Rustic Bread (Vegan)

The beauty of this bread is that with just a few basic ingredients you get   lovely bread. I love the name “Rustic Bread”. It makes me image bread baked in the country side. Simple bread made from very basic ingredients, with grains grown and milled locally. No pans required, shaped with hands. And when being baked, a lovely aroma wafting through and the bread being enjoyed with some soup or stew made from the home grown veggies. 

This bread signifies the beauty of simplicity. The simplicity that is found in the rustic life. Uncomplicated, basic, pure and divine….

This recipe is originally from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes. I adapted it from Floyd Mann’s The Fresh Loaf. This is how I made it-           

Rustic Bread

Ingredients

Preferment

1 cup all purpose flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

¾ cup and more water

½ teaspoon salt

1 pinch of instant yeast

Final Dough

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon instant yeast

All of the preferment

Water to knead dough

Method

Whisk all purpose flour, whole wheat flour salt and yeast. Add water. The flour should be well hydrated. Cover the bowl and leave the preferment out at room temperature for 18 hours. It should become bubbly and smell sour.  To prepare the final dough, whisk together all the dry ingredients. Add preferment. Mix well with hands. Now add water slowly.   Mixing well after each addition.  Mix water and knead   till soft dough is obtained. The dough requires thorough kneading for more than 10 minutes so that the preferment is evenly incorporated in the new dough.                                                                                          
When an almost even soft dough is ready, place the dough in a greased bowl and ferment for 1 ½ hours.

At the end of fermentation, when the dough is well risen, take it out on a clean surface, shape into a ball by folding the dough and degassing it gently.

This is how I shaped the ball- Round the dough in your hand. Bring the sides of the dough to the bottom rounding it. Squeeze and pinch the seam very tightly.

 Place the ball on the greased baking tray, cover and let it rest for 1 hour. It should become double in size by the end. Before baking, score the ball of risen dough with a sharp knife.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 200 degrees C for 25 to 30 minutes till the bread is well baked.

My Notes: Read the original recipe as I have halved the ingredients. Add water gradually because loose dough will not retain its shape. It will spread out. If you want big size holes in the bread, do not degas after first rise. Just fold it into a ball.
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Vegan Thursdays conceptualized by Priya