COUNTRY (SOURDOUGH) BREAD 

The most simple and most beautiful loaf of bread: naturally leavened and made with freshly milled flour. Fragrant, moist, chewy, complex, and with excellent keeping quality, this bread is a true fingerprint of the farmer, miller, and baker’s terroir. It pairs well with everything. You need a digital scale and a dutch oven to make this bread.

Preparing the sourdough (levain):

Combine 166grams of freshly milled flour, 166grams of 82* water, and 83grams of mature sourdough. Mix, cover, and let rest for three hours.

Mixing:

Combine 323grams of our freshly milled organic wheat flour, 490grams of our freshly milled white wheat flour, and 550grams of 80* water in a large bowl. Stir and mix using your hand like a claw—about three minutes. Cover and let rest 30 minutes. Then add 120grams of 80* water, 20grams of sea salt, and all of the fermented levain. Mix thoroughly, about five minutes.

Gently cradle the dough, put it on the counter, and then lightly oil its bowl. Put the dough back in the oiled bowl and let rest 60 minutes. Then, at 45 minute intervals, fold the dough twice (like this.) 30 minutes after the last fold, divide the dough in two 900gram portions. Bring the corners of the dough to its center—pull strands of dough like playing Cat’s Cradle. Store these shaped loaves in baskets or bowls, lined a floured linen towel, in your fridge overnight.

The next day, pre-heat the oven and dutch oven to 500*. Once pre-heated, bring the first loaf out of the fridge and gently place it, face down, into the dutch oven. Score the loaf with a razor blade, in a chevron pattern, and place the lid on the dutch oven. Place it in the oven and bake for ten minutes. Then drop the temperature to 450* and bake until the crust has the color you desire. Remove the lid during the last ten minutes of baking