French country bread recipe

This country bread recipe is aimed at more experienced bakers.

If you’re about to bake your first loaves, we recommend this other wood-fired bread recipe, which provides clear instructions on how to make sourdough.

Preparation stages

1. Dissolve the yeast in a little lukewarm water for 15 minutes.

2. Mix the ingredients, which should be at room temperature (around 22 °C), for 15 minutes or for 8 minutes in a food processor.

3. Place the dough in a bowl covered with cling film and leave it to rise for 1 hour.

4. Divide the dough into 4 pieces of about 400 g each and shape them into balls.

5. Leave the dough balls to rise in proofing baskets or on a floured tray for 1 hour 30 minutes. Cover the dough balls with a clean, damp cloth to prevent them from drying out.

6. Make incisions on the top of the rolls with a knife. This allows the bread to rise better in the oven.

Baking country loaves

Grand-Mère wood-fired ovens are designed to produce intense, evenly distributed heat, perfect for baking beautiful, golden-brown loaves.

Heat the oven, ideally using logs 8 to 12 cm in diameter. Using larger logs allows the oven to heat up more slowly, and, more importantly, for longer. The heat thus builds up within the oven’s walls without overheating the cooking chamber.

After heating for at least 1½ hours, your wood-fired oven should normally be white all the way down to the base. As the old saying goes, ‘the white must reach right down to the bottom’.

Push the oven door open slightly, until most of the embers have turned to ash. Remove the ash from the cooking chamber, then remove all traces of ash from the hearth. To do this, you can use:

• Either a long handle with a piece of damp cotton attached to the end.
• Or a brush with brass bristles, specially designed for this purpose.

Then leave the oven to rest for 15 to 30 minutes, until a uniform temperature of around 240°C is reached.

Place the dough balls directly onto the baking stone, with the slashes facing upwards, and bake for 40 minutes with the oven door closed. Lightly mist the top of the bread with a water spray bottle as soon as it goes into the oven. This little trick delays the crust from setting, allowing the bread to rise better.