Peasant Bread

Sideshow
Peasant Bread a.k.a. Jeffrey Bread
This bread is SO easy! Use tap water at 105°F.
And do butter the oven-safe glass bowls
well.
Yields: 2 loaves
Ingredients
4 cups Unbleached All-purpose Flour (512 g / 1
lb. 2 oz)
2 tsp Kosher Salt
2 cups Lukewarm Water*
2 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Active-dry or Instant Yeast
+/- 2 tbsp Butter, room temperature
*To make foolproof lukewarm water that will
not kill the yeast (water that's too hot can kill
yeast), boil some water — I use my teapot.
Then, mix 11⁄2 cups cold water with 1⁄2 cup
boiling water. This ratio of hot to cold water
will be the perfect temperature for the yeast.
fl
**Special Equipment: You need two 1-qt
oven-safe glass bowls
• Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour. (In the winter
or if you are letting the bread rise in a cool place, it might take as long as two hours to rise.) This is how to create a
slightly warm spot for your bread to rise in: Turn the oven on at any temperature (350°F or so) for one minute, then
turn it off. Note: Do not allow the oven to get up to 300°F, for example, and then heat at that setting for 1 minute —
this will be too hot. Just let the oven preheat for a total of 1 minute — it likely won't get above 100°F. The goal is to
just create a slightly warm environment for the bread.
• Preheat the oven to 425°F. Grease two oven-safe bowls (such as the 1-qt Pyrex bowls I mentioned above) with
about a tablespoon of butter each. Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the
bowl, which it will be clinging to. As you scrape it down ,try to turn the dough up onto itself if that makes sense.
You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you've punched it
down. Then, take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions — eye the center of the mass of
dough, and starting from the center and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Then scoop up each
half and place into your prepared bowls. This part can be a little messy — the dough is very wet and will slip all over
the place. Using small forks or forks with short tines makes this easier — my small salad forks work best; my dinner
forks make it harder. It's best to scoop it up fast and plop it in the bowl in one fell swoop.
• Let the dough rise for about 20 to 30 minutes on the countertop near the oven (or near a warm spot) or until it has
risen to just below or above (depending on what size bowl you are using) the top of the bowls. (Note: Do not do
the warm-oven trick for the second rise, and do not cover your bowls for the second rise. Simply set your bowls on
top of your oven, so that they are in a warm spot. Twenty minutes in this spot usually is enough for my loaves.)
• Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375°F and make for 15 to 17 minutes longer. Remove from the oven and
turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If you've greased the bowls well, the loaves should fall right out onto the
cooling racks. If the loaves look a little pale and soft when you've turned them out onto your cooling racks, place
the loaves into the oven (outside of their bowls) and let them bake for about 5 minutes longer. Remove from
oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.
fl
And so it was that for pretty much every
Sunday in the last two years I've provided
some Jeffrey Bread, as it's now called, to
Jessica and to the Baileys.
fl
The bread was a hit.
• If you are using active-dry yeast: In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the sugar into the water. Sprinkle the yeast over
top. There is no need to stir it up. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy and/or
bubbling just a bit — this step will ensure that the yeast is active. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the our
and salt. When the yeast-water-sugar mixture is foamy, stir it up, and add it to the our bowl. Mix until the our is
absorbed.
• If you are using instant yeast: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the our, salt, sugar, and instant yeast. Add the
water. Mix until the our is absorbed.
fl
Not long after joining the circus for
Accelerando, I started making this bread,
having found the recipe on Facebook. One
Sunday afternoon, I brought a loaf to give to
Jessica, and a loaf to give to the Bailey
brothers.
Instructions
fl
Jeffery Richard Carter
V

Paperturn flip book system