[Home](/) # Baking Bread 2025-01-18. Omar Mustardo. A few weeks ago I decided to bake some bread. I followed a video by Adam Ragusea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2-6Ps2Hcc. It went well, so I repeated it a few times with variations each time. It's relatively easy, doesn't require kneading, and has had consistently good results. ## Requirements * Dutch oven * Parchment paper * Rigid spoon or spatula for stirring * An oven ## Ingredients * 2 cups water * ~2 teaspoons salt * 1/8 teaspoon dry yeast (two small pinches) * flour (maybe 5-6 cups, 500-600g, but this recipe is not based on firm quantities. I've tried various mixes of white and wheat flour and so far prefer about a 50:50 mix) ## The night before 1. Make a [poolish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-ferment) by combining: * 1 cup water * Yeast * Enough flour for thick batter/pudding consistency 2. Mix with rigid spoon (can leave it in mixture to avoid needing to clean it between steps) 3. Cover and allow to ferment overnight. Adam says 8-24 hours. I've only tried up to 16 hours, and that loaf was somewhat dense, but I haven't tried enough variations to tell if it was due to the yeast. ## Baking day (~4 hours before baking) ### Initial Mix 1. Add remaining cup (237mL) water and salt to the poolish. 2. Mix in as much flour as possible with spoon (no hand kneading) 3. Cover and let rise/hydrate for 1 hour ### Second Mix 1. Stir in more flour if possible 2. Remove spoon if you've been leaving it in for prior steps 3. Cover and let rise/hydrate for 1 hour ### Folding Process *Perform this sequence 1-4 times total* 1. Dust dough with flour to prevent sticking 2. Leaving it in the bowl, pull and fold the dough four times, rotating 90° between each fold. Do this by using one hand to grab a hunk of the dough and pull up it to the rim of the bowl, or until it starts to tear. Don't let it tear much. Watch [Adam's video](https://youtu.be/OI2-6Ps2Hcc?si=qX5YFbYlj-xjcOcM&t=353) to see what this looks like, though note that my dough is never quite so nicely smooth and round. 3. Position seams down, smooth surface up 4. Cover and rest 20 minutes ### Baking Instructions 1. Prepare: * Crumple a piece of parchment paper into a ball, and then open it up to line the dutch oven. Crumpling makes it open up easily to cover the bottom of the pot. * Transfer dough smooth-side up * Cover (not with lid) * Leave dough alone for 30 minutes (to "proof"). Heat oven to 500°F/260°C with lid inside in the meantime. 2. Bake: * Score dough surface with knife (serrated is slightly better, normal is fine) * Cover with hot lid * Bake 30 minutes at 500°F/260°C * Remove lid (be careful about steam) * Reduce heat to 450°F/230°C * Bake 10-20 minutes more until browned. 12 minutes has worked reliably for me. * Internal temperature should reach ~200°F/93°C. I've never checked this. ## Variations & Results ### Attempt 1 : 2025-01-06 * Roughly 50:50 white to wheat flour * Added dried cranberries and walnuts when folding the dough. This was ok but they didn't mix in evenly. * Added some finely diced walnuts on top. These didn't do much almost all fell off when cutting the bread. * I tried a step from Adam's video to heat the dutch oven on the stove before going in the oven, but left it too long and the parchment paper started smoking. I had to cut off the bottom of the loaf. I never did this step again in future attempts and they worked out fine. The burnt parchment paper and bottom crust was unfortunate. The rest of the bread was pretty good though.       ### Attempt 2 : 2025-01-09 * Roughly 50:50 white to wheat flour * Again, I added cranberries and walnuts but this time I added them while still adding flour to the bowl. This made them mix much more evenly. This worked well.   ### Attempt 3 : 2025-01-13 * Except for the poolish, I only used whole wheat flour. * I added walnuts and cranberries as usual. * I added some sunflower seeds to the top. As with prior toppings, most of them fell off. * I made relatively deep cuts in the top of the loaf. This didn't make as much of a different to the result as I had expected. Good, but notably denser than prior ones and with a tougher crust.    ### Attempt 4 : 2025-01-18 * I only used white flour * I didn't put quite as much flour in, which left the dough more flexible and sticky. * I didn't add any toppings or ingredients. * I didn't make any slices in the top of the loaf. This was by far the most airy of the loaves. I'd guess this was a mix of yeast preferring white flour and the dough being more wet. The water would have made bubbles as it evaporated. It tasted a bit bland. It was also a little bit sticky / doughy and could probably have stayed in the oven a bit longer.