relax! You do not need to monitor doubling or tripling of volume as traditional recipes.


After it rose, I put the dough in the refrigerator and am anxiously anticipating putting it to good use tomorrow afternoon for baguettes!




To be continued tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen!!! Keep an eye out for a delicious baguette *fingers crossed* and yummy made-with-love wheat thins!