Learn How to make your own bread with natural leaven

Transcription

Learn How to
make
your own bread
with natural
leaven
The French Bread
Contents
1
Text
Henri Granier
&
Cathy Giraud
Photographs
Henri Granier
Translator
Henri Saurat
The French Bread
Contents
2
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The French Bread
Contents
3
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The French Bread
Contents
4
Henri
Granier
At a turning point in his life, to get in touch with nature, this 45 year old, professional
photographic journalist decided to manifest his passion for good genuine bread.
To make a starter, knead and shape the dough entirely by hand, bake the bread in a
wood fired oven….
During the 90’s, Henri Granier researched, found and deepened a long-forgotten
know-how, too often neglected. With joy and simplicity he has brought back to our
time the art of making one’s own bread.
He is a real baker.
Anxious to share and pass on to everyone these sacred techniques, a true heritage of
valuable wisdom, he created his web-site http://www.opain.com/ and wrote this book
in 2002, together with Cathy Giraud.
These two means of communication bring together philosophy, advice and step by
step recipes: all that one needs to know to make and produce a natural sourdough
bread.
Making bread requires a genuine personal commitment. From the choice of
ingredients to the baked bread, Henri Granier’s guide is the respect for life.
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Very quickly he leaves behind modern organic grains, increasingly transformed and
with little character. He prefers using ancient grain varieties, which remain whole and
have distinctive characteristics.
In 2003, he registered his concept under the name of « La Micro-Boulange® ».
From 2004 to 2010, he set up the professional bakery he had dreamed of; time flows
only to the rhythm of work on a human scale.
In 2008, during his exhibition ‘Bread Portraits’, he successfully combined his two
careers.
In 2009, he became member of ‘Réseau Semences Paysannes’ (network – seeds –
small farmers).
Today and in the same spirit: ‘savoir-vivre’ and the art of creation, he runs training
workshops and introductions to bread making.
Through the practice of baking, during the learning period, each student experiments
with and expresses his or her talent to live according to his or her own inner journey.
Making bread is therefore also an adventure in better nourishing oneself and selfdiscovery.

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
Acknowledgment
To Cathy
For her invaluable participation in writing this book.
For her way of clarifying complex ideas and selecting suitable words.
For her presence and support in my research.
For her help towards success in this life.
Everything would have been so different without her.
For all this I am so grateful.
Thank you.

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The Translator
Henri Saurat
Every Thursday Henri and Megan light up the wood fired oven in their rustic
bakehouse which is surrounded by ponga tree ferns with uninterrupted views of the Pacific
Ocean and the magestic Kaimai ranges, this is Katikati New Zealand.
The local farmers market is tomorrow and the daily bread needs to be replenished.
This weekly ritual rose out of Henri's nostalgia for the taste and smell of real bread.
In 2003 he journeyed to the Pyrenees and it was here in the context of teacher student
we met.
Henri returned to New Zealand with increased vigour and reignited passion for “Le
Pain au levain naturel” with all its health benefits and intensely good flavour.
He then set about perfecting his newly aquired skills and the very frustrating task of
sourcing suitable organic stone ground flour.
Now in 2011 Henri and Megan supply their local farmers markets with freshly baked
sourdough bread and croissants, build efficient wood fired ovens, import Portuguese
micaceous clay cookware for use in the ovens and teach the basic skills needed for the
home baker to create their own loaves.
Their mobile Pizza oven takes them into the homes and businesses of the local people where
they enjoy sharing the taste of authentic Napoletana Pizza.
Both their children Nathalie 23 and Jean 21 have grown up in the warmth of this culinary
tradition where they have learnt to take time to source, prepare and share good food in their
own backyard.
You can find more about Henri and Megan at www.breadnz.com.
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Preface
Making your own bread can rightly be considered a
fundamental lifestyle choice.
With strength and softness, the different stages of bread-making
bring out the essence of life.
This wise and sacred practice offers everyone the chance to
rediscover their genuine roots: common sense, good taste and the art
of living.
Bread, when it is good, challenges us and reminds us that the
beauty of life lies in the simple things.
Through its smell, its shape and its flavour, bread portrays the
characteristics of happiness.
This nourishment, not only in its consumption but also in its
preparation awakens our perceptions and our senses, and colours them
with every emotion.
When you are making your own bread you are intimately in
touch with the simple reality of existence.
Every time, you are up-lifted and amazed, because it is in our
caring hands that bread is created.
Under the powerful but delicate manipulation of our fingers,
important elements such as air, spring water and ocean salt, mixed
with wheat flour, find their balance.
It is at the time of kneading that the dough is born.
Only then is our human heart at one with those noble elements
and ingredients, which we must remember to protect and preserve.
If you make your own bread it is not only because you want to
improve your diet, but it is also your way of acknowledging your trust
in humanity.

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Presenting the Ingredients
Air :
To make bread, the first important participant is the element air.
It is transparent yet inhabited by a multitude of fascinating living individuals.
In it, minuscule flora and microscopic fauna dance and fly, following the
rhythm of the cosmic music.
Invisible, omnipresent, the air intervenes throughout the bread making. The
outcome is a simple but vital process of exchange.
The stretching and the aerating of the dough are primitive gestures full of
unconstrained naivety. As your floured hands move in a controlled and consistent
manner the air with its lively energy invades the doughy mixture.
The air then becomes a calm accomplice during the proving, when the
fermentation brings about its transformations.
When using a wood oven, the air captures the perfume wafting from the
glowing and fragrant embers.
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The bread while cooking, becomes impregnated with this perfumed air, its
crust retains this discrete yet very recognizable and beyond comparison flavour of
forest and smoke.
Once cooked the bread starts its cooling down period. It expels carbon dioxide
and steam, to replace them with surrounding air.
The bread cells breathe in all the odours in the atmosphere.
For these reasons and many others, it is imperative to carefully watch the
quality of the air and of the bread.
The composition of air is out of our control. However, there are certain things
we can avoid: cigarette smoke… odours from products to do with health and beauty
care, cleaning and maintenance and, of course, deodorising sprays…
If they are artificial copies, their fragrances fool our sense of smell, poison our
lungs, our blood, our body and our homes. The Greenhouse effect starts without us
realising.
On an anecdotal note: not so long ago city bakeries were nearly always
underground and often next to the latrines.
Proofed loaves and baker boys alike breathed a stale and fetid air. You can
imagine how deplorable the bread tasted.
This goes without mentioning the water, which was often less than pristine. In
Paris, bakeries close by the river Seine used its water in baking.
Like an open-air sewer, the Seine was at that time totally unhealthy.
Parmentier, a French army chemist, undertook at the end of the XVIII century
to regulate bakeries, forcing the trade to change its habits.
Passionate about food hygiene, he proved conclusively, among other things,
that the quality of water influenced the bread-making process.
In the same way, it would be appropriate today to take air quality into account.
Bread made with healthy ingredients by a conscientious baker will be better if
it is fabricated in a “green area” rather than in a city centre.
Contrary to what happens nowadays, it is bread prepared, baked and cooled
down in the mountains or in the open countryside that should be served in the cities
and not the other way around.
If only simple common sense prevailed!

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The Water :
Water represents the most mysterious and the most enigmatic part of life.
Shooting out of the earth, falling out of the sky, spring water or rainwater,
water organises life.
It is the Mother, the Womb and the essence of existence.
It quenches our thirst and at the same time nourishes our body.
Water is the most essential element of the planet earth: It constitutes the lakes,
rivers, streams, seas and oceans.
It is the dominant component of plants, animals and humans.
Water bathes, hydrates and surrounds the cells, molecules and the continents.
Water is the bread builder, simply yet splendidly, it creates the bread.
We talk about “Eau de coulage” (hydrating liquid) to make bread. This term is
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also in current use in the French building industry.
The proportions necessary to produce bread are calculated in relation to the
water and not the solid ingredients, as is the case in baking and pastry making.
Rigorous and precise, this mathematics of hydration goes beyond the immediate
results.
This is particularly specific to bread making, which only goes to confirm the
superiority water has over the other elements.
Water plays a fundamental role in the existence of all life forms. From the
beginning of time, water has been the environment in which life chooses to perform
all its experiments.
In the wooden kneading trough, which is considered as the temple of manual
mixing, the water runs freely, dissolving the salt, diluting the leaven and breathing
life into the flour.
A prestigious binder, the water brings together and cements all elements
present.
It carries their properties, preserves and magnifies them in its humidity, to
restore them in value and virtue.
In its liquid form, the water is able to create a floury mixture, which under the
influence of our bare and hesitant hands becomes dough.
It is also water in the form of steam that gives the bread its appealing golden
aspect.
This was a secret jealously guarded by bakers in the past.
For billions of years water has been continuously purified and revitalised by
the atmospheric and underground phenomena.
These natural filters provide us with an efficient supply of marvellous drinking
water.
If this is to continue, we should stop using air, earth and sea as our rubbish
bins.
We obstinately refuse to apply the principles of health based on our knowledge
and respect for the environmental laws.
We are the only living-species that produces non-recyclable waste.
With a totally self-proclaimed “superior intelligence” our wisdom is disturbing
the order and the balance of drinking water.
It is interesting to note that, by definition, water is drinkable if it can be drunk
without putting one’s health in danger.
“Potable”, the French word for drinkable, comes from the Latin potabilis,
which in turn comes from potare: to drink.
Knowing that our tap water is dosed with chlorine and its derivatives,
purification additives and synthesized disinfectants, all of which are undesirable for
human consumption, the question is: what can we do or say about it?

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Sea Salt:
Born in the ocean these little fragments of crystal hold magical powers.
A talented alchemist, the salt dissolves and disappears hurriedly.
Nobody can see where it goes or what it does.
Its piquant flavour seasons and enhances the succulent taste of food.
In the correct proportion it offers the palate the opportunity to distinguish the
smallest nuance in the many tastes that are interlaced in the food.
It gives depth to the very flavour of the bread.
These qualities are not insignificant, though alone they do not justify the usage
of salt.
In fact, this magician, who shows himself only in his magical geometric shape,
secretly masters some special effects.
While outwardly the baker’s hands are busy at work, inside the salt attends to
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the good gestation of the kneading process.
As soon as the three ingredients: natural leaven, water and flour come into
contact, the salt balances and organises their interactions.
It tempers the natural enthusiasm of the bubbling leaven ferments.
It increases the inner temperature of the dough by 1 or 2 degrees.
Through its intervention, the salt facilitates an equal and even repartition of the
fermentation in all the dough.
This is the perfect moment for the dough to build and develop its qualities:
springiness, manoeuvrability and homogeneity…
During the cooking it also concerns itself with minor details such as
encouraging the crust colourization.
But the main speciality of this seasoning is to look after the phenomenon of
hydration.
If the bread, like the human body, starts to lack salt it becomes dehydrated.
Salt is scrupulous in its precision, meticulously combining water to the flour
solids, stabilising it when the mixing is over and maintaining the hydration levels in
the rising, cooking and conservation stages.
Despite its small proportion, it is in no way inferior to the other major
ingredients that it attentively serves.
When it is all over, the transformations and the metamorphosis completed, it
reappears with its nice salty taste just like a light sea spray on your lips. It is the taste
of the ocean depths and all its mysteries, a taste of the unexplored.
Nature does things well.
Salt reserves are practically inexhaustible, and for the time being salt extraction
doesn’t use polluting agents!
Let’s make the most of that. We must remember that the dosage of salt must
always be sparing in order to be beneficial not only to our health but also to our
palate.
And neither is it necessary to follow the dictates of modern fads using refined
salt, chemically denatured, so fine that it can run through the very small holes of tiny
salt shakers.
Salt, like star crystals, should be touched lightly and taken in your fingertips.
In the kitchen coarse cooking salt should be kept in a wooden box.
On the table use a small bowl for the “Fleur de sel”.
It is evident that good habits are also often the finest.
Complementary information

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Flour :
Pounded, beaten, crushed and ground, flour is the result of the cereal
adventure.
Ceres, Roman goddess of “Cerealis”, protects her grain-bearing plants.
Those plants, from the graminaceae family, with their grains organised in ears,
pollinated by the wind, hold in their fruits substances of a rare and high nutritional
content.
Oat, wheat, corn, millet, barley, rice, rye… are all cereals designed to feed the
human inhabitants of the earth.
When gods and men were friends, the rural world lived according to the
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principles of the universe.
Until the unknown became known, the peasant work of ploughing, sowing, and
harvesting was complemented by observations.
The agriculturist read the stars, followed the moon and listened for signs, to get
inspiration for new perspectives.
In the fields, the cereals orientated themselves, germinated, grew and undulated with
peace, love, sun, rain, wind and freedom. And the soil perpetuated its abundant
generosity.
Ecology was not, then, the philosophy of a political party: We were all in
fraternal kinship with life: the trees, rivers, planets, grasses, animals, flowers, rocks…
and we interacted.
From this harmonious and balanced interaction, from this constructive
exchange, from this dazzling knowledge, from this serene and unique awakening,
some people got tired.
Greed, war, rivalry, aggression… fertilizers, pesticides, chemicals, toxic
herbicides and genetically modified organisms have all arrived.
As a result we are all suffering in a state of sad survival. Our fields and soil are
depleted, and there is a feeling of utter hopelessness prevailing.
If some cheat, others carry on the research.
Organic farming has grown out of a desire for fairness and respect for life in all
its forms.
Organic products bear witness to a way of working in harmony with nature,
free from toxic products and restrictive techniques.
Choosing to use these products is the best path to go down.
Their certification guaranties that the grains are sourced from clean farming.
From the earth to the table, the food rediscovers its nobility and can once again
fulfil its nutritional and medicinal functions.
The care we take in doing our shopping directly influences our health.
The choice is ours.
Of course, we will always find those who try to unsettle us, these same people
are the ones who close their eyes, manufacture, and sell poisoned foods. They will
emphasize the imperfections and apparent aimlessness of organic production.
The reality is that they do exist, and this is why we must be vigilant, exigent
and unwavering.
Because, if we are what we eat, the world is what we make of it
Amongst all cereals, wheat originating from the Oriental Mediterranean Basin
and Occidental Asia occupies a royal and unchallenged place in the world of bread.
It is the only one containing sufficient gluten in its grain.
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*Note on gluten
- Glutamic acid, diamide amino acid, is an excellent stimulant of the nerve cells.
- Glutamine, monoacid of glutamic acid, is the most prolific amino acid in free
circulation in the blood.
– Glutamate, an amino acid, constitutes about 9% of the amino acid protein of our
organism.
It occurs more than the other 29 amino acids in the primary sequence of our proteins.
Natural amino acids are essential for life. Determined by the basic sequence of DNA,
they are indeed the very essence of life.
This precious protein is indispensable to the bread-making process.
Mixed with water, gluten, which has a greenish colour, forms a glutaminic
tissue with a constant holding power.
It gives the dough an elastic structure, which protects it from the inside against
tearing under the pressure of the fermentation gases.
On the outside, the gluten also protects the bread from the numerous
manipulations that bread making imposes.
The dough, thanks to the gluten, evolves intact through the successive steps of
its transformation.
Rye contains a little of this exceptional vegetable protein, this is why it was
always one of the bread flour mixes.
Other cereals contain some gluten, but not sufficient to constitute by
themselves a good bread dough.
On the other hand it is possible, to imagine some gourmand variation, by
incorporating other cereals in wheat or wheat-rye mixes.
The climate, soil and seed variety, all have a direct influence on the gluten
content.
When we talk about wheat, we refer to it as Strong or Weak wheat.
It is a judicious grain mix of both categories that gives the ideal flour for bread
making.
This delicate work is the inherited and secret art of a true miller.
It is a complete chain of trust and of love for what is well done that links the farmer,
the miller and the baker.
And so it is thanks to these good fellows, their lands and their grain, the mill
and the flour, the kneading trough, the oven and the bread it is sweet to share, the
gods and the people are in friendship again.
Unfortunately there are, in non-organic bread making, chemical additives
created to cover up the low gluten percentage of some flours.
These additives come straight out of laboratories, and are used to dope flour
from fodder crops, which are essentially unsuitable for bread making.
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High yield wheat, designed for animal feed, can then be used for bread making.
In all cases, the result is an imitation bread, which might have the aspect and
appearance of the genuine article but is not the real thing.
Today, ease of transport offers a wide diversity in our choice of products. We
can find in the shops all types of flour from various cereals, aimed at making readycooked dishes, pastry, biscuits…
So it is common to see the term “flour” with the name of the given cereal: Rice
flour, chestnut flour and so on.
In the past, the word flour, employed alone, automatically implied that it was
made from wheat.
For example for our forefathers, 100 g of flour meant 100 g of wheat flour.
Flour in French is farine: fine particles of grain.
In Latin, farina, from far, is none other than the word for wheat.
We, in our time have to specify “Wheat flour”, thus showing once again how
much we have forgotten and how far we have drifted away from the truth.
COMPARATIVE BOARD OF FLOURS

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The three important points when choosing flour are:
Origin – Milling – Age
Once the cereal’s biological origin has been verified, the next concern is to
look into the method of milling.
Apart from ancestral manual techniques, there is only one acceptable method
of milling: stone milling.
This process respects the central almond configuration, the germ and the outer
skin (bran).
The milling process should reinforce not alter the numerous and remarkable
nutritional properties packed into a wheat grain.
These include lipids (non-saturated fatty acid), proteins, vitamins including the
B and E, mineral salts, trace-elements including selenium, enzymes, fibres and bran.
After the milling process the flour is sifted according to the type desired.
Unfortunately flour types are not standardized from one country to the other. We consider
the French classification the most precise so in this book we always specify it
(T 150, T 110, T 80…T 45) when referring to a flour type.
T150
(Dark whole-wheat / Wholemeal)
Extraction rate 95%
Ash content 1.4%
T110
(Whole-wheat / brown)
Extraction rate 88/90%
Ash content 1/1.20%
T80
(Light whole-wheat / brown)
Extraction rate 85%
Ash content 0.75/0.90%
T65
(High gluten)
T55
All purpose & Bread
Extraction rate 75%
T45
Cake and Pastry
Ash content <0.50%
The type 150 (T 150) or integral: its name is self-explanatory, it contains the
complete product.
The type 110 (T 110) or complete: it is very lightly sifted to extract only the
large cellulose bran.
The type 80 (T 80) or light: it is sifted a little more, so has a little less bran but
is still sufficient.
Concerning the T 110 or T 80, these flours don’t loose anything by being sifted,
on the contrary, they improve by becoming more balanced.
Their dough increases in volume, and the intestine better tolerates bread made
with these flours.
It has been noticed that too much bran can provoke, for some people, irritation
and inflammation of the digestive system.
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Below that level of sifting (T 65, T 55, T 45) the flour is too light in germ, fibre
and nutritional qualities to be reasonably encouraged. Once over-sifted they become
starch powder.
Try using light flour (T 80) for your home pastries, you will be astonished by
the success encountered, in the preparation as well as in the consumption!
Finally, let’s mention industrial flour, milled with metallic cylinders, and
capable of producing such a fine and sad flour that it no longer contains any germ or
vitamins.
And if the grains are also non-organic it will be loaded with pesticide,
insecticide and preservatives.
The desire for a good flour seems to be a quest worthy of an initiation course.
Though once the reasons for this requirement are understood and assimilated,
everything becomes quite simple again.
It is this flour that you will desire and no other.
The age of the flour is not a futile subject, it is unavoidable information that
should be taken seriously.
The unsaturated fatty acids contained in the wheat germ are of oily consistency.
With time it is that oil that oxidises making the flour acid and giving it a rancid
taste.
The flour rich in germ is the most prone to oxidation, this is why the T 80, T
110 and T 150 must be used within a maximum of two months after being milled.
This is supposing that the milling date is written on the flour bags instead of
the usual and presumed use by dates.
You can buy your flour in bulk from a specialized organic shop, where the
milling date should be easily obtainable.
You can also buy your flour from a competent miller and, in this way, you will
make your purchase in total confidence.
There are those who decide to acquire a small family mill (like the cereal mill
from Oriental Tyrol) and mill their grains themselves. These small wooden mills
with a millstone magnificently combine performance with the aesthetic, and in this
way you may prepare your flour as and when required.
Just remember that while an old flour is more likely to oxidise, too young a
flour (i.e. freshly milled) is not easily manipulated.
By letting your flour rest for eight to ten days you are giving it a little breathing
space and so it will be ready for bread making in the best possible conditions.

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Conclusion
If we are to live at one with the earth we must consider the air,
the salt and the flour from both the general and the detailed points of
view already given.
We cannot obtain a 'well-made' bread unless we are first able to
visualize it.
Which goes without saying for a lot of things in life.
The facts and information leading to truth offer precious
opportunities to develop our thoughts and intellect.
It is in recognizing and accepting them that we start our journey
and evolve.
Because we are Homo sapiens, our hands are free and it is with
them that we work.
If we put our hearts into it we will be pleasantly surprised with
our own performance.
From air, water, salt, flour and love, the bread will tell us how
compassionate we have become.
It is this that will nourish us.
“I know life is love.
When I contemplate a flower…
When the river sings,
And friends laugh.
When the rain drops dance,
When birds make their nests…
I know that life is love.
However, it is when I make my bread
That it becomes a reality.

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Introduction to the day-to-day bread
It is no use trying to hide the fact that if you want to make your own bread,
using natural leaven, time is essential.
This is not because it is complicated but simply because it requires a « certain
savoir-faire ».
Today’s lifestyle means that we are all very busy and have very little time for
ourselves.
There is, however, one recipe that is extremely easy to follow, and which has
been passed down through the ages.
It is known as the day-to-day bread and could be the answer for those of us
who are constantly on the move.
This pancake like bread takes only a few minutes to prepare, and is cooked just
before or during the meal, according to your needs.
Deliciously fresh flavoured you simply tear off bite size pieces with your
fingers. It may be served warm or cold, savoury or sweet, in fact whatever takes your
fancy.
Whether you are an enlightened amateur or already passionately convinced,
you will not only succeed but also have a lot of satisfaction from making your natural
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leaven bread, it will always be a pleasurable decision to make your daily bread.
Unassuming and simple, it will more than satisfy your hunger.
Easy and quick to prepare, in an instant, you have a meal for those unexpected
visitors.
All over the world, people of every race and creed continue to enjoy and
appreciate this bread.
Because borders exist, the day-to-day bread has different names and slight
variations, but the true art of making this bread is universal and unchanged.
The hands move in the same manner as they did for our ancestors before us.

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Day-to-day bread
Ingredients
100 g wholemeal flour (T 80 or T 110)
5cl spring water.
1 g (pinch) sea salt (for example the coarse salt from Guérande in France)
Double the quantity depending on the amount of bread required.
Step 1: Prepare the dough
In a bowl, dissolve a pinch of coarse sea salt in 5cl of spring water.
Add the flour and mix together.
Using your fingers, work the dough until it has a smooth even consistency.
Form into a ball and place in a floured bowl.
Cover the bowl with a tea towel.
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Step 2: Proving time
Let the dough rest in a warm place for a minimum of one hour. 25 °C is an
ideal temperature.
If the temperature is lower than this, it will be necessary to leave the dough
resting for a longer period of time.
If you prefer, you can prepare the dough the night before, so that you are ready
to cook your bread for breakfast or do it in the morning and serve it at lunchtime.
In this case don’t forget to dampen the cloth that covers the bowl of dough to
prevent it from drying out.
Step 3: Baking
Flour your rolling pin and board.
Flatten the ball of dough and then roll it out to form a circle that should be between 3
and 10 mm thick.
Usually, the daily bread is quite thin, but the thickness varies according to individual
taste and the region.
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Use a preheated griddle or heavy-based frying pan, which has not been greased.
Put the disk of dough on the hot griddle.
Turn often to make sure it cooks through and the dough puffs up.
Watch that the bread doesn’t burn, it needs only a few minutes to cook.
The day-to-day bread is ready.
« Bon appétit! »

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The Leaven
Flour and water mixed together will ferment spontaneously in a suitable
environment. This transformation produces risen dough, which is known as natural
or wild leaven.
Composed of a quantity of microorganisms, the leaven is sown into the bread
dough.
The enzymes, which develop during the fermentation process, digest the starch
in the flour.
These same enzymes are capable of releasing the various parts of a wheat grain
that are used by the human body.
Like most cereals and pulses, wheat contains some phytic acid in its husk.
This acid combines with calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc, which it finds in
the human body.
While ingesting bread, insolvable phytates are created. These are, in turn,
eliminated and cause demineralisation.
Luckily wheat contains phytase, an enzyme that is capable of breaking down
phytic acid. In order to act, the phytase requires a low pH and a long fermentation.
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Because the natural sourdough has a slow and partly lactic fermentation, it is a
perfect answer to the requirements of the phytase.
The yeast with its fast and mainly alcoholic fermentation is not helping the
action of the phytase.
Thanks to the leaven, the bread’s digestive and nutritive qualities are more
suitable for human consumption.
NB: As a general rule, when you eat cereals and pulses (leguminous plants)
you should soak them before cooking. This process of pre-germination causes the
phytic acid to partly decompose.
The leaven also gives the bread a subtle and distinctive flavour.
The bread will continue to improve for two to four weeks in ideal conditions.
Nourishing oneself with such simple food is the essence of eating.
The leaven does more than just enhance the bread: it reveals the powerful
presence of life.
Like a signature, it shows its origins and its authenticity.

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How to make your leaven starter
The first leaven is the starting point for all the loaves to follow like a
« mother ».
Born out of water and flour, its life cycle is predetermined.
It will live as long as you treat it well.
To start with, remember to make it in small
quantities, because each time you replenish it, the
leaven will increase in mass and volume.
1- In a ramekin or a small sandstone bowl, use a
wooden spatula to mix together one tablespoon
of brown organic flour (T 110) or whole-wheat
organic flour (T 150) and one tablespoon of
spring water.
Cover with a cloth to protect this preparation
from inevitable drying out.
Put in a draft free position at a room temperature
of between 20 °C and 26 °C if possible.
This relatively high temperature range is suitable
for the leaven.
It assists and accelerates the activity of both
enzymes and natural yeasts. This is why you
have more success with the “Starter” in summer
than winter.
Also, during the summer months, the air is full of
airborne wild yeast, which makes the
fermentation process easier. The “Starter leaven”
obtained in this way is stronger and more
resistant.
Be careful, not to overdo it, your starter shouldn’t be exposed to direct heat. The
main objective is fermentation and not cooking!
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2-After two or three days, your
mixture will have swollen, it could
have even doubled in volume.
It is time to feed it, to “refresh” it.
This operation that you will have
to repeat regularly, throughout the
leaven's life, consists of adding to
the base culture, water and flour in
equal proportions.
Nourishing the starter
Add one tablespoon of water to your mixture to dilute it.
If a crust has formed you should never remove it. Break it and mix it in when
you add the water.
Then add a tablespoon of flour (T 110 or T 150) and mix it all in a
homogeneous way.
You will have to feed your “Starter” every three or four days as indicated
above.
How often you feed it will depend on such criteria as: temperature, humidity,
season, storm, wind…
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Some of the signs are quite obvious.
For example, if a starter suddenly has a very strong smell or the crust suddenly
becomes hard or liquid, this is a leaven that requires to be fed.
After a while you will become accustomed to the smell of fermentation. Your
nose will tell you the condition of the starter leaven.
You will learn very quickly how to recognize the changes and the movements
taking place.
Like a wave it evolves from highs to lows, some apogees, some perigees,
births and deaths, it breathes life.
It acts in accordance with the surroundings. Happiness and arguments, good
and bad thoughts or intentions, all affect the leaven.
You can believe or be unaware of the remarkable nature of the leaven:
nevertheless it exists.
A leaven is made from water flour and feelings.
May the leaven live peacefully under your roof.

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The Leaven
How to maintain your leaven starter
If you are away for a time and are not able to make your bread on a regular
basis you can be comforted in knowing that a method from the mists of time exists to
conserve it.
It is a very simple process all you need to do is dehydrate the starter leaven.
This natural method will protect all its properties.
When your starter is at the height of the fermentation, instead of adding water
add flour only, keep adding small amounts of flour until you obtain a pliable dough,
similar to play-dough.
Using your fingers, make small balls, the size of marbles, until you have used
up all the starter leaven.
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Dust with flour and put them on a dry cloth, making sure they are not in
contact with one another.
Put them out in the sun or in an oven, which is cooling down, making sure not
to cook them.
After a few hours, the leaven balls swell and burst.
They lose their moisture, while keeping the active ingredients of the
fermentation.
They are now dehydrated.
You can store them away in a cotton bag or wrap them in a cloth. Close the
bag with a drawstring and hang it in a very dry place.
Then, when you feel like making bread again even if it is after a few months,
all you will have to do is crush the balls with a rolling pin.
Once crushed, mix together equal quantities of water and flour in a ceramic
bowl.
Cover with a cloth and place the bowl in a dry draught free place at room
temperature between 20 and 26 °C.
After two days your starter leaven should start to work again.
Feed it as before, with equal quantities of water and flour. Your starter leaven
is unchanged and once again ready to begin its journey.
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The First Bread
Using natural leaven, kneaded by hand and cooked in the kitchen oven.
The 1 kg
The mathematics of bread making with leaven
Making your leaven bread what a blessing, a real festivity.
Dream play dough, perfectly malleable. Fun and games emerge.
Immediately, you know that these games are serious, intensive and interesting.
It requires all your attention, all your concentration.
It will take you on a trip within, to discover an art that is mastered by balance.
Those famous elements, which are: air, water and salt, are always in motion but
constantly in balance.
Balance, once more, of temperature, proportion, weight, volume and time.
Balance of oneself, inspiration and expiration, until all your gestures become
harmonious.
Dancing with joy, harmony and respect for the sky, the water, the earth, and
life's partnership.
It is in this way that bread is made: from poetry, from fantasy, from hard work
and also from mathematics.
Hydration ratio (HR)
The HR is the percentage of water incorporated in the flour to make dough of a
certain consistency.
In bread making terms this water is called “eau de coulage” (hydrating liquid).
It is the flour quality that determines the HR, it indicates the quantity of water
that the flour can absorb.
An HR of 53% is ideal; your dough will have neither too much nor too little
water.
This corresponds to 53 litres of water mixed with 100 kg of flour giving 153
Kg of dough.
For 1 Kg of dough you will need:
Water to mix: 53/153 = 0.346 l or 346 g;
Flour: 100 / 153 0 0.654 kg, or 654 g.
If necessary, at a later stage when you have more experience you will be able to
recalculate your HR according to your flour, your oven and working conditions.
(Retour)
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The leaven
The amount of leaven needed to make your batch of loaves is calculated in relation to
the water used.
400 g to 600 g of leaven is required per litre of water to mix.
With less than 400 g, the dough rises very slowly.
With more than 600 g, the bread risks acquiring a strong sour yeasty taste.
With each batch that you bake, you gain experience, establish a routine and
experiment with the quantity of leaven you use, until you get the taste you desire.
All this will also depend on the quality of your leaven.
The following calculation is made on the basis of 600 g of leaven per litre of
water to mix.
For 0.346 l of mixing water you require:
(0.600 x 0.346) / 1 = 0.208 kg of leaven.
The total dough weight (water, flour, leaven) is therefore: 0.346 + 0.654 +0.208
0 1.208 Kg.
Sea salt
35 g of sea salt per litre of water.
Remember that in the dough (water, flour and leaven) there are two different
quantities of water.
1 – The amount of water to mix the dough (water, flour) let’s say - 0.346 kg.
2 – The amount of water used for the leaven, which is 0.104 kg (the leaven is
always made from equal proportion of flour and water).
0.298 kg of leaven contains: 0.208/2 = 0.104 kg of water.
The total amount of water in the dough (water, flour, leaven) is: 0.346 + 0.04 =
0.50 l.
The salt required would therefore be: (0.035 x 0.450)/1 = 0.01575 kg that we
round up to 16 g.
During cooking, a bread can lose between 15 and 20 % of its initial weight
through evaporation.
For example, 1.200 kg of dough (water, flour, leaven, salt) gives, after cooking,
a bread weighing a little over 1 kg.
The longer you keep your bread the lighter it will become.
This natural phenomenon is more obvious with small loaves (50 to 500 g),
because they dehydrate faster than large bread (2 kg and more), which is able to hold
its moisture.
We find the same result with both long and round bread, the larger loaves tend
not to dry out as much.
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A little reminder about the quantities used to produce a 1 kg loaf, from
approximately 1.200 kg of dough:
HR is 53 %
346 g (or ml)Water to mix (eau de Coulage)
654 g
Flour
208 g
Leaven
9g
Sea salt
Temperatures
In bread making the temperature is predetermined, you cannot bend the rules. It
is one of the secrets of a well-made bread.
These three temperatures must be controlled:
Room temperature;
Water temperature;
Flour temperature.
The dough will never work better than when its internal temperature is 25 °C.
The framework is then in place to achieve an excellent bread.
The following basic calculation will give you the correct temperature.
Major rule: The base temperature (BT) is equal to 75 °C.
It corresponds to the sum of all temperatures: room, flour and water.
BT = Room T°, Water T°, Flour T°
75°C = 25 °C + 25 °C +25 °C (for 28°C, BT= 84°C)
It is obviously difficult to obtain and maintain such a strict temperature
restriction as stated in the rules.
Knowing this you must always try to take the best decision concerning the
temperatures.
Don't lose sight of the contents, as stated in the major rule, and respect the
characteristics of each element.
You should also keep in mind the following minor rule.
Minor rule: The maximum difference of temperature between flour and water
cannot exceed 15 °C.
This rule remind us that excessive temperatures, low or high, must be avoided.
They block the process of fermentation and stress the ingredients.
It is the water temperature that has to compensate for the flour temperature.
One is easier to heat than the other.
To warm up flour
Fill up a bottle with hot water and seal. Slide it into the flour or pour the flour
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over it.
Do not put the flour in the oven or over a direct fire as you could burn it.
In practice, the best conditions and the best results are obtained with the
following temperatures:
Room T°
26 °C
Flour T°
20 °C
22 °C
Water T°
29 °C
27 °C
BT
75 °C
Room T°
26 °C
Or
Flour T°
22 °C
24 °C
Water T°
36 °C
34 °C
BT
84 °C
Those two examples are very close to each other. They respect all bread
making temperature rules while remaining within the laws of balance.

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The First Bread
Advice and foresight
The art of thorough preparation
Hygiene
To wash your hands and brush your nails, choose a natural product with as
little perfume as possible.
The dough readily absorbs odours, even after rinsing meticulously; the bread
would pick up the smell of your favourite soap.
Use your utensils, cloths and tea towels exclusively for bread making.
To wash, use only hot water, no detergent whatsoever.
Location
Make your bread in a room where the temperature is about 26°C and there is
no draught.
If necessary, on bread day install a floor to ceiling curtain to isolate a small
area of your kitchen and use an auxiliary heater.
Remember that you will have to maintain this temperature as constant as
possible for 4 to 5 hours.
This is the time between the preparation of the leaven and the placing of the
bread in the oven.
There are ways and tricks to preserve the temperature in the FAQ e-book of the
Internet site : www.opain.com
Material
Large salad bowl instead of a kneading trough
Bowl, preferably made of sandstone for the “Starter” leaven
Water thermometer to control all the bread making operations: water, flour,
dough, room…
Measuring jug for the flour and the water
Wooden spatula, rubber spatula and a dough cutter
Clock and timer to check times, for kneading, proving, cooking…
Scale (such as a letter scale, precise to the gram) for the salt
Baking dish from the home kitchen oven
Metallic recipient with a coffee mug capacity, which is oven-proof, or a teapot
of water to produce steam
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Round breadbasket (small basket without a handle made of natural material
like reeds) lined with a doubled thickness of cotton linen mix material for the dough’s
second rising
Flour placed in a bowl that will be used to flour the table, the cloth and the
dough if it becomes too sticky during the manipulation
Fine sieve to sprinkle flour on the dough roll before the cut
Mixture of flour and durum wheat also in a bowl, used to help slide the dough
roll into the oven.
Some cotton / linen mix tea-towels like our grand mothers had, to cover the
leaven, the dough roll and to conserve the bread once it has cooled down
Scoring blade or a scalpel kept in a container of water, used to score the surface
of the dough roll without tearing it
Wooden peel to lever the dough rolls into the oven (a small plank or a piece of
cardboard can do the job).
Heat proof gloves or an oven mitt, old rags will also do
A brush (like a vegetable brush made of coconut fibres) to brush the underside
of the bread.
Ingredients
Water
Use only spring water (not mineral water).
The following is a short list on spring water from various French districts (there are
many others):
Auvergne : Mont-Dore
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Alpes : Montclar, Roche des écrins
Alsace/Vosges : Valon, Carola
Centre : Source des Chesneaux, Terres de Flein.
Ouest : Fiée de Lois, Pierval.
Midi/Corse : Mont Roucous, Rosöe de la Reine, La Provencale.
Nord/Ile-de-France : Saint-Lambert, Chantereine.
Pyrénées : Montcalm, Pyrénéa.
Avoid: Tap water: chlorine is as harmful to sourdough ferments as it is to the
nutritional value of the ingredients.
Distilled water: it certainly has no impurities, but no life either, so it isn't suitable for
bread making.
Flour
To start with, use light whole-wheat organic flour (T 80).
Leave the more sophisticated mixing of different flours for later.
In France the “Biocoop” (local co-ops) and supermarkets that stock organic
food and organic products prefer to use locally produced goods and handicrafts.
They also like to abide by the principals of “Equitable trade”.
You will have no problem finding good quality flour in any of these places.
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The Sea Salt
Use coarse sea salt like the one extracted on the Atlantic coast (Guérande,
Noirmoutier, Île de Ré, Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez…)

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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
You have, up until now, learned (- perhaps had to “unlearn”), accepted or
rejected a philosophy on the art of leaven bread making and its mastering.
Once you have reached this stage, an urgent sense of duty takes over.
You feel the need to live through all the different stages of the bread-making
scene.
At this point I feel I should remind you to always keep the following in mind:
- Deep down inside, you can already see your perfect bread.
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- Your spirit will rise from those finely tuned instruments - your fingertips.
- Finally your bread is born in the making.
All the temperature calculations and the weights and measurements
necessary for a 1 Kg loaf are developed and classified in a previous
paragraph. “The mathematics of bread making with leaven”.

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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
I : The Leaven
Prepare the leaven for your batch of bread two or three hours before kneading
starts. The room temperature should be around 26 °C.
1 – Preparing the leaven.
Take your leaven starter (p. 26) and weigh it.
Using a rubber spatula, take care to transfer all the leaven into the kneading
trough.
Add equal quantities of flour and water, in order to obtain 208 g of leaven for
your bread, plus a small amount for the future “Starter leaven”.
Using a wooden spatula mix together flour, water and leaven, you should now
have between 250 and 300 g of leaven.
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As soon as you have finished mixing, and before doing anything else, take out
the starter.
In the kneading trough, keep only the 208 g required to make the bread.
Keep the other 50 to 100 g in a ceramic bowl. Cover it with a cloth.
This leaven portion doesn’t need to be stored at 26 °C; its evolution will be
slower.
You will need to feed your new starter leaven in about two or three days’ time.
I strongly recommend that you take out your future starter leaven before adding
the salt and not afterwards.
Its strength and individuality will be kept from one bread batch to the next,
regardless of age.
A salted leaven is no longer a starter leaven; it is some sourdough ready for
kneading.
2 – The leaven rising
To get back to the leaven left in the kneading trough: Cover it with a cloth. Let
it develop for about two hours at 26 °C. To start with, you will see bubbles coming to
the surface and bursting, this indicates that the fermentation is actively taking place.
Then it will start rising and will expand until it has doubled in bulk, after that it
will fall like a soufflé.
Observe carefully, as this is the leaven's way of telling you it is time to start
kneading.
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At this stage you should have already dissolved 16 g of coarse sea salt in 346
ml of mixing water heated to between 27 and 29 °C.
Immediately, pour the salty mixing water into the 208 g of leaven. Using the
wooden spatula, mix until the leaven is completely liquid.
Next add the flour, which must be around 20 – 22 °C.

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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
II : The bulk dough
Keep a bowl of flour close by. Get into the habit, when you manipulate the
dough, of always cleaning your hands with a dusting of flour never water…
1 – Manual kneading
Mixing
Using the spatula, blend 654 g of flour into the salty leaven. The mixture starts
to develop.
Plunge your hands into the dough, mix, turn it over and knead in a harmonious
and compassionate way.
Calmly and skilfully, continue mixing, maintaining a flowing motion.
Contact with water causes the gluten proteins and starch granules in the flour to
bind together. The dough forms a tangled elastic mass around your hands. Firm
unbroken pushing and pulling movements give the dough magma a sense of shape.
With care, the dough takes on a smooth and uniform appearance.
This exercise lasts about 5 minutes.
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Stretching (étirage)
Now take the dough with both your hands and lift it.
Breathe out and stand firm, draw your arms outwards and stretch the dough
without tearing it as if you were playing a piano accordion. Return it to the kneading
trough.
Repeat this movement no more than three or four times. This whole operation
should take no more than two minutes.
Resting
Let the dough rest in the kneading trough for ten minutes.
During this time the gluten finishes absorbing the water. The dough stabilizes
its elasticity and flexibility.
Use this time to check the internal temperature, which should be between 25
and 27 °C.
Aerating (soufflage)
It is important to incorporate some air into the dough.
In order to do this, take the ball of dough as if it were a soccer ball: thumb
resting on top, hands directed towards the floor, palms turned inside.
With your fingers, slowly create a cavity in the underside as if you wanted to
turn a pocket inside out.
Once again form a ball to close over the hollow, which will have filled up with
air.
Repeat this process four or five times at the most.
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This should take no longer than two minutes.
You will notice that your dough has increased in volume.
Making the Dough roll
Making the dough roll comes just after the aerating process. This is the last
time you will knead the dough.
It is not advisable to work the dough in depth any more.
Lightly sprinkle flour on your hands and in the kneading trough.
In one minute, and two or three movements, turn the dough into a pretty, soft,
smooth, round ball.
Use your fingers to tuck the edges under, and then pinch them together to make
a tight ball.
Place the dough roll in the mixing trough, sealed side downwards. The sealed
side is the closing point of the ball of dough.
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Cover the dough roll to prevent it from drying and forming a crust.
2– First rising (pointage)
As soon as the dough roll is completed, the fermentation starts. This will
spread over a period of 2 or 3 hours.
It is the first major fermentation of the dough.
It is this period that determines whether the dough roll will develop into a
bread of quality - good taste, aroma and appearance.
A room temperature of 26 °C is crucial at this stage.
Under the effect of lactic and alcoholic fermentation, the gluten strengthens
and the dough gets stronger.
It doubles or even triples in volume. The first rising appears to be an inactive
stage in the process of bread making, but in fact the dough accomplishes a huge
amount of work on its own during this time.
The dough rolls must remain in contact with each other in the kneading trough
so as to work together as a whole.
Naturally for a 1 Kg loaf this is not an issue.
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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
III : Shaping the dough
Lightly flour your hands, the dough roll and the working surface.
Slide your hands flat between the bottom of the dough roll and the kneading
trough.
Take out your dough roll and place it on the floured table.
1 – Shaping (façonnage)
• Weighing (pesée)
This is not necessary for a 1 Kg loaf, as the quantity of dough was calculated to
make only one loaf.
For larger quantities of bread you will have to cut and weigh the pieces of dough
with the dough scraper according to the size of the loaf required.
• Creating a dough roll (boulage)
Gently flatten the dough with the palm of your hands. This will liberate some
of the carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation process.
Now fold the dough back onto itself, so as to trap some air in the dough for the
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last time.
You may now shape it once again into a ball.
Sprinkle flour onto the linen cloth to prevent the dough sticking to it. Lay the
ball in the basket, with the sealed side facing upwards. Fold the cloth loosely over
the dough roll.
This cloth protects the dough roll so that it can rise without restriction and it
also prevents a crust from forming.
This operation shouldn’t take more than 1 minute.
2 – Second rising (proofing – l'apprêt)
This is the second and last fermentation period, the temperature should be
maintained at 26° C.
The dough roll is left to rise in the basket for 1 to 2 hours. It will then go in the
oven to be baked.
The longer the first rising (2 to 3 hours): the shorter the proofing or second
rising (1 h 15 to 1 h 45).
The first rising should be longer than the second, not the other way round.
Bread prepared in this way will be superior.
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25 to 30 minutes before the second rising finishes, preheat the gas or electric
home oven to 250 °C (482 °F, gas mark 9).
The dough roll must not be kept waiting, the temperature of the oven and the
readiness of the dough roll should be synchronized.

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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
IV : From dough to bread
Unfold the cloth covering the top of the dough roll. Leave it in the banneton,
without touching it.
1 – Loading the oven (l'enfournement)
•
Dusting (fleurage)
Using a mixture (prepared in advance) of equal amounts of durum semolina
and flour, dust the visible part of the dough roll.
The semolina-flour mix acts like a roller bearing between the peel and the
dough roll.
When the time comes to put the bread in the oven it will slide with no risk of
sticking to the peel.
•
Transfer to the peel
Place the peel flat on the proofed loaf, still in its basket.
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With one hand hold the peel firmly, then place your other hand under the
basket.
With one generous quick flexible movement flip the basket over.
Place everything on the table, then carefully lift the basket off and remove the
cloth.
You should take great care not to knock or touch the proofed loaf. Laying on
the peel, in its uncovered and unprotected state the proofed loaf is extremely
sensitive.
Even though it is perfectly normal, in fact inevitable, that it spreads slightly
you don’t want to find yourself with a loaf that looks like a pancake.
As soon as the basket has been removed, using a fine sieve, lightly sprinkle the
smooth topside of the proofed loaf with flour.
• Scoring (la coupe)
Scoring well done is both aesthetic and useful. By creating some openings you
allow the steam to escape to the surface of the dough. It channels the release of
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the carbon dioxide and avoids the formation of disorganized and unattractive
ruptures in the crust.
It has an important impact on the success of the baking process.
Score the proofed loaf while it is still on the peel. Use a scalpel or a doubleedged razor blade, which will have been placed in a glass of water ready for use.
To make a successful cut, you mustn’t hesitate; execute a clean direct slash.
This is achieved by laying the blade on the proofed loaf, with the sharp edge on
a slant.
The depth of the cut should be proportional to the maturity of the dough and
the stage of fermentation it has reached.
For a well developed proofed loaf, which has gone over its proofing time,
make a shallow cut. For an underdeveloped proofed loaf, which hasn’t had enough
proofing, the cut will naturally be deeper.
In an ideal situation, which, I might add, does occur, cut with moderate
pressure.
The cuts must cover the entire upper surface of the proofed loaf.
Start with a classical cut: cross, star, lightning, and half moon, as shown in the
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photos below.
Just as it is normal to visualize your cut before doing it, it is crucial that it is
carried out in a spontaneous and decisive manner.
The proofed loaf on the peel cannot allow itself to wait for an eventual
inspiration as this could result in a catastrophic and irreparable collapse of the dough.
This is the reason why the cut is the reflection of the baker’s art and spirit.
With time and experience, you will create your own design.
Your own style will eventually take over.
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Put in the oven (enfournement)
Thanks to the dusting the proofed loaf slides on the peel without sticking, to
end up in the oven. Unfortunately, sometimes, it ends up on the ground, and then it is
‘Bye Bye beautiful bread!’
To put the loaves in the oven you must move in perfect coordination. From
head to toe your whole body is participating, so be focused, yet relaxed.
Using a balanced, flexible motion, stay in control. Guide the proofed loaf onto
the peel as far as possible inside the oven and decide on its final place.
Give the peel a short sharp jerk from front to back. Let the proofed loaf slide
onto the oven hearth. Promptly but always with gentleness pull the peel back towards
you.
Immediately afterwards, close the oven door.
If the proofed loaf was wrongly placed, do not attempt to rectify this
immediately.
This is not possible.
As soon as it touches the hot floor of the oven, a suction effect starts and makes
the bread immovable for at least ten minutes.
If you really must change the position of the bread, do so only after ten
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minutes, always keeping in mind that each time you open the oven door you lose
precious heat needed for baking.
Once the bread is cooked, it is no longer necessary to keep the room
temperature at 26 ° C.
When it first comes out of the hot oven, a warm room is recommended so as
not to shock the bread.
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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
2 – Baking
This is the moment you have been waiting for: the dough is about to change
into bread. Heat and humidity; humidity and heat.
These two elements have exclusive authority over the cooking procedure.
Their two actions are closely linked and their effects overlap.
Clasped in an eternal embrace the fire and water create significant changes as
they modify the interior of the bread.
• Some of the water contained in the dough evaporates. The bread “skin”
strengthens to become a resistant crust. The starch gels to form a springy,
wide-open crumb, looking something like a honeycomb.
• Another part of the water combines with the dough starch, and becomes
concentrated on the surface of the loaf. The sugar contained within
caramelises and gives the crust its first golden tinge.
• The remaining water is stored in the cells and is vital in keeping the bread
correctly hydrated, assuring a well-cooked bread that will keep. Once your
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bread is in the oven, do not alter the oven setting of 250 °C (487 °F, mark 9).
Only in the last ten minutes, after the half turn of the bread, and only if the
oven is looking really too hot, may you turn the thermostat down slightly.
The cooking time for a 1 Kg loaf is normally 40 to 45 minutes. This time can
change noticeably depending on the type of oven used.
Steam
The concept of using steam in bread making is a secret carefully guarded by
those in the trade.
This mist of steam makes a significant difference. Without it even a wellcooked bread will appear dull and pale.
With steam, the crust becomes golden and shiny.
This extra water, when it lands on the dough, takes on the role of helping to
caramelise the sugar. The crust starts to take on a tarnished copper aspect.
It is that little “plus” which for a long time was reserved for the professionals.
The thin layer that covers the proofed loaf enhances the cut. It intensifies its
outline and it acquires some relief. Once cooked, the bread has its own authentic
stamp - its own “Grigne”. The “Grigne” is a French word for the ears of crisp crust
created by the blooming of the loaf along the slash marks.
To be effective, the steam must be present during the first minutes that the
proofed loaf enters the oven.
With the oven door slightly ajar, pour cold water from a teapot into a metallic
dish and then quickly close the oven door to stop the steam escaping.
Alternatively you can fill a metallic recipient with ice cubes and place in a hot
meat dish just after the proofed loaf has been put in the oven (a non-metallic recipient
wouldn’t resist the sudden change of temperature).
Under no circumstances put water directly on the proofed loaf.
It would contract, lose some of its volume and a massive untimely release of
carbon dioxide would occur.
A fine mist of water diffused in the hot space of the oven and not on the loaf
skin respects the very nature and sensitivity of the proofed loaf. The steam is
sufficient to soften the external cell walls.
The carbon dioxide can then push outwards without encountering resistance.
The dough swells freely.
The bread’s half turn
After 20 to 25 minutes cooking, the colour of the bread starts to change and it
becomes a rich golden brown.
The heat in an oven is seldom evenly dispersed. After the bread has been
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cooking for 30 minutes, change its position.
Rotate the side nearest the door to the back of the oven. Always use the peel or
a set of gloves, because the crust will be burning hot - close to 200 °C.
3 – Taking the bread out
After baking for 40 to 45 minutes, the bread will be a perfect golden brown
colour, and thoroughly cooked.
You just have to take it out of the oven.
This instant is a sight to behold, something to celebrate and enjoy together.
Using the peel and gloves, extract the bread from the oven and put it on the
table.
Close the oven door to keep in the heat.
Verify that your bread is correctly cooked before turning off the thermostat.
With a gloved hand, hold the bread upright with one side resting on the table.
With your other hand, not gloved, knock the underside of your bread with your
knuckles as if you were discreetly knocking on a door.
A cooked loaf replies with a hollow sound echoing from within.
If this is the case, you may now switch your oven off. The bread is cooked.
On the other hand, if there is no answer - only a dull heavy sound immediately return your bread to the oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Then take it out and
knock again. The sound should now be right, and the bread cooked. You can switch
the oven off.
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When you make your first bread there is always that concern that you may
overcook it. Don’t mistake a dark coloured crust for an overcooked bread.
Short of burning it, it is better when in doubt to take the risk of overcooking
rather than under doing your bread. If it is cooked a little too much you will still be
able to eat it. On the other hand an uncooked bread is not fit for consumption.
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Bread making day
Bread fabrication
Brushing (brossage)
After the knocking comes the brushing of the bread.
Keep the loaf in the same position, on its side, slightly tilted and with the rough
side towards the exterior.
With a hard brush made of vegetable fibre, vigorously rub the underside of the
bread.
The flour and durum wheat dusting mix that is stuck or burnt onto the bread is
brushed off and your bread is left clean.
4 – The Cooling down
Once cooked, the bread will slowly awaken over a period of 4 to 6 hours.
During this time it sweats and loses its moisture. It is important that the period
after baking takes place in the very room where the bread was born and baked. This
room has to be free from draughts but well ventilated.
Verified-knocked, cleaned-brushed, carefully place your bread upright on a
shelf.
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When the bread comes out of the oven it is extremely hard and burning hot.
The crust, surprised by the difference of temperature, gives off small but
perceptible cracking noises. Then the crust softens with the evaporation of water.
As the cooling down progresses the bread starts to become crusty.
Still hot and fragile, the bread can deform or flatten out, if not properly
shelved.
It still needs to breathe from as many exposed surfaces as possible.
As long as it is not completely cold, carbon dioxide continues to escape from
the small cavities in the bread, to be replaced by the surrounding air.
Make sure that once on the shelf, the air can circulate freely around the loaf.
Give the bread time to cool down. Some people are over eager to eat the bread
while still hot and full of moisture. By being greedy you get what you deserve, a
stomach full of carbon dioxide and that heavy feeling that goes with it. Though our
nostrils and taste buds find hot bread delicious, it should only be eaten cold.
Once the cooling is over, you have the freedom to choose without
compromising your health: cold, reheated or toasted.
It is interesting to note that the longer the bread takes to cool the longer it will
keep.
One of the criteria for quality bread is its ability to have a prolonged shelf life
without loosing any of its goodness.
Ageing, storing and sampling (Rassissement, conservation et dégustation)
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After the cooling down, the ageing process, which is a perfectly normal
phenomenon, begins.
It is a sign of a good quality bread – a living bread.
With time, the amount of moisture in the bread drops and, although
evaporation does continue, it is slowed down considerably.
The crust is no longer crunchy and crisp, instead its previously stretched skin
becomes soft and wrinkly.
The crumb dries and starts crumbling. Slowly the bread begins to break up and
become hard.
To reach this stage it would take quite a few days for a natural leaven bread,
which has been hand made with natural, healthy ingredients and the correct
conservation procedures.
For example a 4 kg bread will still delight an educated customer after two or
three weeks.
Taste-wise these breads are not at their peak just after cooling.
A 1 kg loaf is at its best after 2 days, it takes 3-4 days for a 2 kg, 5-6 days for a
3 kg and one week for a 4 kg.
The main ageing factor for bread is the evaporation of its moisture.
As a general rule three factors are responsible:
1. The bread shape. A round loaf will keep better than a long loaf.
2. Weight and volume. A large loaf will keep fresher than a small loaf.
3. The humidity level of the air in which the bread is kept.
The over heating which dries and stales the atmosphere of our living areas,
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contributes to and accelerates the ageing process. On the other hand too humid an
atmosphere will encourage the growth of mould.
Some of the early ageing is caused by poor bread making skills. They can
easily be corrected, it is just a matter of not repeating the same mistakes.
The most common mistakes are:
• the mixing water being too hot;
• not enough salt;
• too firm dough caused by over handling;
• the dough not being left to rise long enough;
• the bread being left in cool storage.
Your bread will have a longer shelf life if it is well balanced. This means: not
too covered, nor completely naked; neither too cold, nor too hot; not too dry, nor too
humid; out of the draught, but in the fresh air.
Once cooked the cooled down bread continues to live. In a plastic bag it would
quickly asphyxiate.
The bread will age best in a cotton-linen bag.
The natural fibres act as a filter and reduce its contact with the air outside, at
the same time allowing it to breathe.
The cotton-linen mix is perfectly suited to this task.
The closeness of the weave acts in such a way as to hold in just enough of the
humidity expelled by the bread.
It is comforted by the micro-climate that exists in the bag.
Its qualities are preserved, prolonged and intensified until it finally becomes
completely hard.
If you wish to help keep your bread fresh for as long as possible always cut the
cob loaf a quarter at a time, this way it maintains its identity and keeps its volume and
freshness much longer.
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Choose a knife without a serrated edge for example a butcher’s knife.
The blade will cut without tearing the crumb.
The rest of the bread will be kept intact and last longer.
The clean-cut slices will be aesthetically pleasing and could be cut
thinner if wished...
Remember to put the bread back in the cotton-linen bag after every meal and
leave it on the table, as this is possibly the place that it feels most comfortable.
To care for the cloth simply wash it in boiling water, brush it and hang it out to
dry. No soap or washing detergent please! It will absorb the perfume and transfer it
to the bread.
No cold water rinsing or ironing either, the fibres would shrink or stretch.
The material’s capacity to breath would be altered so that the bread would find
itself in unsuitable temperatures and storage conditions.
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A brief look at deep freezing bread
The bread ageing process is slowed down when the bread is on the hot side,
between + 60 to 100 °C or on the cold side below – 7 °C.
On the other hand it is accelerated and very active between + 3 to – 7 °C.
To properly freeze bread it should:
1 - pass from + 3 to - 7 °C as quickly as possible
2 - quickly freeze right through to a temperature of between - 20 to - 25 °C
3 - then stabilize and be kept at between - 15 and - 20 °C.
Nowadays, only some professional deep freezers allow the possibility to do
this.
The standard deep freeze doesn’t guarantee the home-owner this option.
Keep in mind that, even in the best conditions, the bread, while defrosting,
would once again be exposed to the damaging range of temperatures from -7 to + 3 °
C.
As far as I am concerned, freezing bread is beyond comprehension. .
Why try to preserve a product which, when properly made, can stay naturally
alive for a long period of time.
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Overall view on bread making
1 kg bread
Dough Stage
Baker at work
Processing
Nature at work
Time
Leaven
1
Prepare leaven for the
batch of bread
5 minutes
Leaven rising
2 hours
The dough in bulk
1
Manual kneading:
Mixing
Stretching
Dough resting:
Aerating
Dough rolling
Shaped dough
1
Shaping:
Weighing
Making balls
Shaping
1 – Loading the oven
Dusting
Putting on the peel
Sprinkling flour
Scoring
Into the oven
Bread dough
L
A
2
20 minutes Fermentation:
First fermentation
in the kneading
trough
2 minutes
2
Proofing
Second
fermentation of
the shaped dough
in the basket(s)
2 to 3
hours
1 to 2
hours
P
E
T
R
I
S
S
É
E
2 minutes
C
U
45
minutes
I
S
1 minute
S
4 – Cooling down
After baking
Total cooling
A
F
O
U
L
A
2 –Baking
Add steam
Bread 180 ° turn
in the oven
3 - Taking out
Knocking
Brushing
L
O
4 to 6
hours
R
N
É
E
N
It is interesting to note how baker and nature take turns to work on the bread.
Regardless of the number of loaves to be made, the times of direct intervention change only according to the
amount of dough prepared (leaven preparation, kneading, shaping, putting in and getting out of the oven).
The times of non-intervention stay constant (leaven rising, fermentation of the bulked dough, shaped dough
fermentation, cooling down).
The baking itself is the only step where human intervention and a lot of natures work overlap and merge.
The baking time may vary a little according to the weight of the dough and the type of oven used.
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Fabrication table
For bread from 1 kg to 4 kg
1kg Cooked
Bread
1,5kg Cooked
Bread
2kg Cooked
Bread
3kg Cooked
Bread
4kg Cooked
Bread
HR
53,00%
53,00%
53,00%
53,00%
53,00%
WATER
0,350
0,500
0,660
0,950
1,250
FLOUR
0,650
0,943
1,245
1,792
2,358
LEAVEN
0,208
0,300
0,396
0,570
0,750
DOUGH
1,206
1,743
2,301
3,312
4,358
SEA SALT
0,009
0,013
0,017
0,025
0,033
Reminder
If it is practical, round numbers off with a few grams difference up or down for the
mixing water, the flour and the leaven, but you must never do it for salt.
To remember properly the sequence of gestures and the timing for a batch of bread,
stay in the 1 kg or 1,5 kg range and use T 80 flour. Those weights and this type of
flour will facilitate the learning experience and the results.
Once at ease with the procedure you can start, if you wish, to produce a 2 kg from
a combination of flours.
Then, if the size of your oven permits (a normal home oven can cook a 2 kg
maximum), discover the 3 and 4 kg (be aware of the much longer cooking time
required for these loaves).
The Flour Mixes
The ideal bread flour mix is: whole-wheat (T 110), light whole-wheat (T 80
known as bise in France) and rye.
It allows you to consume it on a permanent basis. It should be the mix for the
homemade bread of our time.
Mix type and quantities:
62.5 % of light whole-wheat flour (T 80)
25 % of wholemeal flour (T 110)
12.5% of rye flour (T 130)
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If you feel more at ease using the standard metric cup (125 g) to measure
quantities you will obtain 1 kg of bread flour from the following mix:
2.5 cups of light whole-wheat flour (T 80)
1 cup of wholemeal flour (T 110)
0.5 cup of rye flour (T 130)
Light whole-wheat flour (T 80) is the balanced flour. Being neither in excess
nor deficient, light whole-wheat has all the nutritional qualities of wheat.
Malleable and well performing, it is the easiest flour to use in bread making.
The whole-wheat flour (T 110) is much richer in wheat’s vital elements.
Its presence, though not in large amounts, brings the advantage of
concentration to the mixture while avoiding the possible inconvenience for sensitive
people who can find whole-wheat flour quite aggressive.
It would, nevertheless, be sad not to take advantage of its many contributions
to good health.
As for rye flour, it complements the two previous flours perfectly.
Its legendary gentle digestive and laxative qualities are very real.
In small quantities, it gives the bread a subtle perfume and taste of walnuts.
In larger proportions, it brings out the rudimentary delights of life at a time
when we were close to the earth and the fields.
From this comes the perfume and taste of “pain de campagne”.
This mixture can vary according to preference, age, needs…
For example it is perfectly possible to obtain a flour in harmony with the
rhythm of the seasons. You just have to change the proportions slightly while
respecting the mixing volumes and the composition.
Mix for the solstice
Winter: 2 volumes T 80, 1 and 3/4 volume T 110 and 1/4 volume rye T 130.
Summer: 2 volumes T 80, 1 volume T 110 and 1 volume rye T 130.
Mix for the equinox
Autumn: 2 volumes T 80, 1 and 1/2 volume T 110 and 1/2 volume rye T 130.
Spring: 2 volumes T 80, 1 and ¼ volume T 110 and ¾ volume rye T 130.
Those subtle and limitless variations create flour mixes with energy: values
that will either warm or refresh you.
This is something that connoisseurs recognise, look for and appreciate.
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The wood bread oven
Very old or very modern, basic or sophisticated, genuine wood ovens all have
one thing in common: bread cooks superbly in them.
Such ovens have a common origin of construction based on mathematics, rules
and ratios; they are established with wisdom (just like Fours Grand-mère).
The gradual cooling and heat conduction are important factors in baking bread
in a wood oven.
After heating the oven hearth, arch and interior walls it will slowly return its
stored heat. The temperature will level out to provide an ideal atmosphere: hot,
intense and stable.
Nearly all the heat required to bake bread comes from the oven hearth.
A wood oven is by far the most technical of all bread ovens. It is also the most
uplifting.
When under the arch the fairy flames play, dance, and slide in colourful
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arabesques.
When the small logs of ash, beech, pine or fir sing with their perfumed ambers.
Orange, blue, silver, this extraordinary sound-perfume and light leads us by the
hands to a lucid and peaceful space: a time of calm complicity between man and
nature.
How to improve a home oven while waiting
to build or buy a wood oven.
Making a brick oven hearth
Fix a steel frame onto the oven grill. It should be 10 cm narrower than the grill
(5 cm on each side).
The heat must be able to circulate in an oven: around the top and the underside
of the hearth.
Place standard red building bricks on the grill within the frame. I recommend
size 230 mm x 115 mm x 75 mm and not refractory.
Do not use refractory bricks. They contain
too much alumina for baking bread. The
bottom of the bread would be burnt or hard,
long before it started to cook.
Piece the bricks together dry; without grout or
spacing.
Your oven hearth is ready. You have just to
slide it into your home oven on bread baking
days.
Thanks to this simple but efficient
modification, your bread will be cooked by
heat conduction in a falling temperature.
How to use it
Once the grill has been installed, preheat the oven to 250 °C (487 °F, mark 9),
for approximately 1 hour. This is the time required for the bricks to absorb the
heat needed to cook the bread.
When ready, put the bread in the oven. Leave the oven at 250 °C for ten
minutes in order to compensate for the heat lost when the door was opened to
introduce the bread.
Now turn the thermostat down to mark 4 or 5 (180 / 190 °C) until the cooking
is over. It is the heat given out by the oven hearth that will cook the bread. It is
therefore not necessary to heat the oven to its maximum.
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Do not forget the water for the steam, nor the bread's half turn.
Apart from the brick hearth adaptation, the preheating time and the modified
cooking temperature, all the other steps: preparation, cooking and cooling remain
unchanged.
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Bread... with a difference
On festive days, lazy mornings, for blissful afternoon teas, at any time… just enjoy.
The bread comes disguised, hiding within, delicious surprises.
The fantasy breads are prepared following the same method as the 1 Kg.
Only a few steps require special
attention and specific intervention
according to the ingredients
introduced.
The presence of products that do
not belong to classical bread
make the dough different.
To give it a chance to cook right
through, it is advisable to make
small breads and to use
exclusively light whole-wheat
flour (T 80).
For the same reason the moisture
content is slightly increased, the
ideal HR (hydration ratio) being
55 %.
To make the following types of bread, once again use the same method as for
the 1 Kg bread after rectifying the points indicated in each recipe.
The quantities for each preparation correspond to a 1 Kg cooked bread, to be
made into two 500 g loaves or five small 200 g breads.
Chapter III – Shaped Dough
1 – Shaping (le façonnage)
Weighing: split the dough either in two, or five portions.
Creating a dough roll: Follow your imagination, give your small breads an
interesting and decorative shape, as a ball, elongated (French sticks), as a
crown or plaited. Place them sealed side up in their baskets.
If baskets are not available, put the small breads in between the folds of a
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cotton-linen cloth, which will have the appearance of a piano accordion.
Keep close together to preserve their shape and to stop them spreading and
flattening out. Cover, to protect them while proofing.
Chapter IV - From dough to bread – Loading the oven (enfournement)
Don’t flour the top of the proofed loaf when it is on the peel. The fantasy
ingredients along with the scoring are the dominant decorative elements.
Cooking: whether you have chosen to make two or five breads always cook
them together.
Cooling: place the bread flat on a wire rack to cool. The smaller breads lose
their moisture and cool down faster, approximately 1 hour.
Note: Originally, the French stick (baguette), which today is the symbol of
French bread, was nothing more than a fantasy bread.
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RizÔpain - (RiceÔbread)
This bread with rice added is delicious. It is a successful pact between the
cereals from the rising sun and the falling sun.
Ingredients for two 500 g loaves:
300 ml water
545 g light whole-wheat flour (T 80)
180 g natural leaven
7 g salt
60 g organic short grain brown and white rice mixed together
For the RiceÔbread, the amount of salt per litre of water is half the usual
quantity.
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7 g of salt for 300 ml of water is the correct amount for this particular recipe.
The day before baking
Cook the 60 g of rice in water. As rice triples in volume while cooking, you
will end up with approximately 180 g. Drain off the water and leave to cool.
On baking day
Chapter II – The bulk dough
Combine the ingredients in the following order: dissolve the salt in the water,
add it to the leaven, then incorporate the cooked rice and finally the flour.
Return to the 1 Kg procedure.
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Chapter III – ( Shaping the dough
1 - Shaping
Because the RiceÔbread dough is stickier, it is recommended to cook it in a mould.
The wooden mould (like Panibois) made of natural materials is a light structure
lined with greaseproof paper making it perfectly adapted to this task.
After the final aeration the dough is shaped to fit the mould that will
accompany it to the oven.
Once shaped, put the dough rolls, sealed side down in the mould with a cloth to
cover it during the proofing.
Chapter IV – (From dough to bread)
1 – Loading the oven (enfournement)
Remove the cloth (couche) covering the proofed loaves.
It is not necessary to dust and place the bread on the peel.
Without using flour proceed directly to the scoring.
Put the moulds in the oven by hand.
Cooking time for the two loaves is about 55 minutes at 250 °C.
Cook for approximately 45 minutes, then take the moulds out of the oven and
remove the bread from the moulds.
Return the loaves to the oven for 10 minutes.
This way the underside will finish cooking, harden and take on a rich and
golden glow.
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Ôpaintimarron
This festive bread will always surprise you by its taste and colour.
Not forgetting to mention the linseeds, which give it an appealing glitter.
Ingredients for two 500 g loaves.
300 ml water.
This calculation is simply used as a reference to work out the quantities of
leaven, flour and salt.
In this recipe it is the potimarron‘s flesh (Potimarron from the cucurbitaceous
family is also known as Hokkaido squash or Red Kuri), which will replace part of the
water so you will only need about a quarter of a glass of water to dissolve the salt.
16 g salt
2 tablespoons linseeds
One egg yoke for the glaze.
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It is difficult to recommend a precise weight of squash (potimarron) for this
recipe as the consistency of its flesh varies from one cooking session to
another. Because you are going to use the skin always choose an organic
squash between 1.5 to 1.8 kg.
Prepare the potimarron: clean it and scoop out the seeds.
Leave the skin on and cut into 2 cm by 2 cm cubes.
Cook over a low heat with a little water and a tablespoon of olive oil.
The pieces of squash should keep their shape and be neither too hard nor
mushy.
Sieve and leave to cool down at room temperature.
On baking day
Chapter I – The leaven
The leaven should have now doubled in size.
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Dissolve the 16 g of salt in a quarter of a glass of lukewarm water, and add it to
the leaven.
Incorporate some of the warmed potimarron, it should be between 27 and
29°C.
Mix thoroughly.
Add alternatively small amounts of flour and potimarron until there is no flour
left.
Use your own discretion as to how much potimarron you add, remembering
that the resulting dough must be firm, homogeneous and not sticky.
Stretch it a little and proceed as for the 1 kg bread.
Chapter IV - From dough to bread
After dusting and setting on the peel don’t flour the topside of the bread as you
want to glaze it.
With a pastry brush dipped in egg yoke diluted with a little water, brush the
smooth and visible side of the proofed loaves.
Sprinkle with linseeds (about a tablespoon per proofed loaf). Then score the
loaves immediately.
Cooking time: 35 to 40 minutes for the two loaves at 250 °C.
You may enjoy this bread not only on the day of baking but also over the next
few days, or toasted for a real treat.

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ÔpainKrout (CrustyÔbread)
This is the only bread that can be eaten hot, straight out of the oven without
risking an upset stomach.
This crusty bread, without crumb, does have one disadvantage (if you see it
that way) in that it hardens quickly.
Its appeal is in no doubt linked to the desire to eat it immediately.
Ingrained in our subconscious, the smell and taste of hot bread evokes intense
feelings of joy and well-being.
This unrivalled sense of pleasure is traditionally prepared with 100 to 150 g of
dough leftover from a batch of loaves.
You would have to have an insatiable appetite to consider making a batch of
CrustyÔbread knowing that its shelf life is limited.
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Chapter III - Shaping the dough
1 – Shaping
When you have several loaves to bake you will frequently find yourself with
100 g to 150 g of leftover dough, this is used to create a miniature loaf.
Make a ball with this small quantity ready for proofing.
Go through the dusting process and transfer this small ball to the peel.
While still on the peel flatten it with a rolling pin until you reach a thickness of 1.5
cm.
Don’t flour the top.
Immediately create a square scoring pattern, being careful not to cut through
the thickness of the dough.
Put it in the oven.
Cooking time: 35 minutes at 250 °C.
It is delicious served with jam, honey, chocolate, ham, cheese, European
sausage…
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Seed and Spiced Bread
For those special moments serve individual dinner rolls or dipping breads.
Whether they are served with an aperitif, a cheese board, or as an entrée, their
presence is always greatly appreciated.
Seeds used: sesame, poppy, aniseed, sunflower, caraway, nigella…
Spices used: cinnamon, cardamom…
The quantity of dough required for five small 200 g rolls is identical to that of a
1 kg bread.
Have available:
8 to 10 tablespoons sesame seeds
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3 to 4 tablespoons poppy seeds
2 to 3 tablespoons aniseeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 to 2 teaspoons cardamom
Those quantities can be modified according to your taste and culinary habits.
You have two options for these breads: flavour only the inside, or both the
inside and outside.
Flavour the outside
Sprinkle the seeds or spices on the surface of the bread.
For the seeds
1 – Shaping
After the balls have been shaped and before putting them in the linen cloth for
proofing, roll them in a bowl of seeds of your choice. This way they will stay
attached to the dough.
For the spices
Chapter IV - From dough to bread - Loading the oven
Once the proofed loaf is placed on the peel, sprinkle it with the spices of your
choice and proceed with the scoring.
Flavour the inside and outside
Chapter II - The bulk dough
Add a small amount of seeds or a little spice to the flour.
Mix well together before adding it to the salty leaven.
Cooking time: Place the five small breads together in the oven.
Leave for 25 to 30 minutes at 250 °C.

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Special small sweet and savoury breads
With dried fruits: fig, apricot, currant, date, walnut, almond, hazel nut…
With fish: salmon, sardine, octopus…
With meat: chicken, pieces of streaky bacon….
With vegetables: onion, capsicum, carrot, green peas, tomato, olives,
mushroom…
The quantities for five small 200 g dinner rolls are identical to the 1 kg bread,
to which you add:
6 tablespoons of organic sunflower oil
5 rounded tablespoons of your chosen ingredients cut in small pieces.
Remember to take into account the extra liquid the oil provides and remove six
tablespoons of water.
Fish, meat, vegetables…
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Dice them finely.
Place all ingredients in a frying pan and gently sauté with a little olive oil.
Add seasoning: pepper, salt, curcuma (white turmeric), coriander and mint
according to your taste.
Leave to cool.
Dried fruits…
Finely chop all dried fruits except for the currants.
Lightly grill high oil content seeds in a dry pan, this way they will be easier to
digest.
Leave to cool.
When cool place 5 heaped tablespoons of your chosen ingredients in a bowl.
Add 6 tablespoons of sunflower oil and leave to soak.
Baking day
Chapter II – Bulk dough
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Incorporate the high oil content ingredients to either the salty leaven just before
you add the flour, or to the dough after the first resting (10 minutes) and just before
aerating.
Take great care to mix the ingredients evenly through the dough.
The oil in the dough makes the manipulation of the dough more difficult.
Add a little flour if necessary but avoid adding too much.
Make sure you respect the time allocated for each operation.
The presence of oil forces you to put more effort into your gestures but this
shouldn’t result in a longer kneading period.
Then proceed as usual.
Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes at 250 °C for all small loaves.
Watch carefully, as the oil has a tendency to brown them very quickly.
This doesn’t necessarily mean they are cooked.
Variations: Be creative! Try different combinations.
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ZestÔpain
(ZestyÔbread)
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A very special small bread!
To make this bread you need to eat some nice organic oranges as you are going
to use their skins. Before they become dried out remove the bitter white pith leaving
the orange zest.
Cut the zest in small pieces.
Leave it to dry in the sun or in a falling oven.
Then put it in a paper bag and store in a dry well ventilated place.
To make five small orange loaves
Place five tablespoons of dried orange zest in a pot containing a little water and
two tablespoons of honey. Cook over a very low heat until the zest becomes candied.
Leave to cool. Mix in six tablespoons of sunflower oil. Leave to soak.
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Baking day
Cooking time: 25 to 30 minutes at 250 °C for all small loaves.
Watch carefully as oil has a tendency to brown them very quickly.
This doesn’t necessarily mean they are cooked.
This small round loaf is really delicious, you will very quickly discover what to
serve with it. Naturally anything on the sweet side goes down well, but why not try
something savoury like hot goat's cheese…

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ÔpainFourré (StuffedÔBread)
This is an exceptional bread for important occasions.
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To make three loaves of about 330 gm each the procedure and quantities
(mixing water, flour, leaven, salt) are identical to the 1 Kg bread.
While the dough is in the first stage of fermentation ( Chapter II - The bulk
dough) prepare the following stuffing.
Cut 1.8 kg of pealed and cored apples into small cubes.
Sauté in 100 g of butter until golden.
Remove from the heat and mix in:
350 g of dried currants;
150 g of raw sugar;
150 g of ground walnuts.
Grill lightly in a dry fry pan:
50 g of walnuts;
50 g of pine nuts.
Leave to cool before adding to the stuffing.
Lastly mix in two tablespoons of cinnamon.
-1 – Shaping
After weighing, form into balls and flatten each portion of dough with a rolling
pin until you reach a thickness of 1.5 cm.
You should obtain a dough strip longer than it is wide.
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Choose from the 2 following options:
- Rolls
Moisten the four sides of the dough rectangle with a pastry brush which has
been dipped in a little water.
Spread a good layer of the stuffing on the surface of the dough.
Roll up dough and stuffing in a single move.
Gently press together the two extremities of the roll.
Check carefully each end is properly sealed.
- Plaited loaves
With the long side of the rectangle of dough facing you, take the dough scrape
to cut strands on the outer extremities of the dough as shown in the picture.
Place the stuffing in the centre along the length of the dough.
Fold the strands of dough over the stuffing, and plait together without leaving
any spaces.
Proofing
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Place the dough roll or plaited dough roll on greaseproof paper or between the
folds of an unrefined linen or cotton cloth.
Cover with a cloth.
No scoring is required, the stuffing will spread and create its own openings.
Place the loaves on baking parchment paper (greaseproof paper) and put in the
oven to cook.
Cooking time: 35 to 40 minutes for the three loaves at 250 °C.

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Le Grallé
(Hallôbread)
Enjoy this soft bread, which is a cross between a bread and a brioche.
Quantities for 1.650 kg of dough to make two 800 g loaves.
350 ml water
23 g salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons sesame seeds:
1 egg
1 egg yoke for the glaze
Follow the same steps as for the 1 kg bread.
Chapter I - The leaven
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When the leaven has doubled in bulk, dissolve the 23 g of salt in the 350 ml of
water at a temperature of between 27 and 29 °C.
Pour the salty water on the leaven.
Add the three tablespoons of olive oil and the egg to the leaven and salty water,
mix well.
1 - Manual kneading
Continue to mix while adding in the 850 g of flour.
Follow the 1 kg bread procedure.
Chapter IV – From dough to bread
Don't flour the proofed dough once on the peel.
Use a pastry brush and egg yoke diluted in a little water to glaze the top of each
proofed loaf.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Score and load the loaves into the oven.
Cooking time: 35 minutes at 250 °C for all the loaves.
The Hallôbread
fresh or toasted is outstanding with “foie gras”.
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CroissÔpain et ChocÔpain
(CoissÔbread and ChocÔbread)
How to enjoy crisp flaky bread. This recipe makes five eight or ten small rolls.
Follow the calculations, ingredients and method for a 1 kg bread, add 80 to 100
g of butter shavings and a handful of chocolate drops.
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Chapter III - Shaped Dough
1 – Shaping
Weigh either five 200 g, eight 150 g or ten 100 g pieces of dough.
Using a rolling pin flatten each portion of dough into a rectangular shape about
1 cm thick.
Dot half of the surface with butter shavings. Fold the dough in half so the
butter is sealed inside.
Repeat this process three times (again flattening the dough in a rectangular
shape dotting with butter folding and rolling).
For the CroissÔbread
Once you have incorporated all the butter, roll out the dough into a triangular
shape.
Using a pastry brush and a little lukewarm water moisten the sides of the
triangle.
Roll up the dough with a single gesture.
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For the ChocÔbread
Once the butter is incorporated, roll out the dough into a rectangular shape
Brush the whole surface with a little lukewarm water.
Sprinkle liberally with chocolate drops.
Roll it up.
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Verify that the dough roll seams are
firmly sealed.
Place the rolls between the folds of
a linen cloth (couche) for the
second rising.
When loading onto the peel,
give a croissant shaped curve to the
proofed rolls to obtain some CroissÔbreads.
The ChocÔbreads should stay as they are. Load them into the oven without
flouring or scoring.
Cooking time: 30 minutes for all the rolls at 250°C.
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The Gran’zza
Bread dough and filling for the Gran’zza (Pizza).
There exists amidst the many culinary preparations, the one course meal.
This dish is capable of awakening all your senses.
We breathe it, we listen to it, we admire it, we taste it, our fingers carry it and finally
we eat it.
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It is, indeed, the basis of fast food, nevertheless it is important that it is also
harmonious, true and balanced.
Quantities required for three Gran’zza (1.560 kg of dough):
HR = 54 %
450 ml water
840 g light whole-wheat flour T 80
12 g salt
11 tablespoons olive oil:
Have ready three 32 cm diameter oven trays.
Prepare the dough following the procedure for the 1 kg bread.
Mixing: add the olive oil, just before the flour.
Weighing: split the dough in three equal portions, then make three dough balls ready
for proofing.
At the end of the second rising:
using a rolling pin flatten each ball of dough to a thickness of 2 cm with a
diameter of 30 cm.
Mist the trays with a little sunflower oil.
Place the disks of dough on the trays.
Spread the filling evenly.
Immediately load into the oven.
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Filling suggestions
Preparing tomato sauce for two Gran’zza
500 g whole pealed tomatoes in their juice
200 g tomato concentrate
2 onions
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 glass of water
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon aniseeds
3 whole cloves
2 laurel leaves (bay leaves)
Thyme or marjoram
Salt and pepper
In a shallow saucepan, fry the thinly sliced onions, coriander seeds and cloves in a
tablespoon of olive oil until they are soft and transparent.
Then add all other ingredients as follows:
The whole tomatoes and the concentrate.
The two tablespoons of olive oil.
A pinch of ground ginger (to neutralize the acidity).
A few aniseeds, salt and pepper.
The laurel leaves, thyme or marjoram.
The glass of water.
Simmer on a low heat until you obtain a thick tomato sauce.
Leave to cool down.
You have only to assemble the ingredients differently, to obtain two tomato
Gran’zza’s that don't taste or look alike even though the ingredients are identical.

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First combination
Layer the pizza toppings on the dough base:
Firstly spread on some cold tomato sauce.
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Next add thin slices of mushrooms (raw if using pink mushrooms (Champignon
de Paris), cooked and seasoned with olive oil, garlic, parsley, if using (cepe
(boletus), trumpet of death, chanterelle).
Followed by some small pieces of ham (smoked or cooked) or fried bacon.
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Add on top of this a little grated cheese, anchovies and olives.
Bake for 20 minutes at 200 °C.
Once cooked, take the Gran’zza out of the oven and cover it with a thick layer
of grated cheese.
Remove from the pizza tray and return to the oven for 3 to 5 minutes, just long
enough for the cheese to melt and spread.

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Second combination
Spread the dough base with a thick layer of cold tomato sauce.
Top with grated cheese (you may use up the leftover bits of cheese and the rind
but just remember to slice finely).
Cover with a second layer of tomato sauce.
Finish by covering the whole surface of the pizza with freshly sliced tomatoes.
Decorate with anchovies or small sardines and olives.
Put in the oven.
Cook for 20 minutes at 250 °C.
Leave to cool down for 10 minutes before serving.
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Third combination
Preparation for an onion Gran’zza
onions
tablespoons olive oil
Salt, pepper
1
teaspoon coriander seeds, or fresh coriander leaves
2
teaspoons ground curcuma (white turmeric)
2
handfuls nettle shoots or young bramble leaves (in season)
tablespoons currants
Jasmine tea
200 ml soy or fresh cream
Soak the currants in a little cold tea perfumed with jasmine.
On baking day
Drain the currants, keeping the juice.
Add 80 ml of cream to the currants.
Mix together the juice and remaining 120 ml of cream.
Cook the thinly sliced onions in two tablespoons of olive oil until soft and
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transparent.
Add the salt and pepper and a few coriander seeds or leaves.
Colour and perfume the onions with one to two teaspoons of ground turmeric.
During the last minutes of cooking, add the nettle shoots or young bramble
leaves.
Leave to cool down.
Assembling the onion gran'zza
Just before you garnish the dough, reheat the onions in the fry pan and glaze
them with the tea-cream mixture (do not cook them a second time).
Spread the dough base with a layer of onions.
Dot with pieces of ham or cooked chicken and a little grated cheese.
Cover with the remaining onions.
Add a few teaspoons of cream and currants.
Decorate with a few olives.
Put in the oven.
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While the onion Gran’zza is cooling down prepare the following side salad:
Cut four figs, either dried or fresh into thin slices.
Put them in a fry pan with 2 tablespoons of honey.
Mix it with a rustic green salad (dandelion)
Poor over juice from half a lemon and some olive oil.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds, which have been lightly grilled with a little rock
salt.
Enjoy with a good cider, some honey mead or a cup of tea.

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Epilogue
At the end of this apprenticeship,
Hopefully you have understood it.
Though you may create new and different bread
remember there is only one way to do it and that is to perfection!
I wish you good bread, a good life and good health.
Then Demeter… and all the guardians of the universe,
could still in times to come,
reflect and look upon the planet earth with a smile.
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French terms often used in bread making
Amidon
Starch
Apprêt
Final rising
Avoine
Oats
Badigeonner
Brush the dough surface with
something
Baguette
French stick
Bâtard
Oblong shaped bread
everything between a
baguette and a boule.
Biologique
Organic
Blé
Wheat
Boulangerie
Bakery
Boule
Round loaf
Brioche
Enriched bread, the most
famous one is the “Brioche à
tête”
Chef
First wild yeast leaven or
starter.
Clé
Seamed side of dough ball or
shaped dough
Couche
Proofing cloth
Coupe
Incision on the surface of the
dough, just prior to putting it
in the oven
Coupe pâte
Dough scraper
Croissant
Popular and unmistakable
crescent shaped pastries
Croûte
Crust
Décorer
To decorate
Doré (Dorer)
Glazed
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Enfournement (Enfourner)
Charging the oven
Étirement (étirer)
Stretching
Fleurage
Dusting
Former
To shape the dough
Fougasse
Flat bread with deep cuts,
sourdough type, baked in a
very hot oven.
Four
Oven
Levain
Leaven, sourdough
Levure
Yeast
Mie
Crumb (interior of a loaf)
Mitron
Baker's boy
Orge
Barley
Pain rond
Cob
Paneton
Banneton or proving basket
Panetier
Panetier
Pain de campagne
Popular all over France,
sourdough, cooked on the
oven hearth, usually boule
shape but not always.
Pain de mie
Cooked in a tin, shaped like a
British loaf, usually enriched,
similar taste to brioche.
Pâton
Dough roll /Proofed loaf
Pointage
First fermentation
Pelle
Peal (paddle-shaped tool for
moving loaves in and out of
the oven)
Pesée (Peser)
Weighing
Pétrin
Kneading trough
Pétrissage (Pétrir)
Kneading
Rafraîchir
To feed the starter
Ressuyage
Cooling period
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Sarrasin
Buckwheat
Scarification
Scoring or slashing
Seconde fermentation (Apprêt)
Proofing
Seigle
Rye
Sole
Oven hearth floor
Soufflage (Souffler)
Aerating the dough
Tresse
Plait

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Temperature conversion
Farenheit to Celcius: Celcius = (5/9) * (Farenheit - 32)
Celcius to Farenheit: Farenheit = (9/5) * Celcius + 32
Oven settings
Description
Celsius
Fahrenheit
Gas marks
Cool
130
250
1/2
Very slow
140
275
1
Very slow
150
300
2
Slow
165
325
3
Moderate
180
350
4
Moderate
190
375
5
Moderately hot
200
400
6
Fairly hot
220
425
7
Hot
230
450
8
Very hot
240
475
9
Extremely hot
250
500
10
Volumes
Imperial UK
Units
Mililitre
Tea sp.
6.16
Dessert sp.
12.32
2
Table sp.
18.48
3
1.5
Fl oz
28.41
4.61
22.30
284
46.10
23
15.30
10
568
92,2
46
30,6
20
2
162,23
81.17
54.11
35.21
3,52
Cup
Pint
Litre
1000
Fl oz = Fluid Ounce
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Tea sp.
Dessert sp.
Contents
Table sp
Fl oz.
Cup
Pint
1.53
120
1,76
Imperial US
Units
Mililitre
Tea sp.
Table sp
Fl oz.
Cup
Tea sp.
4.93
Table sp.
14.79
3
Fl oz
29.57
6
2
Cup
236.6
48
16
8
Pint
473.2
96
32
16
2
Litre
1000
202.83
67.61
33.80
16.90
Pint
8.45
Length
Metric
Imperial
1 millimètre (mm)
1 mm
0.03937 inch (in)
1 centimètre (cm)
10 mm
0.3937 in
1 mètre (m)
1000 mm or 100 cm
1.0936 yard (yd)
Imperial
Metric
1 inch (in)
2.54 cm
1 foot (ft)
12 in
30.48 cm
1 yard (yd)
3 ft
0.9144 m
Weight
Metric
Imperial
1 milligram (mg)
0.001 mg
0.0154 grain
1 gram (g)
1g
0.0353 oz
1 Kilogram (kg)
1000 g
2.2046 lb
Imperial
Metric
1 ounce (oz)
437.5 grain
28.35 g
1 pound (lb)
16 oz
0.4536 kg
1 stone
14 lb
6.3503 kg
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Complementary information
(The sea salt)
Throughout the world, salt is of marine origin. It is cultivated in salt marshes or
extracted from undisturbed deposits left when ancient seas evaporated.
The salt works on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean differ in their extraction
methods.
On the Atlantic Ocean coast, harvesting is done progressively as a layer of salt starts
to form.
The “paludiers” (French name given to salt marsh workers) work with their hands
according to an ancestral tradition and understanding. On the Mediterranean, the salt
is picked up mechanically in one operation when the salt deposit is several
centimetres thick.
Their saltiness varies; in the ocean the salt concentration is 33 grams per litre and 37
grams per litre in the Mediterranean.The grey salt of the Atlantic is of remarkable
nutritious quality thanks to the presence, in large quantities of Oligo-elements and
mineral salt. It is perfectly suited to the dietary needs of both humans and animals.
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COMPARATIVE BOARD OF FLOURS
Type (American/French) Approximate Extraction Rate Ash Content
Cake & Pastry/Type 45
70 % (65 - 75%)
< 0.5%
All Purpose & Bread/Type 55
75% (70 - 78%)
0.5 - .60%
High-Gluten/Type 65
80% (74 - 82%)
0.62 - 0.75%
Light Whole-Wheat/Type 80
82% (78 - 85%)
0.75 - 0.90%
Whole Wheat/Type 110
85% (79 - 87%)
1 - 1.20%
Dark Whole Wheat/Type 150
90% (90 - 95%)
1.4%
French Classification Extraction Rate Ash Content
Type 45
60 - 70 %
< 0.5%
Type 55
75%
0.5 - .60%
Type 65
78 - 80%
0.62 - 0.65%
Type 80
85%
0.75 - 0.90%
Type 110
88 - 90%
1 - 1.20%
Type 150
95%
1.4%
Italian Classification Extraction Rate German Classification
Type 00
50%
Type 405
Type 0
72%
Type 550
Type 1
80%
Type 812
Type 2
85%
Type 1200
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A big
Thank you
to Françoise and her
English friends
for their valuable contribution
in completing the translation
of this e-book.
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Les Fours Grand-Mère
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Les Moulins d'Alma
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The mills of Alma
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We fit thus in the short line between producer and consumer.
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tamiseuse, machine to make the pastes, drier with pastes, kneaders of the Artofex
type, bag-filling machine….with raw materials resulting from Organic farming, a
true production of products of the soil!… Earth with the Table, Corn with the
Bread, Corn with the Pastes… Thus, the short line takes all its direction with a
guarantee of a healthy food.
The French Bread
Contents
126
Of Course
You can print this
book
But
Pleeeease!!!
Before you take action
Consider our wonderful
planet
and our environment ...
Thank You !
The French Bread
Contents
127
I
The French Bread
A gift for you
Be patient
it also depends on your internet connection
high speed or not
Sorry
The French Bread
Contents
128
More information
About e-book: The Real French bread
See: legal & copyright
About the website
www.opain.com
Owner: Henri GRANIER
25 rue des Rosiers 88700Xaffévillers FRANCE
Creator: Henri GRANIER in 2002
Editorial & Publication Manager:
Henri GRANIER
@ : His Mail
Webmaster:
Henri GRANIER
@ : His Mail
The French Bread
Contents
129
Contents (clickable links)
Copyright.........................................................................................................................................003
Autor Henri....................................................................................................................................005
Autor Cathy.....................................................................................................................................007
Translator Henri….........................................................................................................................008
Preface.............................................................................................................................................009
Air.....................................................................................................................................................010
The Water........................................................................................................................................012
Sea Salt ….......................................................................................................................................014
Flour.................................................................................................................................................016
Your flour.........................................................................................................................................020
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................022
Introduction to the day-to-day bread
Introduction to the day-today bread.............................................................................................023
Day-toDay bread.............................................................................................................................025
The Leaven
The Leaven......................................................................................................................................028
How to make your leaven starter..................................................................................................030
How to maintain your leaven starter............................................................................................033
The First Bread
The 1KG..........................................................................................................................................035
Advice and Foresight.....................................................................................................................039
Bread Making Day
Bread Fabrication..........................................................................................................................043
I – The Leaven................................................................................................................................045
II – The Bulk dough.......................................................................................................................048
III – Shaping the dough.................................................................................................................052
IV – From dough to bread.............................................................................................................055
Baking.................................................................................................................................061
Brushing.............................................................................................................................065
Cooling................................................................................................................................066
A brief look at deep freezing bread...............................................................................................070
Overall veiw on bread making......................................................................................................071
Fabrication Table............................................................................................................................072
The Flour Mixes..............................................................................................................................073
The Wood Bread Oven...................................................................................................................074
Bread... With a Difference
Bread … with a difference.............................................................................................................077
Rizôpain...........................................................................................................................................079
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Ôpaintimarron................................................................................................................................082
ÔpainKrout.....................................................................................................................................085
Seed and Spice Bread.....................................................................................................................086
Special Small Sweet and Savoury Breads.....................................................................................089
ZestÔpain........................................................................................................................................092
ÔpainFourré...................................................................................................................................095
Le Grallé..........................................................................................................................................099
Croissôpain et Chocôpain..............................................................................................................101
La Gran'zza
La Gran'zza.....................................................................................................................................105
Filling suggestions...............................................................................................................108
First Combination..............................................................................................................109
Second Combination...........................................................................................................112
Third Combination.............................................................................................................113
Epilogue...........................................................................................................................................116
French terms...................................................................................................................................117
Température conversion................................................................................................................120
Complementary Information........................................................................................................122
Comparative Board of Flours........................................................................................................123
Thank You.......................................................................................................................................124
Publicity « Fours Grand-mère »....................................................................................................125
Publicity « Les Moulin d'Alma »...................................................................................................126
Surprise...........................................................................................................................................128
More Information...........................................................................................................................129
The French Bread
Contents
131

Learn How to make your own bread with natural leaven

Transcription

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