Technique #34: Learn to Bake a Loaf of Artisan Bread

Many recipes use a starter, a bubbly culture of yeast and bacteria “grown” from flour, water, and yeast or sourdough culture, to leaven the bread and create flavor. But for a simpler bread, you can use beer instead of a starter. Because it’s fermented, beer contains flavor compounds similar to those in a starter, so it gives bread those complex, rustic flavors. And the beer’s carbonation mimics the starter’s leavening action.

As for the alchemy: Kneading the dough until it’s smooth and elastic develops proper gluten structure. Then, during the first rise, the yeast creates carbon dioxide bubbles that cause the dough to expand. Deflating, folding, and shaping the risen dough into a taut loaf ensures an evenly shaped and textured final bread.

Because the yeast gets redistributed during all that folding and shaping, a second rise allows the shaped loaf to regain volume. Slashing the top of the loaf before baking isn’t just a dramatic touch: It allows the loaf to rise evenly in the oven by creating designated weak spots in the gluten sheath; without slashing, the bread will expand irregularly wherever a random weak spot happens to occur.

We use bread flour for artisan loaves, which has a higher protein content than all-purpose flour, ensuring the strong gluten development essential to rustic breads. We also prefer instant (rapid-rise) yeast, which can be added directly to dry ingredients. Active dry yeast is heated more aggressively during production, which kills the outer cells, so it must be dissolved in warm liquid to reactivate it before use. 

To knead the dough, we recommend using a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. It’s easy to add too much flour when you knead by hand, which will compromise the rustic texture and chew of your well-earned loaf.

While this method isn't completely devoid of kneading, it will definitely save you plenty of elbow grease by letting a stand mixer do most of the hard labor. Your role will simply to be to lightly knead and roll the dough into a bowl before the first rise.

Once the dough has risen, stretching and forming the loaf is all that's left to do before letting it rise a second time, and baking in the oven.

We'll use our Classic Italian Bread recipe to illustrate this technique. Once you read through that recipe, follow our step by step guide to learn about key steps.

Now that you’ve learned how to make a simple from-scratch bread, you no longer need to settle for pale, doughy supermarket loaves or make a detour to a bakery. Try out your new skills in these recipes.