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Steven Thomas

Pain de Campagne (French Country Bread)

A French country style loaf using a sourdough starter. This variant adds some extra yeast.

Ingredients
  

  • 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 200 ml water 1/3 boiling water and 2/3 cold tap water
  • 325 grams strong white flour
  • 50 grams rye flour or wholemeal flour, or just more white flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 250 ml about a cup of Sourdough Bread Starter

Method
 

  1. Sprinkle yeast over the water. Leave for 5 min. Stir to dissolve.
  2. Mix flour and salt together in a large bowl and make a well in the centre
  3. Pour sourdough start into the well in the flour mixture.
  4. Pour over the yeasted water.
  5. Mix in the flour from the sides to form a stiff, sticky dough. (If the mixture is too dry then add up to 1 tablespoon of water - 1 tablespoon is a lot.)
  6. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 min)
  7. Put the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise for 2 hours.
  8. Knock back. Leave to rest for 10 min.
  9. Shape the dough into a round loaf.
  10. Place on a floured baking sheet, cover, and prove until doubled in size (about 1 hour; the book says 1 1/2 hours but I found this too long and the dough becomes over-proved.)
  11. Dust the loaf with flour.
  12. Cut slashes in the top (a grid formed by 3 parallel slashes crossed by another set of 3 is traditional)
  13. Bake at 220ยบ C until golden brown and hollow sounding (about 30-40 min; the book says 60 min, but I've never had to cook for longer than 40 min).
  14. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Adapted from Treuille and Ferrigno (1998)