Classic French white bread

For 4 loaves, you will need:

• 1 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65)
• 2 620 ml water
• 3 18 g fine (or table) salt
• 4 15 g yeast
• 5 100 g Soured dough (optional)
• Total weight: 1,655 grams

Times:

Step by step recipe

• 1: Put into a food-processor bowl: 1 kg plain white flour (French Type 65), 18 g fine (or table) salt, 15 g yeast and, if possible, 100 g Soured dough.
• 2: In bread-making, the water temperature is always important. It's not a fixed value, but related to 3 other temperatures: 1) the temperature of your flour, 2) the room temperature in your kitchen, and 3) the basic temperature of this recipe, which is 48-52°C.
  You can calculate the temperature of the water for this recipe in one click, using this small calculator.
• 3: Add 620 ml water at the right temperature, then knead on the slowest speed until the ingredients are well mixed (about 3 minutes).
  Note: For the best way to knead, see: A few tips for effective kneading at home.
• 4: Knead a little faster (the next speed up) for around 15 minutes, until the dough temperature reaches 24°C (75°F).
  You could also chech the dough by trying the window-pane test.
• 5: Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured worktop.
• 6: Gather the dough into a ball and transfer to a large, clean bowl. Cover with a sheet of plastic.
  Leave to rest for 15 minutes.
• 7: After this time, tip the dough onto a lightly floured worktop and cut into pieces of about 500g each.
• 8: You can weigh each piece to check, as it is not easy to do this by eye.
  Note: using the quantities stated, you can expect to obtain 1750 g of dough, to divide up as you choose.
• 9: Form each piece of dough into a ball.
  As the gesture for doing this is difficult to describe, you can see it in the short video on the right.
• 10: Place the balls of dough on the floured worktop, dust the tops with flour and cover with a sheet of plastic.
  Leave to rest for 15 minutes. This allows the dough to "relax".
• 11: Shape the loaves.
  As the gesture for doing this is difficult to describe, you can see how it is done in the short video on the right.
• 12: Place each loaf in a banneton (French raising basket), dusting the bottom generously with flour first.
  Cover with a sheet of plastic and leave to rise for 2 hours.
• 13: Preheat the oven to 240°C (460°F).
  Turn the loaves over onto the peel (for a wood-fired oven) or onto a baking sheet (for a conventional oven), slash the tops and bake...
• 14: ...for 30 to 40 minutes.
  Note: As when baking any bread, you should ensure that the oven is filled with steam for the first 15 minutes of baking. This page shows you how; it really is the secret of golden-brown, crusty loaves..
• 15: You will notice how the holes in the bread are regular in size. This comes from the action of the yeast which, unlike leaven, produces even bubbles.

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