Boule

A round loaf where the shaping is the whole job, dragged against the surface until the skin is tight enough to hold a dome.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 450 g strong white flour
• 50 g wholemeal flour
• 350 ml water
• 10 g salt
• 4 g fast-action yeast
• semolina or rice flour, for the peel

Method

1. THE SHAPING IS THE DISH, and it is a specific movement rather than rolling it into a ball. The dough is dragged across an unfloured patch of worktop in short pulls, turning as you go, so the underside grips and the top stretches. That builds a tight skin, and the skin is the only thing stopping a wet dough spreading into a disc in the oven. Patted into a ball with floured hands, there is no tension anywhere and it bakes flat however good the fermentation was.
2. WHICH MEANS A FLOURED SURFACE IS WRONG AT THIS STAGE. Flour is a lubricant and lubricant is the opposite of what the drag needs. Keep a bare patch for shaping and flour only the cloth it proves in.
3. IT IS SHAPED TWICE, with a rest between. A loose round first, twenty minutes uncovered, then the tight final shape. Done in one go, the dough fights back and tears.
4. THE SEAM IS UNDERNEATH AND IS PINCHED SHUT. A boule proves seam down, which is the opposite of a batard in a cloth, and an open seam unzips along the bottom in the oven.
5. BAKED COVERED FOR THE FIRST HALF. A lidded pot, or a bowl over it on the stone -- the trapped steam keeps the crust soft while it expands, and the lid comes off for colour.
6. Flours, yeast and water mixed to a shaggy mass. Rested 30 minutes, then the salt worked in with wet hands.
7. Four folds in the bowl at 30-minute intervals.
8. Risen until nearly doubled, 2 to 3 hours, or overnight in the fridge.
9. Tipped onto a BARE patch of worktop. Pre-shaped into a loose round and rested 20 minutes uncovered.
10. SHAPED: the dough turned over, the edges folded into the middle, then flipped seam down and DRAGGED towards you in short pulls with cupped hands, rotating a quarter each time, until the top is smooth and tight and it holds a dome.
11. The seam pinched shut underneath.
12. Proved seam DOWN in a floured cloth-lined bowl 1 hour, until a poked dent fills back slowly.
13. Turned out onto semolina on a peel, slashed with a single cross or a square, and baked at 240C COVERED 20 minutes.
14. Uncovered and given 20 to 25 minutes more at 220C until deep brown and hollow underneath. Cooled on a rack at least an hour before cutting.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes