Rustic Style Crunchy French Cob Loaf

Nothing like home cooking….. Batch of rustic Pea and Ham soup made yesterday and my first attempt of a Rustic style Crunchy French cob loaf to go with it today.

Bread Ingredients for Rustic Style Crunchy French Cob Loaf –

* 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (9 grams)
* .1 teaspoon sugar (4 grams) (use honey if you prefer)
* ..1 1/4 cups warm water (300 grams)
* ..1 1/2 teaspoons (10 grams) kosher salt
* 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour (I used bakers flour)(360 grams) plus extra for dusting.

Method –

MIX THE DOUGH & FIRST RISE (1 HOUR):

1. Combine yeast, sugar, and warm water in a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.
2. Let the yeast proof for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is foamy.
3. Add kosher salt and flour to bowl. Mix with your hands or a sturdy spatula, or mix on low speed with your stand mixer until all flour is incorporated and dough has just started to pull away from the sides of the bowl. For best results, mix until no dry bits of flour remain.

Please note: This is a relatively slack (wet) dough, so it may seem a bit shaggy and sticky at this point. Don’t worry – it will become more smooth and elastic as we go!

4. Lightly flour all sides of your dough (don’t mix the flour in – it’s just to keep the dough from sticking!) and turn it over inside the mixing bowl to coat with flour on all sides. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise on the counter for about 1 hour, until dough has doubled in size.

SHAPE THE DOUGH & FINAL RISE (30 MIN):
1. When dough has risen, lightly flour a large cutting board.

2. Tip the dough out of the bowl and onto the cutting board. DO NOT PUNCH THE DOUGH DOWN – you want to keep all those nice air bubbles intact so you have an airy, tasty loaf of bread. (Note: If the dough is sticking to the bowl a little bit, wet your hand with a bit of cold water and gently separate the dough from the bowl to get it all out).

3. Sprinkle a bit of flour across the top of the dough, then begin shaping it into a round loaf. Pull each corner of the dough in towards the center (like you’re folding an envelope) and repeat until the dough feels tight and begins to resist your folds. Flip the dough over and tap it into a round loaf. Watch the video(s) above to see exactly how we do this!

4. Flour a proofing basket or a medium bowl and place your loaf into it seam-side down. Cover with a tea towel and let rise another 30 minutes or so while you preheat the oven.

HEAT THE OVEN :
1. While bread is rising, place an empty dutch oven (with the lid on) in your oven and heat to 230 degrees C fan forced

BAKE!

1. When the oven is hot, you’re ready to go! Use oven mitts to pull the dutch oven out and remove the lid.
2. Sprinkle base with a little flour
3. Gently remove bread dough and place into hot Dutch oven
4. Put your oven mitts back on, place the dutch oven lid back on the pot, and slide the whole thing back into your hot oven.
5. Cook bread for 30 minutes.

6. After 30 minutes, remove the lid from your dutch oven. Reduce temp to 200degs depending on how hot your oven is. The bread should be taller, crusty, and very lightly browned. Continue cooking the bread, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes more until the bread has deepened in color and you have a beautiful brown crust.

7. When bread is done, use oven mitts to pull the pot out of your oven.
8. Use a long spatula or the corners of your parchment paper to lift the bread out of the dutch oven and onto a cooling rack. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.

Soup

Soup – I have larger slow cooker, so you might have to adjust the ingredients.
Roughly chopped 1 onion, 4 carrots, 3 potatoes, 3 small sweet potatoes, 3-4 celery sticks, 1 turnip, 1 Swede, 1 parsnip – add to slow cooker.

Sliced up 2 leeks thinly and fried off in a pan with about 6 cloves of chopped garlic and added 1 cup of white wine at the end and put into slow cooker.
Add half bag of green split peas and half bag of yellow split peas to slow cooker and 1/2-3/4 cup of pearly barley.

Added one hock and 1 kilo of bacon bones and added 2 litres of chicken stock.
Cooked on high for 1 hour and then low for 7 hours. Removed bones and pulled off meat and place back into cooker. I kept it cooking for a while longer until I was happy with the consistency. Season with salt if needed.

By John Parsons Rustic Style Crunchy French Cob Loaf Recipe

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