I created this bread in Israel with Henrietta Lovell, my love. We were invited to do an event that turned out to be a true collaboration, with a lovely man and great chef, Ezra Kedem, in his studio/restaurant, called Arcadia, close to Jerusalem. We paired Ezra’s food with my bread and Henrietta’s iced oolong tea, blended with fresh garden herbs. (If you know anything about Henrietta, you’ll know she is the drinks master, with the most amazing palate. They call her the Tea Lady, but her love and skill extend way beyond tea.)
Arcadia is set on a rural farm, on a beautiful mountainside with spectacular views. The day before the event, I walked around the kitchen garden, totally inspired by what they were growing. I thought that making a rye bread with Ezra’s seasonal farm ingredients was the way to bring our worlds together.
He had a few fig trees on the property, and I wondered what it would be like to line the bread pans with the leaves. It looked amazing and added a great flavor, almost a coconut scent. To make it even more figgy, I’ve added dried figs to this recipe, soaked in tea as a tribute to that day.
Since the whole-wheat flour absorbs more water than white, the dough benefits from a longer resting period after the initial mix. The rest for the basic country dough is 25 to 40 minutes; 40 minutes to an hour is good for whole wheat. Some bakers favor an overnight rest for whole grain—a technique worth exploring as long as you wait to add the leaven until you begin to give the dough turns.
These homemade grahams are buttery and crisp, with an incredible depth of flavor thanks to earthy whole wheat flour and the mellow maltiness of golden syrup—a type of light molasses.
For a classic sourdough bread recipe, we used a mixture of bread flour and whole-wheat flour for complex flavor. Sifting the whole-wheat flour removed excess bran, ensuring a light and airy loaf. For convenience and deep sourdough flavor, we let the shaped loaf proof overnight in the refrigerator. Baking it in a covered Dutch oven trapped steam to provide a crisp, crackling crust. We prefer King Arthur all-purpose flour here; if you can’t find it, you can substitute bread flour. For best results, weigh your ingredients. If you have a banetton or a lined proofing basket, use that rather than the towel-lined colander in step 3. Do not wait until the oven has preheated in step 6 to start timing 30 minutes or the bread will burn. [Ed note: For more advice on sourdough starters, please follow this link for an audio segment with Bridget Lancaster of America's Test Kitchen and a sourdough starter recipe courtesy of Cook's Illustrated. You can also try this recipe for Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread.]
By nurturing a culture of naturally occurring bacteria and yeast, a healthy sourdough starter will leaven bread while also lending it the trademark sour flavor. For a simple, foolproof approach, we began by mixing all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour, which provided extra nutrition for the developing bacteria and yeasts. We then added enough water to form a wet dough and let it sit at room temperature. After a few days, when it showed signs of life in the form of gas bubbles and a pungent aroma, we began a routine of daily feedings, mixing some of the culture with fresh flour and water to refresh the food supply. After 10 to 14 days, we found that the starter smelled pleasantly yeasty and doubled in volume 8 to 12 hours after the last feeding, a sign that it was ready to use to bake bread. We also came up with an easy way to maintain the starter between uses. We found that we could refresh the food supply just once a week by letting the culture sit for 5 hours at room temperature after feeding it and then moving it to the refrigerator for storage. [Ed. note: Try using your new sourdough starter to make the recipes for Classic Sourdough Bread (Pain au Levain) and Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread, also provided by America's Test Kitchen.]
Turning flour, water, and yeast into crusty, airy rolls is one of the hardest bits of kitchen wizardry around. We want to make the process foolproof.
For home cooks, pita is a great entry into the world of flatbreads, even into baking in general.
One of the things we added to this new edition of our first book is the ability to increase the whole grains in the basic loaf, so here's a rustic round loaf that's nearly half whole wheat. Dip it in rustic soup and throw together for a fantastic weeknight meal.