This simple rustic bread is perfect for beginner and experienced bakers alike.
There’s nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread filling your kitchen. With its crispy crust and soft, airy crumb, this simple rustic bread loaf is perfect for beginners and seasoned bakers alike. Just a few basic ingredients, a little patience and some elbow grease, homemade bread can be yours whenever you want it.
What is a Poolish (or preferment)?
Poolish is a pre-ferment dough made from flour, water, and commercial yeast. The mixture is left at room temperature to ferment over the course of several hours before incorporated into bread dough. This helps add flavor and improve the texture when added to bread made with commercial yeast (rustic loaves, baguettes, etc.)
How to do a Strength Building Fold
A strength building fold is when you fold mixed dough onto itself to help align the gluten strands. This creates bread dough that rises well and a final loaf of bread that is light and airy. See how to do it in this tutorial:
How to Shape Bread Dough
Shaping a dough round correctly helps to create tension in the loaf, allowing it to rise evenly as it bakes. It’s a fairly simple process but makes a big difference in the quality of your oven spring. See how to do it in this tutorial:
*Note: The dough in this video is sourdough but the same method can be applied to other bread recipes.
Bread Baking Equipment
If you really want to get into making homemade bread, I highly recommending you invest in the following pieces of equipment:
Kitchen Scale
Bread dough relies ratios (the biggest one being hydration, so flour: water) so most recipes use weight. You can find one for $12 online and it will serve you far beyond just this bake.
Banneton Baskets
These are essential for slow fermenting doughs like sourdough, but useful for any proofing needs. If you don’t have any yet, you can make your own out of a floured tea towel and a mixing bowl in a pinch. However, if you’re seriously interested in bread baking, you can easily find a cheap set online.
Dutch Oven
Dutch ovens are used for bread baking because they mimic the environment created by steam-injector ovens used in professional bakeries. If you don’t have one, you can play around with adding steam to your oven via other methods. However, there are reasonably priced options available online, like this Lodge one I used for years, so it’s a reasonable investment if you like baking and/or cooking.
Spray Bottle
Steam keeps the exterior of bread dough pliable and stretchy and prevents the crust from forming too soon. Adding a few spritz of water to the dutch oven before the bake creates additional steam and gives your loaf the best chance at achieving maximal oven spring and a dark flavorful crust. They’re cheap an easy to find so just go buy one!
Scoring Implement
Scoring dough creates a weak point in the dough’s surface, which directs the the rapid expansion that happens when bread dough is exposed to heat in a more controlled way. You can use a bread lame, sharp knife, or scissors depending on the style you’re looking for. For example, scissors will create a more rustic loaf while a bream lame will allow for more precise cuts.
A few notes:
- Stand mixing vs hand mixing: I’ve tried to make this rustic bread with a stand mixer before and honestly, I prefer the hand mixed version. Not only does it make it more accessible, since not everyone has a stand mixer, but I find that the final texture is better when the dough is mixed by hand. Let me know if you try this and think differently!
- Let your loaf get dark: Dark crust = lots of flavor. If your dough is not dark enough after 25 minutes baking uncovered, pop it onto the oven rack to finish. Sometimes the sides of the loaf don’t brown when inside a dutch oven so this helps ensure an evenly colored crust.
- Don’t cut into it too early: Fully cool your loaf before slicing it so it can finish baking and set up properly. If you cut into a loaf of bread too early, the interior can become gummy and sticky instead of light and fluffy. So be patient!
Simple Rustic Bread
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Banneton Basket
- Spray bottle
- Scissors or sharp knife
- Kitchen Towel
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
Poolish
- 150 g Flour
- 150 g Water 100F
- Pinch of yeast
Dough
- 280 g Water 100F
- 2 g Yeast
- Poolish all
- 350 g Bread Flour
- 50 g Whole Wheat Flour
- 10 g Salt
Additional Ingredients
- Semolina flour for dusting the bottom of the dutch oven before baking
Instructions
Make the Poolish:
- At around 8 PM (or 16 hours before you want to start mixing the dough), put together the poolish. Mix together 150g of flour, 150g of water at 100℉, and a sprinkle of yeast.150 g Flour, 150 g Water, Pinch of yeast
- Stir until there are no clumps of dry flour, cover, and let sit overnight.
Make the Dough:
- The next morning, the poolish should be very bubbly and have doubled in size.
- To a large bowl, add 280g of the 100℉ water and all of the poolish. Stir the poolish into the water with your finger or a spoon until partially disolved.280 g Water, Poolish
- Next, add the 2g yeast, 350g bread flour, 50g whole wheat lour, and 10g of salt. Mix with a spoon until a shaggy dough forms.2 g Yeast, 350 g Bread Flour, 50 g Whole Wheat Flour, 10 g Salt
- When it gets hard to mix with a spoon, switch to kneading with your hand until well combined, 2-3 more minutes.
- Cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, do the first strength building fold. To do this, take an edge of the dough, pull it until there is tension, and then fold it back into the center of the dough ball. Do this 4-5 times or until you’ve gotten all sides of the dough and then round off you dough ball with several tucks and folds (watch the tutorial here). Cover again and let sit for an additional 30 minutes.
- After fermenting for a total of 60 minutes, do a second set of strength building folds and finish off with the tuck and folds. Cover and let proof for another hour.
- After 2 hours total of fermentation, the dough should be light, airy, and just about double in size.
- Transfer to a lightly floured surface. Press it out into a flat circle then grab a corner, stretch it out and then bring it back into the center, and do that around the entire piece. Flip the dough over, seam side down, and then rotate the dough ball on the counter in a circular motion, tucking the dough underneath itself as you go (watch the tutorial here).
- Transfer to a floured banneton basket, cover with a towel, and let rise for about 45 minutes.
Bake the Loaf:
- After about 25 minutes, start preheating a dutch oven to 500℉.
- Once preheated, sprinkle semolina flour over the bottom the the dutch oven and then very carefully flip out the dough into the dutch oven, seam side down.Semolina flour
- Using scissors or a very sharp knife, score the top of the loaf. Spray down the loaf with water, cover with the lid, and bake at 485℉ for 18 minutes.
- After 18 minutes, remove the lid, and bake uncovered for an additional 25-30 minutes or until dark in color.
- Remove from the dutch oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.
Notes
- Stand mixing vs hand mixing: I’ve tried to make this rustic bread with a stand mixer before and honestly, I prefer the hand mixed version. Not only does it make it more accessible since not everyone has a stand mixer, but I find that the final texture is better when the dough is mixed by hand. Let me know if you try this and think differently!
- Let your loaf get dark: Dark crust = lots of flavor. Do yourself a favor: if your dough is not dark enough after 25 minutes of baking with the lid off, pop it onto the oven rack to finish baking. Sometimes the sides of the loaf don’t brown when inside a dutch oven so this helps ensure an evenly colored crust.
- Don’t cut into it too early: Cool your loaf before it is sliced so it can finish baking and set up properly. If you cut into a loaf of bread too early, the interior can become gummy and sticky instead of light and fluffy. So be patient!
