Farmer's Bread: Flour, Water, Time, Yeast and Salt

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I love a great farmer’s bread, the recipe is from Jim Lahey, owner of the Sullivan Street Bakery. I’m not a Professional baker however I looooove bread and I have been baking his recipe for some time. His baking cookbook My Breadhas interesting recipeswith many photo illustrations which are very helpful. I hope others enjoy this book as much as I do. Thebasic recipe for the farmer’s bread comes out looking and tasting almost like sourdough bread and thesmell of freshly baked bread that just came out of the oven is pretty amazing.

This recipe will give you a guaranteed result and great fresh bread. The recipe is for one 10″ loaf. I double or triple the recipe, however, if you are thinking about baking more than one loaf at a time I recommend using two Dutch ovens. It makes everything so much faster and more efficient

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Time and patience:

When making bread, the one thing you need is time and patience. It takes time for the dough to rise, which in the end, will create bread with a wonderful flavor and crust. The recipe uses a small amount of yeast, because of this, the dough needs to rest and ferment for a longer period. Why use less yeast? Traditionally, it is said that rising the dough very slowly, with a little yeast, builds better flavor and aroma.

The method is simple:

Flour, salt, water, and a little yeast, create a no-need dough. However, the dough has to ferment for at least 14 to 16 hours. I usually mix my dough on a Saturday at 9:00 am and bake my bread the next day at 9:00 am. So my dough is fermenting and rising for 24 hours. The longer you ferment the dough, the more intense the flavor. Place the dough in a bowl and cover the dough with a little olive oil, finally cover the bowl with a kitchen towel, place it at room temperature, relax, and let the little invisible creatures (Bacteria) take over.

The salt in this recipe is added to enhance flavor. If you are on a low or zero-sodium diet, you can adjust the recipe to match your needs or even bake it without the salt; however, the flavor will change. Drizzling and covering the dough with a little olive oil will avoid crust building during fermentation.
Also, make sure to use lukewarm water, if you use cold water with a low yeast preparation, the rise of the dough can take up to 36 hours.

The tools you need:

A Dutch ovenis key for developing a perfectly crusty crust and keeping the inside perfectly moist, a 5-quart Dutch oven creates a tight seal so the steam that develops during the baking cannot escape. The other tools I recommend are using Pyrex Glass measuring cups, they aredishwasher, freezer, microwave, and preheated oven safe. Another good tool to have is a good thermometer to measure the water temperature.

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Rest the bread:

Once you bake crusty Farmer’s bread in a Dutch oven you realize how excellent freshly baked bread can be. One piece of advice from experience, there is a huge temptation to cut into the bread the moment it comes out of the oven. However, I recommend letting the bread rest for at least one hour before cutting it.

Bread freezes well:

Let cool completely; cut the loaf in 1/2 then transfer it to an airtight bag or vessel and freeze it for as long as 3 months. To store the bread at room temperature let it cool completely; then transfer it to an airtight bag or container.

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