Hi!!
I’m Ana and I’ve never made bread, but I thought quarantine would be a good time to attempt, and now I’m hooked!!! I followed the original recipe from my friend Smriti from Smriti Special who had an awesome instagram story that is super easy to follow but had my own struggles with making this recipe happen.
Here is how the whole ordeal went and what you need:
WHAT
- 250 g all purpose flour
- 250 g whole wheat flour
- 250 g warm water – around 100F (blood temperature)
- 28 g of salt
- 1 healthy pinch of yeast
- 2 healthy pinches of sugar
HOW:
BIG TIP: Make sure your yeast is alive! Mine was dead. But I brought it back. Here is how it went.
- Wake up the yeast, since it is a living organism. I had active yeast – if you have instant yeast, just add to the flour. If it is active dry yeast, you need to add it to water. The yeast is alive and needs food, so add 2 healthy pinches of sugar. Within 5 minutes, the yeast should “wake up” and start bubbling.
- On my first try, my yeast was dead. Still, I added the water to the flour, mixed it well in a bowl, covered it with a plastic wrap, a towel and let it sleep for 12 hours.
- In the morning, I checked the consistency of the dough and it had no bubbles or any sign of life in the morning, which means the yeast was indeed dead.
- So I revived it.
DON’T FREAK OUT.
Seeing what had happened, I decided to I double the recipe to save it – I added a healthy pinch yeast from a different packet of yeast and added to 250g of water at 100F.
I then put it in the microwave which is an enclosed location (just to rest, don’t heat it up!) so it could “incubate” and it was actually fizzing!! Fizzing/bubbling means ALIVE! And it was! SO, I mixed that water/yeast mixture to 250g of whole purpose flour until it looked like bread dough, covered it and let it sleep of 12 more hours.
After 12 hours, the dough had pull, elasticity and bubbles! That means it is alive and well, ready to receive the rest!! I essentially ressucitated my dough!
So now I ended up with a heck of alot of dough, so I had to measure 500 g of whole wheat flour (I doubled the recipe. I also measured 250g of water, again at 100F.
Add water to the poolish (dough that has been resting). It will be wet/wattery and bubbly.
2. Place 500g of flour on a bigger mixing bowel. Mix in 28 g of salt. I used himalayan salt.
3. Make a hole within it to make room for the watery poolish (bread dough).
Add poolish to the flour, fix it with a spatula and then get your hands in there. Knead that dough until it is homogeneous, about 5 minutes.
4. Add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil to the bottom of mixing bowl, place the dough ball you just kneaded in there and make sure all surfaces of the dough are covered so you can keep it moisturized haha….
I sealed with plastic wrap, put a towel on top and kissed it good night again. At room temperature.
In the morning it will look nice and well rested. Beautiful!!
5. Next day, the dough must be folded into 4s. The dough will feel amazing. It will fell “doughy” for lack of a better word, where your fingers will be imprinted and it will easily move from the edges of the bowl.
With wet hands, fold dough over itself 4 times, like grabbing one side and bringing it completely over and let it sit in the bowl with the folded sides down. Let it sit for 1 hours, covered, resting at room temperature.
Only after this, can it be baked. The dough will no longer be sticky and that’s how you know it’s ready.