Shawna Daily

Daily Bread Routine

by Shawna Henderson. Her Facebook page is here.

This page is about making a loaf of bread (with the quantities here, about a two-pound loaf) every day as a routine.

Shawna says: Every morning, I do four things. Details are below.

1. Shape today's dough and let it rest for an hour,
2. make tomorrow's dough,
3. replenish the starter, and
4. toss the loaf in the oven and walk away til the buzzer goes off and the bread is ready.

The lovely thing is: this is all of 10 minutes, if that. I often put my espresso pot on the hob and finish the starter/loaf tasks in perfect time to pour the coffee. It's such a quiet little nugget of the day, I love it.

First, I shape today's bread:

• Carefully push/pull the dough out of the bowl, being careful not to knead at this point, the dough is full of lovely bubbles.
• Place on a well-floured surface (it's sticky).
• I make a long loaf, but you can put it in a dutch oven to make a round cobb.
• To make the loaf, stretch out gently into a rectangle. Roll the rectangle tightly and pinch the long side together. Lay onto pan (prepared with a smoosh of butter and cornmeal) with pinched side down. Let it rise for an hour.

Then, I make dough for tomorrow's bread:

• scoop out about half of the starter (I just eyeball it - measuring is goooooopy) into the bowl
• Add 1 c warm water, about 3 tbsp olive oil and some salt. Whisk it really well (I think this is a key point) so that it's frothy, then add 2 scoops of flour, which works out to somewhere between 3 and 4 cups of flour.
• Mix it all together, but not to much. It should look 'shaggy'. Cover with plastic or beeswax wrap for an hour to let it rest and allow it to 'autolyse'. Then, push it into a ball (I knead it a few times in the bowl), and cover again, til the next morning. By then it will be very bubbly and light.

Replenish the starter

• add 1/4c water and 1/2c flour
• mix well,
• and put it up high on the top of a cabinet so it's always in the warmest spot and not getting in the way.

And then I make coffee and tidy up, and futz around for the remainder of the hour the loaf is resting and tomorrow's dough is autolyzing, then

• knead tomorrow's dough a little, cover it, and put it away until tomorrow morning

Then after today's loaf has risen for an hour:

• take a serrated knife and slice 3-4 diagonal lines in the top of the loaf (about 1/4" deep).
• The dough is very soft so you oven rise it. Spritz oven with water, or have a loaf pan of just-boiled water in the bottom of the oven to keep the humidity up. Put the loaf in while the oven is cold, turn the oven on and voila!
• Baking time will vary, you'll have to experiment with your oven. My little convection oven is perfect for a long loaf at 400 for 40 min with convection on.

The times when we end up with too much bread, I make crackers with the starter instead of a loaf. (1/2c flour, some olive oil, a li'l herbes de provence or italian seasoning, let it rest for whatever, cut into 8 pcs, get out the pasta maker and roll the dough out into long tongues, spritz with a bit of water, sprinkle a few salt flakes over them and cook for 12± minutes at 350. Sooooo goooooood.)