Pain de campagne

Literally “country bread,” pain de campagne is rustic-style French bread usually made with a sourdough starter and a mixture of flours. As a rule, it is baked in the form of a bôule, or round loaf, proofed in a banneton—a basket with a linen liner. I find that a bôule is difficult to slice for breakfast toast, so I have adapted the recipe to make large bâtards.

In the days before commercial yeast was available, bakers would take a bit of the day’s dough and mix it into some water and flour to ferment for the next day. Today, a preferment, or poolish, is usually made with equal parts flour and water with a little yeast allowed to ferment for a few hours to overnight. I use equal parts of 100% hydration sourdough starter, flour, and water plus some yeast to develop a rich flavor.

As I have noted before, the only way to achieve consistent baking results is to measure ingredients by weight. I use metric units because the math is simpler. You do not need to be familiar with the metric system: just set you scale according and read off the numbers.

This recipe makes two 600-gram loaves, about 1⅓ pounds.

The Poolish:

Ingredients

100 grams sourdough starter or 50 g each flour and water

100 grams white or red whole wheat flour

100 milliliters (grams) water

1/2 teaspoon yeast (increase to 3/4 if not using starter)

Method

Put ingredients in bowl of heavy-duty stand mixer. Stir to combine. Place a lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap directly on the mixture and cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Allow to ferment for a couple of hours at warm room temperature.

The Bread:

Ingredients

All of the poolish

300 grams water

77 grams beer, lager is best, or more water

100 grams rye flour

562 grams bread flour

1/2 teaspoon yeast

12 grams (about 2 1/2 teaspoons) table salt

Method

Weigh the ingredients into the mixer bowl. Knead on the recommended setting until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, 10 minutes or so. Put a bit of oil into a large earthenware or glass proofing bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured counter and form into a ball. Roll in the oil and place the piece of plastic wrap directly on the dough. Cover with a kitchen towel and set aside to proof at warm room temperature until doubled.

Turn out onto a floured counter, divide in half, and form two loaves. Either place the loaves on parchment paper, on parchment paper on a sheet pan, or on a couche depending on how you plan to bake them. I use perforated metal loaf pans.

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). When doubled in size, slash the top of each loaf and place in the hot oven. Spritz if you wish. After 10 minutes, reduce heat to 400°F (200°C) and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until the interior of the bread is at 200°F (95°C).