Paper Palate

When Richard Bertinet wrote “Crust,” he wrote more than a book on dough, and I am not referring to the fact that this is a book and a DVD, “Crust” is a holistic approach to bread. This book is like a classroom, it teaches you all you need to know to make all sort of breads: slow breads, sweet breads, even ciabattas and bagels. It emanates something marvellous, which is difficult to explain so bear with me while I try: you know, when you bake a bread, the way the process draws you in and makes you forget your worries for the duration and leaves you with a nice warm feeling of having created something good. Plus, nothing compares to the smell a warm leaves behind, well this book brings that very feeling.

The photography by Jean Cazals is stunning, the DVD is a great addition to understand what the basic techniques really are, special care is taken to describe the ingredients and their purpose, list of stockist for these “things” you will never find on your high street. Even a paragraph dedicated to ovens. This book deserves to be on any 50 top best list: solid, pedagogical, accurate and last, but not least, attractive.  It will change the way you look at breads, but best of all, it will definitely teach you how to make these artisans’ breads which are so expensive to buy.

If you want to know more about the author, his bakery and school, click here

The following recipe is directly from “Crust”

Make 4 loaves

For the Ferment

you will need

• 350g ciabatta flour (or half Italian )) and half strong white flour)
• 180 g water
• 2g (approximately 1/4 teaspoon) fresh yeast

To prepare

Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl until you have a rough dough. Cover loosely with a large spilt freezer bag secured with an elastic band, and leave to rest in a warm draught-free place 17-24 hours.

For the ciabatta

You will need

• 450g ciabatta flour (or half Italian and half strong white flour)
• 10g fresh yeast
• all of the ferment
• 360g water
• 50 Olive oil
• 15g salt
• a little olive oil, for greasing while flour or cornmeal, for dusting, plus a little fine semolina, for the dusting the peels

To prepare

Preheat the oven to 250C unless you are going to bake in batches, you will need to use both shelves of the oven and put in 2 baking stones or baking trays, or one of each, to get good and hot. Also, unless you are baking in batches, you will need enough peels or trays to load all the loaves before putting them into the oven. Line 2 large baking trays with couches of baking cloths.

To make

• Put the flour in a mixing bowl and rub in the yeast. Scoop the ferment into the bowl, and then add the water, oil and finally the salt, mixing well until everything is combined. Use your scraper to help you turn the sough out onto your work surface (don’t flour it first)
• Work the dough until it is supple and elastic and comes away from the work surface easily
• Instead of flouring your mixing bowl, lightly oil it with olive oil, place the dough inside and leave to rest for 1-1/2 hours, covered with a baking cloth, until it has risen and feels bubbly and light.
• Flour your work surface generously with white of maize flour and with the help of the rounded end of your scraper, turn the dough out in one piece. Flour the top. Press the dough lightly and gently all over, dimpling it slightly with your fingers into a rectangle shape.
• Cut the dough into 5 roughly equal strips, and fold each strip into 3 to strengthen the dough. To do this, simply take each strip, fold one side into the middle an press down, then fold over again to the other side and press down lightly to seal the edge. Roll lightly so that the seam of each piece is underneath.
• Place the pieces of dough, seam-side up, onto you well floured couche. Cover with more baking cloths and leave to prove for 45-60 minutes
• Meanwhile, dust your peels or baking trays with fine semolina
• Pick up one ciabatta at a time, turn it over so that the seam is underneath and stretch it lengthwise just a little as you lay it on the tray or peel (this will give it its characteristic shape)
• Open the oven door and quickly mist the inside of your oven with your water spray. Use the peels to slide your loaves onto the hot baking stones and spray some more before quickly closing the oven door. Turn down the heat to 220C and bake for 18-20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.