The bread recipe which follows, a creamy white loaf, is the creation of Prof Raymond Calvel, a retired professor of the Ecole Francaise de Meunier, a milling school.
It is the best bread I have ever baked on every score - best flavour, best texture, best keeping quality, best for toasting, best for sandwiches. I believe starting the initial dough the night before and starting to make the second stage in the morning is a good idea, for to observe all the timings means the bread will take most of the day.
Do note that the water measurements here are given by weight, so after you have weighed your flour, pour the water onto the scales and get the correct volume that way.
The bread is best rested for at least two hours after baking, is at its most delicious on the second day, and keeps for four days; not that it will get the chance.
Prof Calvel's White Loaf
Pre-fermented dough: 265g strong white flour, with 20g for kneading
1/2 level teaspoon dry yeast granules
1 level teaspoon fine sea salt
175g warm water
Main dough:
525g strong white flour, allowing 50g extra for overwet dough and kneading
11/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
350g warm water
1/2 teaspoon yeast granules
Pre-fermented dough: Dissolve yeast in two teaspoons warm water, let stand for five minutes. Add to remaining ingredients in large mixing bowl, combine, turn out on lightly floured board and knead for three minutes.
Return to bowl, cover with damp tea-towel, store in plastic bag and allow to stand at about 77F, 25C for 4-5 hours.
Main dough: Dissolve yeast in a cup with two teaspoons warm water. Let stand. Mix flour, salt and water in a second large bowl. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knead for three minutes, dusting with flour to prevent sticking. Return to bowl and let rest, covered by a damp tea-towel, for 15 minutes.
Add dissolved yeast, pre-fermented dough and knead in bowl, before turning out to knead on counter for 10 minutes. Knead gently, folding, pressing and rolling. Do not pin the dough with one
hand and stretch with the other, as this will tear the gluten structure, the protein strands that trap gas and allow the bread to rise.
Once the dough is smooth, resilient and has a bouyant, lively quality, allow to rise in a covered bowl for 30 minutes. Deflate it and allow to rise for another 60 minutes.
You should then have about 1.35kg raw dough. This is perfect for two 500g loaf tins, but you can section the dough off to fit what ever tins you have, gently and very briefly folding and kneading the sections.
Fit these into the tins, which should be about half-filled with deflated dough. Cover with damp tea-towels, place in a plastic bag and allow dough a final rise, from 1-2 hours, at room temperature.
It is ready to bake when the dough has doubled in size. This dough bakes well in a steamy or dry oven. In this case, steam will give an extra crackle to the crust.
An hour before baking, place a tray in the bottom of the oven and preheat it to 240C/465F/gas 9. Just before baking, boil a kettle. Using a sharp knife or razor, score the top of the loaf down the middle, about a quarter-inch deep.
Working as quickly as possible, so the oven door does not stand open too long, pour the boiling water into the tray and slip loaf tins onto racks set midway in the oven.
Close door and reduce heat to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Depending on the size of the loaf tin, bake for 45-75 minutes. For the last five minutes of baking, remove tin from oven, knock out loaf and return to oven to finish the crust.
To test its doneness, tap around the side: it should make a hollow sound. Cool on a wire rack.
John McKenna can be contacted at jmckenna@irish-times.ie