Vakfıkebir Bread

A single loaf of two kilos or more, which is why it keeps a week where a small one is stale in a day.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg strong white flour
• 200 g fine maize flour
• 400 g active sourdough starter
• 900 ml warm water
• 28 g salt
• maize flour, for dusting

Method

1. IT IS ONE LOAF OF TWO KILOS OR MORE, AND THE SIZE IS THE POINT. Not a batch of small loaves from the same dough: one enormous round. A big loaf has a small surface area relative to its mass, so it loses moisture slowly -- which is why a loaf this size is still good on the fifth or sixth day while the same dough baked as four small ones is dry by the second. It also means a long bake at a falling temperature, and a crust half a centimetre thick that acts as the wrapper. Everything about the method follows from deciding not to divide the dough.
2. IT IS A SOURDOUGH AND NOT A YEASTED BREAD, FOR THE SAME REASON. The acidity from a long sourdough fermentation slows staling considerably and keeps the crumb from going mouldy for days. A loaf meant to last the week cannot be made with fast yeast.
3. THE MAIZE FLOUR IS A SIXTH OF THE TOTAL AND IS NOT DECORATION. Two hundred grams in one point four kilos. It gives the faintly yellow crumb and a slight sweetness, and because it has no gluten it also opens the texture. Much more and the loaf will not hold its own height at this size.
4. IT IS BAKED LONG AND AT A FALLING TEMPERATURE. Twenty minutes at 240°C to set the crust and get the spring, then down to 190°C for an hour and a quarter. A two-kilo loaf held at 240°C has a black crust and a raw centre; dropped to 190°C the heat has time to reach the middle.
5. IT IS COOLED COMPLETELY BEFORE IT IS CUT, AND THAT MEANS HOURS. Four hours at least on a rack. A loaf this size is still cooking inside when it comes out, and cut warm the crumb is gummy and the whole loaf then stales from the cut face within a day -- which wastes the one thing the size was for.
6. The white flour, maize flour and salt mixed in a very large bowl.
7. The starter and warm water added and mixed to a shaggy dough.
8. Kneaded 15 MINUTES -- a dough this size takes real work -- until smooth and strong.
9. Covered and risen 4 to 5 HOURS at room temperature, folded over on itself twice during that time.
10. Shaped into ONE large round, tightly, and set on a maize-floured peel or lined tray.
11. Covered and proved 2 HOURS.
12. The oven heated to 240°C with a tray of water on the floor.
13. Dusted with maize flour and slashed once across the top.
14. Baked 20 MINUTES at 240°C.
15. The water tray REMOVED and the oven turned DOWN to 190°C.
16. Baked a further 1 HOUR 15 MINUTES.
17. TESTED: the base should sound hollow and sharp, and a skewer into the centre should come out dry. A loaf this size is often underdone at an hour.
18. COOLED COMPLETELY on a rack, at least 4 HOURS, before it is cut. Keeps 5 to 6 days.

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 Turkey · All recipes