Bread newsletter no.10
Bread realisations and an undemanding light rye loaf recipe
Dear bread friends,
I can’t believe it’s nearly been half a year since I sent out my last newsletter. Aahh I’ve missed you, and I’ve missed sharing my bread thoughts and creations with you.
The main reason that I have been so quiet recently is that my mind has been so very full with thoughts about everything but bread (some may already be aware after I shared a little about my experiences recently).
My dad has been really sick and it just really turned my world upside down in a way that I didn’t know was possible. Being an only child, I am honoured to be in a position to help my dad, someone who has helped me so much throughout all my life, but it’s been very challenging to need to be the strong one.
It has made me realise, how wonderful it is to have the mental space and time to be able to focus so much on something so simple and beautiful as bread.
But in the last 6 months, I haven’t been able to think analytically and creatively about bread (or anything much at all for that matter) like I usually do. I still appreciate it, I have loved the simplicity of making the dough and watching its magical transformation into a beautiful crusty loaf more than ever. But my words, my clarity of thought about bread and about baking has felt very lost.
It has meant a little delay to the release of my upcoming cookbook Such Good Bread. But keep an eye out because if you missed the Kickstarter, it’ll be available to purchase soon, and if you supported my Kickstarter you’ll be getting more updates about when your copy is coming. I am soo amazed and grateful for all the support and kind words I’ve received connected to this self publishing dream of mine. <3 <3 <3 I’m also working on organising a reprint of Live Laugh Loaf, which is currently only available as an ebook, so keep an eye out for that too. Everything is happening, just more slowly than usual.
Step by step though, as glimmers of hope appear to stay for longer, appear more likely to be true, things are starting to feel a little bit closer to ‘normal’ and I’m finding myself able to share a little more of my ideas and recipes again.
Below are a few things I’ve realised throughout this time of very minimal, uncomplicated baking.
If simplicity was my approach before, now it is my approach x1000! Many of these, I kind of already knew but part of me didn’t quite believe them 100%. These realisations can truly change the way you bake and look after your starter.
Bread and starter realisations
It’s ok not to feed your starter for two weeks and you can totally bake bread with it before you feed it again. It might not be the best loaf you’ve ever made but it will still be way better than anything you can buy at the supermarket. Wayyy wayyy better!
If you have good starter, you will have good bread. Like it’s so hard to make bread that doesn’t taste good if your starter is healthy and happy. If your bread isn’t tasting great every time, it’s not you, it’s most likely your starter.
You can leave your dough out for way longer than you think (unless it’s like 28C or more, then maybe not). I left my dough on the counter for 15 hours and baked it and it made a perfectly delicious loaf with an ear!
The float test doesn’t matter, you can just use the starter!
You can bake with whatever flour you have on hand. Including self raising flour if you accidentally use that. And if you accidentally feed your starter with it, it will also be fine!
If anything weird is happening with your starter other than mould or really really nasty smells, it’s going to be totally fine – just take a bit out, ditch the rest, wash the jar and give it a good feed and it’ll come back.
In the spirit of these realisations, I want to share a favourite loaf recipe with you that I’ve been making on repeat. It is very basic, minimal fuss, minimal ingredients, minimal everything! It’s a little taste of what is to come inside my book, Such Good Bread.
Undemanding light rye loaf
This uninvolved loaf with optional folds (do not feel bad about skipping some of them, or even skipping all of them!) is one I’ve been making variations of on repeat for the last 6 months. It never fails. It is always rustic, cute and delicious. It’s a happy medium between a dark and a light loaf.
You can watch me make two of this exact loaf at the same time on my Instagram story highlights under ‘two loaves’. It will help you to visualise the process. I use a fair bit of rye in this recipe because I love rye but you can also use only white flour or use wholemeal or spelt instead of rye, just make sure the total flour in the recipe adds up to 400g.
I like to use my starter to help me work out the timing of my loaf. It’s not an exact science at all but I feed the starter (approx. 1:4:4 ratio, but I don’t measure exactly) at the same time as I make the dough. Then I look to see how bubbly the starter is. When the starter is fairly bubbly (but still could get more bubbly if I left it longer), that’s a good indication that the dough is also ready to go into the fridge.
If you’re apprehensive about making bread, give this loaf a go and I promise you won’t regret it :)
Makes one medium sized loaf
Ingredients
80g bubbly sourdough starter
8g salt
300g water
150g rye flour
250g strong white flour (11% protein or more)
Method
Making the dough
In a large mixing bowl, combine sourdough starter, salt and water using a wooden spoon or a dough whisk. Then add the rye and strong white flour and continue to mix. Switch eventually to mixing with wet hands to make sure that everything is well combined and no dry flour is visible.
Then leave covered with a wet tea towel for 30 minutes.After 30 minutes, give the dough a fold by using wet hands to pick it up out of the bowl and stretching it out in the air and folding it back in over itself. Repeat this a few times and then return it to the bowl.
Leave the dough out on the counter covered with a wet tea towel for a further 4-8 hours (approx. – or longer will also be fine unless it’s a really hot day, adjust the timing according to the weather, e.g. if it’s above 26C, 4 hours should be enough).
During this time you can do a few more folds, about one per hour is the maximum, but you don’t have to do any at all. The dough will be great either way. Sometimes I do the folds because they’re fun and it’s nice to see how bubbly the dough is getting but it won’t make a big difference to the final outcome.When your dough is ready, shape it into a round or oval loaf. Round is easiest: simply plop the dough onto a lightly wet workbench. Take a piece of dough from the edge and pull it in towards the centre and go around in a circle until the loaf starts to form a ball shape. Then flip the loaf over and smooth with your hands. This video might help visualise the shaping process. Then coat with flour and place into a bowl lined with a tea towel or a banneton.
Leave in the fridge for 6-24 hours.
Baking the dough
When you’re ready to bake the dough, preheat your oven to 240C / 465F with a Dutch oven inside for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, remove your dough from the fridge and plop it out of the banneton and onto a piece of parchment paper cut to slightly larger than the size of the loaf. Score the top of the loaf using a bread lame (this one’s my fave, or a very sharp knife if you don’t have one).
Carefully remove the Dutch oven from the oven and plop the loaf atop the baking paper inside. Give a few sprays of water using a little water bottle and then replace the Dutch oven lid. Bake at 240C / 465F for 10 minutes and then turn down the oven to 220C / 430F and continue to bake for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes, remove the lid and continue to bake for 10-15 minutes, or until your loaf is golden brown. Then place on a cooling rack. Allow to cool completely or as close to that as you can before slicing into your delicious loaf.
I hope you give this undemanding loaf a try <3
Thank you so much for being here.Talk soon,
Mary Grace
You and your dad are in our thoughts and prays.
Thank you for another amazing news letter. Hope to receive your new book soon. Greatly enjoyed the first two.
Mary, I just made this loaf. I’ve been having bad luck recently with complicated recipes and this loaf was a breath of fresh air. So easy to manage and to work with, and the final product is great. For the first time in a while bread making felt calm and relaxing, not stressful. Thank you.