Wild fermented by my local bacteria, given a long, cool rise – “retarding” in baking terms, my recent bread adventures have ended with glorious, crusty loaves.

I’ve been collecting shards of conversations about gluten recently, not facts I can document, but claims I hear.  Some people say

that much of a bread - or even pasta’s - gluten is broken down by either resting for a long time in the open air, exposed to bacteria, or in the slow, cool rising typical of old world breads.  

That’s one reason, one of my conversation shards say, Europeans don’t have the gluten problem we do.  Their breads rise very slowly and they let their pasta doughs rest for a day in the open air.  Quick-acting yeast and being in a hurry are the demons here.  Those quick-acting yeasts pump up a loaf in an hour, and make it oven-ready in two.  That super-charged rise makes air pockets quickly, stretching the wheat into little gluten-producing gymnasiums, working double-time to produce Olympian gluten.

Looking for facts not claims I went to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, who says little about gluten but this about the virtues of a slow rise:  “Long, slow fermentation allows both yeasts and bacteria more time to generate flavor compounds.  Cold dough is stiffer than warm dough, so it’s easier to handle without causing a loss of leavening gas.  And the cycle of cooling and rewarming redistributes the dough gases (from small bubbles into the water phase, then back out into larger bubbles), and encourages the development of a more open, irregular crumb structure.”  This process is called “retarding” the dough.  

McGee also does say that the acid conditions and bacterial protein-digesting enzymes of sourdough bread weaken gluten.

That was enough hard gluten science for me, as no one else has been able to completely explain the current gluten conversation, but all this talk about bacteria and slow-rises sent me to the kitchen to make bread this way, capturing the wild bacteria in the air for a starter and allowing the dough long, cool rises in the refrigerator.  I’ve been making one flavorful, well-crumbed, crusty loaf after another.  

Wild Bread

makes 2 loaves

to make the wild starter:

ingredients

Approximately:

1 cup flour

1 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

Instructions

Stir together ingredients in a jar.  Cover loosely with saran wrap, simply to keep out dust.  Let sit out unrefrigerated for a couple of days.  You may refrigerate it after it has been bubbling for a while.  I used my starter after five days, and it was very active.  Feed the starter basically when you remember to with a good sprinkling of flour, or any grain you have lying around, and some more water if it gets too thick.

To make the bread:

Ingredients

1 cup starter

3 cups warm water

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

cornmeal for the baking sheet

enough flour to make a stiff dough.  (I have used King Arthur White, Alprilla Farm whole grain flour, and various grains I’ve wanted to use up in my refrigerator, with the heaviest proportion of white, as I didn’t want brick-like bread.  All the combinations made a great loaf with lots of character.)

Instructions

In a large bowl, stir together the ingredients into a dough.  Knead until it becomes creamy.  This happens in about 2-3 minutes.  Shape into a ball.  Cover with saran wrap, and place in a bowl in the refrigerator.  Forget about this for a couple of days, or as short as 24 hours.  

The dough will be gently risen and cold.  Remove it from the refrigerator, push down and knead for another 2- 3 minutes.  Return it to the refrigerator covered again, and forget again.  

When you remember, or when you have the time to bake it, remove dough, knead again, and shape it into two round loaves.  Place them on a cornmeal-dusted baking sheet.  Make 3 parallel slashes across the top of each loaf, and allow to sit at room temperature for about an hour.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake loaves for a half hour at 350 degrees.  I have increased the temperature to 450 at this point to get a browner crust.  This seemed to be more necessary the more whole wheat I had in the loaf.  I have also continued baking at 350 and both seem to work fine.  This is again where you should play around and treat each loaf as its own adventure.  The entire baking time is about an hour.  The bread should be done when you can tap on it and hear a knocking sound, and when it lifts freely from the baking sheet.  Cool on a rack.

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