Name: How to make homemade bread for the holidays?
Ingredients: 300 g wheat or spelt flour(all-purpose, cake flour type 500 or 700, but preferably bread flour type 850); 100 g wholemeal wheat or spelt flour, e.g., type 1850; 1.5 teaspoons of salt; 20 g fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon of dry yeast); 300 g cold water; wholemeal flour or bran for dusting the bread

How to make homemade bread for the holidays?

How to make it?

2023-12-14

avg. 4 | number of ratings: 4

Ingridients:

300 g wheat or spelt flour (all-purpose, cake flour type 500 or 700, but preferably bread flour type 850)
100 g wholemeal wheat or spelt flour, e.g., type 1850
1.5 teaspoons of salt
20 g fresh yeast (or 1 teaspoon of dry yeast)
300 g cold water
wholemeal flour or bran for dusting the bread

Contrary to appearances, making homemade bread isn’t difficult. Fresh, crunchy, and aromatic bread made at home is not only tastier, but also healthier than what’s sold in stores. Since bread is a staple in many households, it’s worth ensuring it’s truly high quality. If you want to see and taste the difference — decide to bake your own bread. With our recipe, you’re sure to succeed. Discover a tried-and-tested recipe and our secrets that will make you fall in love with the taste of bread all over again!

How to make homemade bread?

Whole-wheat bread recipe – step by step

Sift the flour into a large bowl (add the bran collected in the sieve after sifting the wholemeal flour), add the salt and yeast, and mix everything with a spoon. Pour in the water and mix the ingredients with a spoon (briefly, just until combined, for about half a minute). Cover the bowl of dough with a plate or plastic wrap and leave to rise for about 14 hours (minimum 9), preferably overnight, at room temperature (e.g., on the kitchen counter).

Dust a pastry board or countertop with white flour and turn out the dough; fold it three or four times, each time in half (the dough will be quite loose and won’t form a neat ball).

Lay a clean kitchen towel on the counter, dust it with wholemeal flour, and place the folded dough seam-side down on it. Cover the dough with the overhanging sides of the towel and leave in a warm place for 1 - 2 hours until doubled in size.

Half an hour before the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 240 - 250 °C, positioning the rack one-third from the bottom of the oven. Place a covered, ovenproof pot, e.g., an enameled cast-iron one, on the rack and heat it along with the oven.

Carefully, using oven mitts, remove the hot pot from the oven and take off the lid. Place the dough in the pot (slide it off the towel, taking care not to cover the bread with too much flour) or quickly and carefully transfer the loaf to the pot with floured hands). Be careful, because the pot will be very hot! Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and continue baking until the bread is well browned but not burnt, for 15 - 30 minutes (5-10 minutes after removing the lid you can place aluminum foil on top of the bread to prevent burning and allow it to brown properly).

Remove the pot with the bread from the oven, open it, and after a few minutes take the bread out of the pot and place it on a metal rack to cool completely. Slice the bread only after it has cooled.

Instead of an ovenproof pot, you can also use a Roman pot. Soak it in water for 15 minutes, then thoroughly grease the inside with butter and dust with flour, then transfer the dough into it. Place it in a cold oven for 30 minutes to let the dough rise. After this time, cover the pot with the lid and increase the temperature to 250 °C and bake for 20 minutes. After that time, remove the lid, lower the oven temperature to 190-200 °C and leave the bread in for another 40 minutes. After this time the crust should be browned, and when you tap the bottom, the bread should sound hollow.

Enjoy! ...because homemade is better!