Country Bread Recipe

This bread recipe is often known “Country Bread” because sponge and dough method is commonly associated with bread made in the French countryside. The sponge method is one of the older methods for making bread before the switch to baker’s yeast. The other way to make a sponge is to use old dough instead of fresh flour. “Old dough” is exactly what it sounds like, a piece of dough that was removed from a batch, stored, and when it was going to be used, it was cut up and mixed with warm water to make a sponge and use that sponge to make a dough and pull off a piece of dough to repeat the process. Constant reuse of this old dough method would develop a stronger tasting bread, a kind of sourdough, than just using fresh ingredients would.

Some basics to keep in mind, particularly if you want to adjust the recipe. The basic of making a sponge is to use the ratio of an equal amount of water to flour. It’s important to do this by weight to make sure that there is no left over material either way. The other important ratio to note when making bread using the sponge method is that the sponge is about 1/3rd of the total ingredients by weight.

Sponge: 

230 grams of water

45 grams of whole wheat flour

185 grams of all-purpose flour

Pinch of yeast, 1 gram at most.

The Sponge Mixed and about to be put into the Fridge

Mix it all together so there is no left over material and leave it in the fridge for up to 24 hours, this batch I left overnight in the fridge. You can leave it out to sour for at least 2 hours if you don’t want to refrigerate. I throw in a pinch of yeast just to spike it, otherwise the same as beginning the process of making a sourdough starter. The advantage to slowing down the process is that the longer and slower process develops the taste in bread.  I throw in whole wheat just to give the yeast more food, I do this when making sourdough starter, its not entirely necissary.

Something to note in the picture below of the sponge that I pulled out of the fridge, is that it’s produced some bubbles, which is the tell of how its ready.

Sponge ready to use.

Dough:

All the sponge.

230 grams of warm water

14 grams of salt

20 grams of honey

420 grams of all-purpose flour

Pinch of yeast, again not necessary but it’ll speed things along.

Mix all the ingredients together and knead it for 10-12 minutes, I used a stand mixer, until it comes together. Put the dough in a greased container and cover and let rise for 1-2 hours possibly more because this recipe mainly relies on natural yeast it’s going to take longer to rise.

After that shape into how your baking it. This particular recipe is big enough to baked in a Dutch oven, this time I split into two loaf pans which produce two small loaves from this amount of dough, which I sometimes like to do. Anyway leave it to prove for at least an hour. This dough is going to behave like sourdough, so you might want to have a proving basket or bowl so it doesn’t get too flat as it proves because it will prove outward more than it will prove upward.

The Dough at the start of the Proving

Dough about to be put into the oven

 

 

 

 

 

 

Near the end of the proving preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the ovens ready, slash the top of the dough, I don’t have a baker’s lame so my slashes don’t always look the best, and pop in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, looking for it be golden brown. If you’re using a loaf pan, you can take the bread out of the loaf pan and put it back in the oven for an extra 8 minutes to bake the rest of the bread crust. Once finished cool it on a rack for at least 5 minutes and enjoy.