Rustic Bread

​In a nearby small Wisconsin town there is a coffee shop and bakery.  The husband and wife owners have owned the business for eight years and appear to some success.  To augment their business the baker, Shawn, offers inexpensive ($20) two hour baking classes.  My wife and I decided to take the class on rustic bread, one of my favorite foods.
We each received a three ring binder filled with recipes, baking tips, and the chemistry of baking bread.  There were eight other souls in class with us.  Everything was prepared for us to be able to learn how to make rustic bread. We had a choice of working with regular white bread flour, Wisconsin red wheat flour or sprouted grain flour.  Lynette wanted the challenge of sprouted grain flour and as usual she proved to be right.
Shawn guided us through the process of making bread.  Rustic bread is based on using a “poolish”.  A poolish was developed in Poland hundreds of years ago and has the distinction of being the only culinary development not claimed by the French as their own.  The poolish includes warm tap water, organic bread flour, organic wheat bread flour and yeast which are mixed together with exactly 100 strokes.  You let it rise (proof is the bakers’ term) for two hours and it forms a warm spongy ball of goodness.
I won’t bore you with the rest of the process but it involves two more proofs and 15 minutes of kneading.  So, do the math.  Just to get the bread ready to bake – takes 6 hours.  Making rustic bread is not for the faint of heart.
Shawn taught us to bake bread at a very high temperature – 425 degrees F for a short time – about 15 minutes.  Then he uses a meat thermometer, stabbing the bread, to ensure it is between 180-215 degrees.  The higher the temperature, the crustier the crust.  Never before have I taken a loaf of bread’s temperature.
But, it works.  So for the next few years I’m going to stay home and make rustic bread.  I’ve already signed up to take a sourdough bread baking class in March with Shawn, that should keep me busy.