This recipe levels up “All-Day Farm Bread” mainly by the addition of a poolish. Obviously, it’s a sandwich loaf, but I call it a “bread-basket” loaf because if I were at an excellent restaurant, and they served this bread to me before dinner, I’d want a second basketful! (It’s also makes exquisite toast.)
All-Day Bread Basket Loaf
2
medium (1 lb 11 oz) loavesall day
to makeIngredients
- For the poolish:
200g water, room temperature or lukewarm
1 pkg. active dry yeast, divided
72g whole wheat flour
128g cake flour
- For the bread:
400g water, room temperature or lukewarm
157g cake flour
580g bread flour
50g wheat germ
23g fine sea salt
Butter
Corn meal
Directions
- Make the poolish:
- Pour the water into the bowl of a stand mixer, sprinkle ¼ tsp of the yeast over it and let it rest for 5 minutes. Pour in both flours. Use the paddle attachment on speed 2 to stir the mixture for 30 seconds. Increase to speed 4 for 30 more seconds. Scrape down the bowl, cover, and let rest overnight at room temperature.
- Make the bread:
- Pour the water and the remainder of the yeast from the packet into the poolish, and use the dough hook to stir on lowest speed to stir everything together, 1 minute. Add cake flour, bread flour, wheat germ, and salt. Mix at lowest speed until the mixture forms into a dough, about 1 minute. Increase speed to 2 and knead for 4 minutes.
- Butter a large mixing bowl. Place the dough into the bowl, then immediately pick it back up, flip it over, and place it back into the bowl. (This gets the dough fully coated in butter.) Cover the bowl and let it rest for 1 hour.
- Perform the first stretch-and-fold: grab the dough by one of its sides, peel it away from the bowl, and lift it above the bowl. We’re going to call the side you’re holding onto the “north end.” Continuing to hold it by its north end, let gravity stretch the south end toward the bowl. Shake and jiggle it a bit to encourage the dough to stretch. Rotate the dough 180° so that you’re holding onto the south end, and let it continue to stretch. Fold it in half, north to south, twice, and lay it back into bowl. Cover, and let the dough rest for 1 hour.
- Repeat Step 3 twice, for a total of 3 stretch-and-folds. Each time you do this, stretch it in a 90-degree-different direction than you did last time. (Note that the final stretch-and-fold includes a 1-hour rest before proceeding.)
- Transfer the dough to a Silpat and form into into a round. Let it relax for 45 minutes.
- Butter two bread pans and sprinkle them with cornmeal. Divide the dough into two equal portions. Shape each into a cylinder and place them seam-side-down into the pans Butter a piece of plastic wrap, and lay it loosely over the pans. Place the pans in the warmest spot of your house, and let the bread rise until the top of the domes rise above the pans, about 3½-4 hours.
- Place a cast-iron pan in the lower rack of the oven. Preheat to 450°F. Pour 2 cups of boiling water into the cast-iron. (Be careful, because it may seem volatile.) Immediately slide the bread onto a bread stone on the upper rack (in the middle position).
- Bake 35 minutes. Turn the bread out of the pans and return it to the oven as you lower the heat to 350°F. Continue to bake until the bread is a beautiful brown and the interior temperature reaches 200°F, 15 minutes.
- Move the bread to a cooling rack and let it cool completely (at least 1 hour) before slicing.
Wheat germ is good for you, and it can give a loaf of bread a more interesting look and texture. It has a distinctly nutty, toasted scent and flavor.
Wheat germ is the embryo of the wheat kernel, and it’s the most nutrient-dense part of the kernel. It is stripped away in the making of white flour. It’s also removed from wheat flour, unless you’re using whole wheat flour.
Wheat germ has a short shelf life, so I keep mine in an airtight container in the freezer. I don’t bother bringing it to room temperature for this recipe.
A poolish does a lot of good things for your bread. First off, it contributes a complex, nutty, slightly sweet, and aromatic profile to the flavor in a way that is hard if not impossible to get from a quicker dough. But one of my favorite poolish advantages is a better shelf life. A bread made with a poolish stays soft and resists staling for a day or two longer than standard loaves.
A poolish also improves texture, and that is the best thing about this bread. It has a springy, elastic, and soft crumb, with a shatteringly crisp crust. And it has these qualities to such a degree that, especially the same day it’s made, you could put this loaf up against anything you’d get in a good restaurant and be quite happy with it.
All-Day Bread-Basket Loaf
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That looks superb, Jeff. I am saving this so I can make it when we return from our travels. Love a good bread for sandwiches or toast.
Best of luck on your travels!
Such a lovely and comforting bake, Jeff! I love that rustic, all-day approach – nothing beats homemade bread like this.
Thanks, Ben!
Il est magnifique
Bravo c’est une réussite
Have a good day
Thank you!
I’d love to try a slice of this amazing homemade bread!
Thank you, Javier!
I love the term “bread-basket loaf.” It is so descriptive. The bread looks wonderful. I’d definitely want seconds.
Thank you, Sheryl!
I’m intrigued by cake flour in the dough, that seems like it would be really nice.
Yeah, everyone seems to notice it! Note that there’s also whole wheat flour in the poolish, and then there’s also bread flour in the final mix. I feel that the cake flour softens the crumb.
Jeff, I make bread weekly (sourdough mostly) what has really intrigued me is the use of cake flour-I know the bread is soft! I am saving this recipe. I am going try my hand. Thanks for sharing.
Velva
Note of course that there’s also whole wheat flour! That combination gives you plenty of gluten, yet produces a soft loaf.
What a gorgeous loaf bread ; all I want is to butter it up with some salted butter. I have never baked a bread with cake flour, that is so interesting! ~Nessa
Thanks! I like to blend the flours to get a soft bread.
By the way, the gravitar that you’re linking to, once I get there, there’s no way to click through to your website.
Your loaf looks bakery perfect Jeff. It would have smelled amazing whilst baking in your home. I’ve never seen a bread recipe where cake flour is used, and why not. Does it improve the texture? I generally bake with sourdough, but your loaf looks so delicious I might deviate to yours.
I haven’t seen bread recipes with cake flour, either. But I have seen them with all-purpose. I commonly use a combination of cake and bread flours to make my own DIY all-purpose, and this is where this comes from. Yes, it softens the loaf a bit. I think it also helps it retain moisture, but I can’t prove it.
I have never tired to make bread. Looks great.
I’ll tell you, I like it because it’s fun. But I don’t know if it’s the same where you live, but where I live, you can buy really good bread. So it’s hard in a way to justify all the work. I guess I do it just because it’s kind of fun once you get the hang of it.
Honestly, I can already imagine this toasted with salted butter, dangerously good. I am a sucker for bread baskets
Thanks, Raymund!
I’d need me a basket or two of this as well! I am a sucker for any type of bread, but this one really does look like it has a great texture. Spread some honey butter on top and I’d be in heaven!
Oh, this’d be great with honey butter – fresh, or toasted!
I will have to give this bread a try, sounds absolutely fascinating.
Thanks!
This loaf is very inviting. Must try. I usually serve tasty bread with cheeses and honey as antipasto… it seems my gang would love it!
Looks so professional
Thank you, Soma!
It’s a gorgeous loaf, Jeff; and your slices are perfect! Are you using an electric slicer? No shame in that, I have one and love it. My relatives in Hungary use their’s so often, it sits on the counter at all times.