F

LOURWAT
ERS
ALTYE
AST
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 FLOUR
WATER
SALT
YEAST
The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza

KEN FORKISH
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALAN WEINER

TEN SPEED PRESS

Berkeley

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 CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION — 1
PART 1: THE PRINCIPLES
OF ARTISAN BREAD
1: THE BACKSTORY — 11
2: EIGHT DETAILS FOR GREAT
BREAD AND PIZZA — 25
3: EQUIPMENT AND
INGREDIENTS — 45
Essay: Where Does Our Flour
Come From? — 54
PART 2: BASIC
BREAD RECIPES
4: BASIC BREAD METHOD — 61
5: STRAIGHT DOUGHS — 79
6: DOUGHS MADE WITH
PRE-FERMENTS — 97
Essay: The Early Morning Bread
Baker’s Routine — 112
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FWSY_3p.indd iv
PART 3: LEVAIN
BREAD RECIPES
7: UNDERSTANDING LEVAIN — 121
8: LEVAIN METHOD — 129
9: HYBRID LEAVENING DOUGHS — 139
Essay: The 3-Kilo Boule — 162
10: PURE LEVAIN DOUGHS — 167
11: ADVANCED LEVAIN DOUGHS — 181
Essay: Making a Bread (or Pizza) Dough
You Can Call Your Own — 190
PART 4: PIZZA RECIPES
12: PIZZA AND FOCACCIA
METHOD — 201
13: PIZZA DOUGHS — 217
14: PIZZA AND FOCACCIA — 229
LAGNIAPPE — 258
METRIC CONVERSION
CHARTS — 259
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS — 260
INDEX — 261
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 —v

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FWSY_3p.indd 80 4/26/12 9:13 AM
 THE SATURDAY WHITE BREAD

This recipe is designed for someone who wants to make good, crusty loaves of white bread from
start to finish in one day. Mix the dough first thing in the morning, shape it into two loaves about
five hours later, and then bake in the late afternoon in time for dinner. It’s also a good first recipe to
try from this book to help you get familiar with my dough handling techniques, which are the same
for all the recipes in this book. Here you get the taste-good benefits of a medium-length fermenta-
tion, resulting in a versatile, delicious bread that’s great as a dinner bread and also works well for
sandwiches and toast.
Sometimes I like to make this bread with 10 percent whole wheat flour for the round, earthy
flavors it adds. If you want to do that, simply make this recipe with 900 grams of white flour and
100 grams of whole wheat flour.
You can bake one or two loaves from this recipe. If you bake just one loaf, you can divide the
remaining dough into two or three dough balls to make iron-skillet focaccia or pizza; refrigerate
the dough balls and use them any time during the next two or three days. I love focaccia with olive
oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a sprinkling of herbs, cut into small pieces to share with friends before
dinner, or just for snacks. (See chapter 14 for specific focaccia and pizza recipes, and page 215 for
pointers on using bread doughs for focaccia.)

THIS RECIPE MAKES 2 LOAVES, EACH ABOUT 1½ POUNDS, AND IS SUITABLE FOR PIZZA OR FOCACCIA.

BULK FERMENTATION: About 5 hours

PROOF TIME: About 1¼ hours
SAMPLE SCHEDULE: Begin at 9:30 a.m., finish mixing at 10 a.m., shape into loaves at 3 p.m., and bake at 4:15 p.m.
The bread will come out of the oven just after 5 p.m.

INGREDIENT QUANTIT Y BAKER’S PERCENTAGE

White flour 1,000 g 7¾ cups 100%

Water 720 g, 90ºF to 95ºF (32ºC to 35ºC) 3¹⁄ 8 cups 72%
Fine sea salt 21 g 1 tbsp + 1 scant tsp 2.1%
Instant dried yeast 4g 1 tsp 0.4%

CONTINUED>>

STRAIGHT DOUGHS — 81

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 << THE SATURDAY WHITE BREAD
The “Ingredients” section in chapter 3 gives
advice on what type of flour to use. I don’t rec-
ommend high-protein bread flour (sometimes
called high-gluten flour). All-purpose flour is
ideal for the recipes in this book. Flour should
always be at room temperature.
If this is your first time making a recipe
from this book, please review chapter 4, Basic
Bread Method, for a detailed discussion of
techniques for mixing and folding dough,
shaping loaves, and baking.
1. Autolyse Combine the 1,000 grams of flour
with the 720 grams of 90°F to 95°F (32°C to
35°C) water in a 12-quart round tub or similar
container. Mix by hand just until incorpo-
rated. Cover and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
2. Mix Sprinkle the 21 grams of salt and the
4 grams (1 level teaspoon) of yeast evenly
over the top of the dough. Mix by hand, wet-
ting your working hand before mixing so the
dough doesn’t stick to you. (It’s fine to rewet
your hand three or four times while you mix.)
Reach underneath the dough and grab about
one-quarter of it. Gently stretch this section of
dough and fold it over the top to the other side
of the dough. Repeat three more times with
the remaining dough, until the salt and yeast
are fully enclosed.
Use the pincer method to fully integrate
the ingredients. Make five or six pincer cuts
across the entire mass of dough. Then fold
the dough over itself a few times. Repeat,
alternately cutting and folding until all of the
ingredients are fully integrated and the dough
has some tension in it. Let the dough rest for a
82 — FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST
FWSY_3p.indd 82
few minutes, then fold for another 30 seconds
or until the dough tightens up. The whole pro-
cess should take about 5 minutes. The target
dough temperature at the end of the mix is
77°F to 78°F (25°C to 26°C). Cover the tub and
let the dough rise.
3. Fold This dough needs two folds (see pages
69–70 for instructions). It’s easiest to apply the
folds during the first 1½ hours after mixing
the dough. Apply the first fold about 10 min-
utes after mixing and the second fold during
the next hour (when you see the dough spread
out in the tub, it’s ready for the second fold). If
need be, it’s okay to fold later; just be sure to
leave it alone for the last hour of rising.
When the dough is triple its original vol-
ume, about 5 hours after mixing, it’s ready to
be divided.
4. Divide Moderately flour a work surface
about 2 feet wide. Flour your hands and
sprinkle a bit of flour around the edges of the
tub. Tip the tub slightly and gently work your
floured free hand beneath the dough to loosen
it from the bottom of the tub. Gently ease the
dough out onto the work surface without pull-
ing or tearing it.
With floured hands, pick up the dough and
ease it back down onto the work surface in a
somewhat even shape. Dust the area in the
middle, where you’ll cut the dough, with a bit
of flour. Cut the dough into 2 equal-size pieces
with a dough knife or plastic dough scraper.
5. Shape Dust 2 proofing baskets with
flour. Shape each piece of dough into a
4/26/12 9:14 AM
 KNOW YOUR OVEN
I recommend using an oven thermometer to confirm that when you set your oven to 475ºF, you
actually get 475ºF. Some ovens run hotter than their setting, and some run cooler. (Mine runs 25ºF
cooler, so when I want to heat it to 475ºF, I set it to 500ºF.)

WHAT IF THE DOUGH ISN’T AT THE TARGET TEMPERATURE?

If the final mix temperature is cooler, don’t worry, it will just take longer to fully rise (in this case trip-
ling in size). If you have a warm spot where the dough can rise, that will help make up for the cooler
dough temperature. If your dough is warmer, the dough will triple in size sooner. (The next time you
make the recipe, you can adjust the final mix temperature by using warmer or cooler water.)

medium-tight ball following the instructions
on pages 71–73. Place each seam side down in
its proofing basket.
6. Proof Lightly flour the tops of the loaves.
Set them side by side and cover with a kitchen
towel, or place each basket in a nonperforated
plastic bag.
Plan on baking the loaves about 1¼ hours
after they are shaped, assuming a room temp-
erature of about 70°F (21°C). If your kitchen is
warmer, they will be optimally proofed in about
1 hour. Use the finger-dent test (see page 74) to
determine when they are perfectly proofed and
ready to bake, being sure to check the loaves
after 1 hour. With this bread, 15 minutes can
make the difference between being perfectly
proofed and collapsing a bit.
7. Preheat At least 45 minutes prior to baking,
put a rack in the middle of the oven and put
2 Dutch ovens on the rack with their lids on.
Preheat the oven to 475°F (245°C).
If you only have 1 Dutch oven, put the
second loaf into the refrigerator about 20 min-
utes before baking the first loaf and bake the
loaves sequentially, giving the Dutch oven a
5-minute reheat after removing the first loaf.
Alternatively, you can keep the second loaf
in the refrigerator overnight, in its proofing
basket inside a nonperforated plastic bag, and
bake it early the next morning; if you do this,
put the second loaf in the refrigerator immedi-
ately after shaping.
CONTINUED>>

STRAIGHT DOUGHS — 83

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 << THE SATURDAY WHITE BREAD
8. Bake For the next step, please be careful not
to let your hands, fingers, or forearms touch
the extremely hot Dutch oven.
Invert the proofed loaf onto a lightly
floured countertop, keeping in mind that the
top of the loaf will be the side that was facing
down while it was rising—the seam side. Use
oven mitts to remove the preheated Dutch
oven from the oven. Remove the lid. Carefully
place the loaf in the hot Dutch oven seam side
up. Use mitts to replace the lid, then put the
Dutch oven in the oven. Maintain the tem-
perature at 475°F (245°C).
84 — FLOUR WATER SALT YEAST
FWSY_3p.indd 84
Bake for 30 minutes, then carefully
remove the lid and bake for about 20 more
minutes, until at least medium dark brown
all around the loaf. Check after 15 minutes of
baking uncovered in case your oven runs hot.
Remove the Dutch oven and carefully tilt
it to turn the loaf out. Let cool on a rack or set
the loaf on its side so air can circulate around
it. Let the loaf rest for at least 20 minutes
before slicing.
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F
LOURWAT
ERS
ALTYE
AST
 To my parents, John and Frances Forkish
Copyright © 2012 by Ken Forkish
Photographs copyright © 2012 by Alan Weiner

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The wheat diagram on page 50 is used with permission from the North American Millers Association.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Forkish, Ken.
Flour water salt yeast : the fundamentals of artisan bread and pizza / Ken Forkish.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Bread. 2. Pizza. I. Title.
TX769.F67 2012
641.81’5—dc23
2012012080

ISBN 978-1-60774-273-9
eISBN 978-1-60774-274-6

Printed in China

Design by Katy Brown

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First Edition

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