(Italian version coming soon).
I had to tell you sooner or later. I have been keeping the secret for myself for a while, just because I wasn't sure if it would have a future or not... Plus I am a bit scaramanthic. Yeah. That's it.
But it's time to tell everybody how happy I am, how this newly arrived being is making my life completely different. Guess what? I have a starter! Yep, you heard it, I have a started that I have been feeding since one month more or less. It has been doing amazingly well, I am soo proud of it. I think I should give it a name or something, because well, I even talk to it, and I find rude to call it "it".
Anyway, after one month I thought it was time to bake something with my lively creature, and I couldn't do anything but the recipe of the Basic Country Loaf I have been dreaming about for months, since when I got Tartine Bread book in the US.
Chad Robertson, who found Tartine Bakery in San Francisco and recently published his second book about baking and cooking with bread, give all the detailed instructions to make your own started and bake basic country loaf with it. The recipe is quite long and a bit complicated at a first sight, but you'll like it in the end, because all the details it provides will reveal extra-precious to bake your loaf properly.
I made the leven the night before and started mixing the dough in the morning, after my leaven passed the floating test: take a piece of leven and put in in a bowl filled with water, if it swims it's ready --and mine was swimming amazingly well! :)
I followed the steps for the bulk fermentation, which last 3 hours, and then for the final rise, which last 4 more hours. In the end, it took me the whole day to make it. I strongly suggest you to do this on a weekend, when you don't have any plan and you want to stay at home and relax. That's what I did.
At the end of the day, that's what I got: a beautifyl crunchy loaf, super-moist in the inside. I was pretty happy with the result. Surely, there are some things to improve, and I will expect the loaf to be higher in the future, but for now, as a first try, that's fine, it's definitely the best bread I have ever made. And all you need is a cast iron combo cooker, a bench knife, a couple of baskets and a termometer. That's it. easy enough.
You can see a little bit about this bakery and this bread in this lovely video. It really helps in the process of folding and shaping the loaves. But really, the book is amazing and it is totally worth buying. Anyway, the web is full of amazing step-by-step posts about how to make your basic country loaf. I really like this one, it's clear and complete.
Ok, I have to go, I really fancy a bruschetta... It's lunch time! :)
