Auvergne Bread Recipe

Ingredients to make Auvergne bread:

1. 12 grams of baker’s yeast
2. 200 grams of warm water
3. 350 grams of strength flour
4. 2 teaspoons of Salt

How to make Auvergne bread:

• The first step to prepare our crispy and fluffy homemade bread will be to crumble the yeast in the warm water and mix with a teaspoon.
• It is very important that the water is warm, if it is very hot, it can kill the yeast and not raise the dough.
• On the other hand, we must sift the flour into a large bowl and add the salt and diluted yeast. Stir with a wooden spoon.
• If you have a mixer, put the hook for this purpose and knead at medium power for 4-5 minutes. The dough has to be elastic.
• If you knead by hand, flour a work surface and knead for 10 minutes with your hands until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• Next, we cover the dough with a clean cloth and let it rest in a warm place for 1 hour 30 minutes.
• It is important that the resting dough does not have drafts nearby so that the yeast can take effect and rise well. To avoid this you can leave it inside the oven turned off.
• After the rest time, we proceed to take a small portion of dough and form a ball. With the rest of the dough make another big ball. Put on the baking tray lined with baking paper, cover again and leave to rest for15 minutes.
• The next step, after the second rest, will be to stretch the dough. To do this you must flour a work surface, deposit the small ball and with the help of a roller, smooth.
• Brush the center and edges with water.
• Turn the flat dough over and deposit on top of the large ball. Let rest for another hour and a half in a warm place covered with a cloth, avoiding drafts.
• In this way we will make our homemade hard crust bread.
• After the rest time, turn on the oven at 200ºC.
• Fill an oven proof container with water and place it inside so that the bread bakes with moisture.
• Sprinkle the bread with a little flour through a sieve, and when the oven is very hot, introduce the bread. Bake for 30 minutes at 200º C.Then lower the temperature to 180º C and bake for 10 more minutes.
• Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack so that all the moisture from the bottom of the bread comes out.
• Tip:Once the bread is cold, keep it well wrapped in a clean cloth.