Baking, chapter 15
Bread
Bread is four things, flour, water, salt and yeast, and a handful of techniques that decide everything. This chapter teaches them through fifteen breads, from a no-knead boule that needs five minutes of work to a sourdough built from a seven-day starter. Every recipe is in grams, because weighing is the biggest single step toward consistent bread, and every bread states its hydration (water as a percentage of flour), so you can see at a glance how wet and open the dough will be. Read dough by eye and touch, not just the clock: rises depend on temperature, and a warm kitchen can halve them. All yeast is instant (fast-action) dried yeast, mixed straight into the flour; for active dry yeast use about a quarter more and dissolve it in the water first, and for fresh yeast use three times the weight. Nothing here needs a stand mixer.
15 recipesOpen the chapter in the app
No-Knead Crusty LoafTime does the kneading; a lidded pot does the bakery oven16 h 15 min
Country SourdoughFrom a jar of flour and water to a blistered, tangy loaf, step by step1 d 1 h
FocacciaBubbly, olive-oil-soaked and crisp-bottomed, with almost no kneading4 h 30 min
Pizza MargheritaA slow cold-fermented dough and a blazing-hot home oven1 d 7 h
Skillet Yogurt FlatbreadsSoft, blistered breads in a dry pan, ready in under an hour1 h 40 min
Cardamom Cinnamon BunsNordic-style knotted buns: buttery, spiced and not too sweet3 h 20 min
Dark Nordic Rye BreadDense, seeded, keeps for a week and slices thin for open sandwiches1 d 14 h