Crusted cloud, hand made using a Biga Revised October 2011

I have been making bread forshort and during this time I have read a lot of articles and tried various recipes. My biggest fascination has been with yeast. At first I grew my own yeast from raisins bought from a store and coriander leaves (grown in my garden) and by making a starter with commercial yeast. All of these worked and mostly quite well. Recently however I stumbled on an article explaining how to make ciabatta, I wanted to get the large holes that you see in this Italian bread. The article described how to make a biga or preferment (some call it a poolish. Their suggestion was to leave it for 24hours or so. After a lot of research and experimentation I have further refined and perfected this method.

Preparation:
30 minutes, approximately.
Waiting:
5 hours
Baking:
40 minutes
Start to finish:
just over 6 hours

This is what I use, but its very personal.
For preparation:

• Electronic scale or volumetric measure devices (spoons, cups. bushels etc.)
• Large mixing basin, something you can get two hands in to mix
• Medium bowl (1.5-2l)
• Small bowl (600ml)
• Tiny bowl or cup (for handling flour and helping to weigh or measure ingredients)
• Wire hand whisk
• Sieve
• wooden spoon
• Spoons
• Sharp knife
• Large, clean flat surface
• 2 rising bowls (I use a couple of salad bowls)
• Cling film

For baking:

• 3 loaf tins ( I really like the silicone ones)
• Shallow oven tray (cookie sheet with sides)
• Wire cooling rack

Amounts in brackets are for US measures (Which are not too precise)

• Flour, hard, strong or bread....900g (7.5 cups, 32oz )
• Water....550ml (2.25 cups, 18oz [wt] )
• Sugar....100g (3.5 -5.8Tbsp, 2.5oz)
• Salt....25g (1Tbsp, 0.9oz)
• Yeast, dried active....25g (1Tbsp, 0.9oz)
• Olive oil....smidgen (smidgen)

Flour: I use Manitoba flour, which I buy from Costco in the UK. It comes in 16kg sacks for about £10. In the US you probably pay around $10 because this is the way of the world. You can use any plain flour, but the best results will be obtained from high gluten flour, which is commonly sold in 1.5 kilo, or 3lb bags (sometimes smaller). It may be called hard, bread or strong flour. Sometimes I mix in 50% brown or stone milled bread flour.
Yeast: I use Allinson's Dried Active Yeast, this comes in little tins (cans) for about 60p. I have used home grown yeast (I may write another hub on this), but it must be very active to work well.

Biga: The biga, or preferment, is how I prepare the yeast for my dough. It seems that yeast is the most productive after about 2-3 hours of growth (this is my guess).
In your large mixing basin, pour 550ml of boiling water and add 100g of sugar. I also like to add some maple syrup at this point, but it is not necessary. Use your whisk to dissolve the sugar and swish the water around the basin to heat it up. Allow the water to cool to body heat. Use your finger to make sure the water feels warm but not hot. Add the yeast, 25g, and stir. Wait about 5 minutes then whisk in 200g of flour (use a sieve) . continue to whisk for a few minutes. It will become like a frothy wet milkshake. Cover the basin tightly with cling film and leave for about 2-3 hours. This is your biga. It will bubble and grow to almost fill the basin then drop back. I believe that this is when the yeast has used most of the sugar and flour and achieved the major part of its growth.

Dough: Grease the bowl or bowls that you are going to use for rising, with butter or olive oil. I use a spoonful of olive oil in each of two bowls. remove the cover from your biga and add the salt(25g) and remainder of the flour (700g). use a sieve! Stir it all together then dump the big ragged pile onto a lightly floured surface. Start to work the dough. It will seem wet and sticky at first. Persevere and use both your hands. I use a stretching folding action. I flatten it with my right hand and pull and stretch, then fold back with my left. Everyone has there own way, but essentially you have to keep folding the dough to mix everything up. Do this for 10 to 15 minutes, until the dough feels elastic and smooth. At this point I divide the dough in half with a sharp knife and work each half into a tight bun shape. Then I put each piece into a rising bowl. (You can leave it in one piece and use your basin or another large bowl). Then I brush the surface of the dough with some of the olive oil and cover tightly with cling film. Leave the dough to rise for 1 to 3 hours It will double or treble in size and fill your bowls.

Either grease your tins well with butter, I use the butter wrapper for this, or use silicone bakeware and use it clean. lightly sprinkle flour onto your kneading surface then remove the film from your rising bowl and using your hands, remove the risen dough. Flatten the dough onto the surface and fold it onto itself. Turn the dough through 90^o and do the same thing. You can do this a couple of times, but I find that if you don't work it too much you will get bigger cells in the finished bread. I then take a third of each piece and put them together, making three pieces. Place the finished dough into the greased tins or onto a cookie sheet. Deeply score the top with a sharp knife and cover with film. Leave for about 45 minutes or an hour, Until it has at least doubled in size (If you leave it longer it will become bigger and lighter). Place the shallow tray in the bottom of your oven and preheat to max (Gas mark 9 or 400^oF, 240^oC). While the oven is heating boil a kettle of water. When the oven is ready, pour the boiling water into the tray at the bottom of your oven and put in the baking tins. Wait a couple of minutes then lower the temperature to gas mark 4.5 or about 190^oC and bake for about 15 minutes. The dough should rise a little more and start to brown. After 15 minutes, rearrange the tins (this is not necessary if you have a fan assisted oven) and bake for a further 20 minutes. (35 minutes total.) Remove the bread from the oven and empty it onto a cooling grid. The bottoms of the loaves may still be a little soft. If you want, put them back in the oven, directly on the shelves, upside down and bake for a further 5 minutes. Alow the bread to cool on the cooling grid. I hope you enjoy it. All comments gratefully received.

Bytchy.

I have written a revision and here is the link http://misterbytchy.hubpages.com/hub/Crusty-bread-with-cloud-soft-crumb. Basically I started a new business helping people like this http://www.paperartconservation.co.uk/ and now need more time, so I bought a MUM. Will tell all.

Bytchy