Born and Bread

I haven't bought a loaf of bread in 6 months.

I have, however been eating more bread that you can shake a tin of yeast at.

"But, wait! what the..?" I hear you say...

The answer to this delicious conundrum is Mama's Bread Recipe.
For years, my Mum has been making bread from a recipe devised at Domaine De L'arlot, in Bourgogne, France by the Lady of the house, Madame De Smet.

Madame De Smet, playing host year round to visitors at the winery, needed fresh food that was as delicious and easy to prepare as the wine tastings.

Madame discovered a way of making delicious, rustic, crusty bread with a fraction of the effort it takes using the conventional Double Proving method, involving hours of waiting for the yeast to do its work and kneading the dough again and again. She developped a method requiring a maximum 5 minutes' work.

It's as simple as combining the flour, yeast and salt, adding water, mix, put in fridge overnight. In the morning, throw it in the oven, 45 mins later; awesome crusty bread.

Presumably, given the right proportions of ingredients, the technique of proving in the fridge allows the yeast to act much more slowly, circumventing the knead (pun intended) to punch it down repeatedly.

Now, the oven at our place SUCKS and we've discovered that we have to bake for more like 70 mins, rotating the loaves (recipe makes 2) from time to time but we've now perfected the technique and have beautiful fresh bread, hot from the oven every day. (well, every couple of days anyway, even I can't eat 2 loaves in a day)

This recipe has been gradually spreading throughout the kitchens of my family members. My sister makes it (it comes out proud and perfect from her good oven) my Father-in-Law makes it and substitutes a cup of the flour for some mixed seeds, mum sometimes uses half spelt flour or even rye.

The thing is; it works everytime! It doesn't even necessarily look or feel the same every time you make it, but have faith in Madame De Smet, stick it in the oven, do a little bread dance and the reslut will always be brilliant.

So, next time you're having people over, have some of this bread chopped up on the table with some soft french cheese, maybe a saucer of good EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and a bottle of Pinot. WINNER.

So, here's the recipe, use it and never look back, simply laugh callously as you pass the bread aisle in your supermarket...

• 1 kg strong unbleached bread flour (I use Wallaby Baker's Flour)
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 1 tbsp salt (don't use less, I tried, it doesn't work)
• 950ml lukewarm water
• Extra flour for dusting and shaping

Place the flour, yeast and salt in a very large bowl. Mix in the water to make a quite wet, sticky dough. Use your hands to mix around well. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge overnight.Next day, take the bowl from the fridge and leave it to come back to room temperature. Prepare two flat trays by lining with baking paper and sprinkling generously with flour.

Using a dough scraper remove the dough from the bowl to a floured bench. Cut the dough in half. With floured hands lightly shape each piece into a round. Place the dough on floured trays and press/pull lightly into flattish ciabatta shapes. Flip them over so that the wrinkled, floured sides are now on top. Place the trays in a cold, fan-forced oven set to 220C. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the bread sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on wire racks.

VOILA!

Note: In doing some research for the finer details of this recipe i came accross a blog from Pinot Shop which essentially says everything i've just said. Oh well. I'm happy to share blog subjects with such an illustrious cohort.