My Daily Bread
This is it, the loaf you've been waiting for
Ok, fans of handmade food, here at long last is the bread recipe that I’ve baked more than all others combined. This is my daily driver—it’s the loaf featured in the Things on Bread logo at the top of every email that subscribers receive. It represents the culmination of close to 20 years of sourdough baking, and it’s very good—I honestly bake this 1-3 times a week. I baked this loaf in the photos this morning (the day before you’re seeing it) just for this post.
To me this formula strikes the perfect balance: the deep flavor, heft, and crackling crust you expect from a whole-grain loaf, but with the bouncy rise and semi-open crumb that you’d associate with one made from white flour. The dough hydration is moderate, making it easy to work with, and there are no esoteric steps or equipment required. I’ve honed the recipe over the years so that it’s pretty foolproof—my son just started baking using this recipe and he’s delighted.
Since you bake it the day after you make the dough, this is a recipe that can easily be fit into your schedule since it can hang out in the fridge for quite a while if you’re busy. I am going to assume that you have some knowledge of sourdough and baking, and that you have a starter and know how to feed it. If you want a refresher course on maintaining a starter, you can read my post here. But you do not need to be a seasoned baker to pull this off. It’s pretty basic.
It’s also a recipe that’s easily modified with different flour ratios, so you can use it as the basis for some experiments with other grains if you want. You can also just get comfortable with it and just repeat as needed to keep yourself in world-class bread for the rest of your life. That’s basically what I do unless I have need for a specific thing, like my sweet potato rolls for burgers or my 100% rye bread for a Nordic-style tinned fish application.
Above all, though, this bread is easy to make, nourishing, and damn delicious. It’s happy being laden with a panoply of sandwich fixings, and it positively beams when simply slathered with good butter. You can plop it in a loaf pan if you want more regular slices, or you can shape it into a batard or boule or even a couple of passable demi-baguettes—or a basket’s worth of dinner rolls. It’s the one dough to rule them all. This is the definitive Bread to put Things on.
