The Everyday Country Loaf

Before you start chasing high-hydration, open-crumb showstoppers, learn this loaf. It is the one that teaches you everything. The fermentation window, the feel of properly developed dough, the difference a hot stone makes, the sound a finished crust makes when you tap it. Get this right and every other bread you ever bake gets easier.

This is a 75% hydration country loaf. Mostly bread flour, straightforward method, roughly 24 hours from start to finish. The bulk of that time is the dough doing its job while you do yours. The active work is maybe an hour, spread over a day.

Start here. Stay here for a while. There is more to learn from this one loaf than it looks like.

This is the loaf to master first. It's a moderate hydration (75%), uses mostly bread flour, and produces a classic open crumb with a thick, chewy crust. Total time from mix to oven is roughly 24 hours, most of which is hands-off.

Ingredients (weighed, not measured by volume):

• 100 grams active sourdough starter
• 375 grams warm filtered water
• 500 grams bread flour
• 10 grams fine sea salt

Method:

In a large mixing bowl set on your Escali scale, tare and add the starter. Tare again, add the water, and whisk to dissolve the starter. Tare once more and add the flour. Mix by hand until no dry flour remains, then cover and rest for 1 hour. Set a timer — this is your autolyse, and it dramatically improves dough extensibility.

After resting, sprinkle the salt over the dough along with a small splash of water, and work it in by gently pinching and folding. The dough will tighten up as the salt dissolves and integrates.

Begin bulk fermentation. Over the next four to five hours at room temperature, perform four sets of stretch-and-folds spaced 30 minutes apart. Use your timer to track these intervals — they're easy to forget, and skipping one will cost you structure. The dough is ready when it has risen by roughly 50%, shows visible bubbles on the surface and sides, and feels billowy and alive.

Shape the dough into a tight round, place it seam-side up in a floured banneton or towel-lined bowl, and refrigerate overnight (8 to 14 hours).

The next morning, preheat your oven to 500°F with a pizza stone or Dutch oven on the middle rack. Let it heat for at least 45 minutes — a properly preheated stone is non-negotiable for good oven spring and crust development. Old Stone Pizza Kitchen's pizza stones double beautifully as bread-baking surfaces; the thermal mass replicates the floor of a professional deck oven and gives your loaf the burst of bottom heat it needs to spring upward.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment, score it with a sharp blade (a single decisive slash works well to start), and slide it onto the hot stone. Add steam by placing a metal pan of boiling water on the lower rack, or by spraying the oven walls. Bake at 500°F for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 450°F and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is deeply browned and the internal temperature reads 205°F.

Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing. Cutting too early releases steam and leads to a gummy crumb.

Two things people get wrong with this loaf, consistently. The first is the bake. Most home ovens do not run as hot as their displays claim, and even the ones that do lose significant heat when you open the door. Preheat longer than you think you need to. Forty-five minutes is the floor, not the target. The stone needs to be saturated with heat, not just warm.

The second is cutting too early. An hour on the rack sounds like a long time when the loaf is sitting right there. It is not long enough. The crumb is still setting as the steam redistributes through the loaf. Cut into it at 20 minutes and you'll have a gummy, doughy interior even if the crust is perfect. Wait the full hour. Longer is better.

Everything else in this recipe is forgiving. The timing on bulk fermentation is a window, not a hard number. The overnight cold retard can stretch to 14 hours without hurting anything. But the preheat and the cooling rest are fixed. Don't negotiate on those two.

Tools used: Escali Scale · Old Stone Pizza Kitchen Pizza Stone