Sunday, January 30, 2022

Martha Stewart Loves The Peasant Bread And Her Loaves Look...

... really good! Look at that loft 🎉

In case you missed it, last Monday Martha Stewart posted a photo on Instagram of bread she had baked in bowls, the recipe for which she saw on an Instagram Reel.

The Reel happened to be this one, of my mother's peasant bread, and when many people, including the wonderful Margaret Roach, clued Martha into the whole peasant bread story, Martha gave me a lovely shoutout.

This past week, I received a number of messages about the peasant bread, one of the most frequent comments being: "My peasant bread never rises that high."

Martha's loaves indeed look super lofty, but the reason for this — more than Martha having a particularly magic touch — comes down to the size of the bowls. It's hard to tell from the photo what size bowl Martha is using, but I'm guessing it's smaller than 1 quart.

If you use a bowl sized 1-qt or less, the finished loaf will appear to have risen dramatically in the oven, but the reality is that the taste and texture of the finished loaf will be exactly the same as a loaf baked in a larger, wider bowl.

So, unless you care about the visual appearance of the loaf, don't despair about your loaves' seeming lack of oven spring.

If you are using 1-qt bowls and you are still not satisfied by the oven spring you would like, here are three more tips:

3 More Tips for Better Oven Spring

Bread Flour. All-purpose flour is just fine for the peasant bread, but if you're looking for a little more spring, give bread flour a try. I am partial to King Arthur Flour.
SAF Instant Yeast. Many varieties of yeast work well, but SAF is particularly reliable.
One More Rise. If time permits, after the peasant bread makes one rise, deflate it, and let it rise again until it doubles. Deflate it again; then proceed with the recipe. You may find that giving the peasant bread dough a little more time to rise gives you loftier loaves.