Pain Rustique

Besides spelt bread I am fond of Pain Rustique. There are many recipes to be found, but I use the method published by Ed and Marieke (Weekend Bakery). This bread is a little sour by using rye-based sourdough culture and it needs only a little bit of yeast. Because of using sourdough I make a poolish the evening before making the bread, so I can start baking the next morning. For making a sourdough culture yourself, please check one of my previous posts.

Poolish:
- 225 g wheat flour
- 60 g whole wheat flour
- 280 g water
- 12 g sourdough culture

Mix the ingredients in a bowl and cover it (I always put the bowl in a transparent pedal bin liner) and let it rest during the night at room temperature. The next morning you can start making the Pain Rustique:

Ingredients:
- the poolish
- 275 g wheat flour
- 90 g water
- 10 g salt
 - 3 g dry yeast

Mix the poolish with the flour and the water for only a minute, just until the flour has absorbed the water. Now cover the bowl and let it rest for half an hour. After this you can add the salt and the yeast and start kneading on a flat, clean surface (don't use any extra flour at this stage!) until the dough is ready. It needs some experience to understand when you reach this 'ready'-point: the dough turns into a soft, flexible substance and shines a little. And yes, it is (very) wet... It usually takes about 5 minutes kneading. Again I mention Richard Bertinet, whose method I use for kneading. You can find an instruction video on YouTube: The Bertinet Method. You can also check my post about making Spelt Bread for more information about kneading wet dough.
Now transfer your dough to a clean bowl, cover it and let it rest for about 40 minutes at room temperature.
Now it is time for the stretch-and-fold technique: take out the dough and place it on your work surface. Don't use any flour yet: just your hands and a clean dough-scraper. Put your scraper partly under the dough and stretch it by using your free hand. Fold the stretched part over the dough. Now do this four times: up over under, left over right, under over up and right over left. A great instruction video you can find here.
After this stretch and fold the dough goes back in the bowl for another half hour's rest on room temperature.
After this a second stretch and fold and another half hour's rest.
Now it is time for shaping your bread and for the first time you can use some flour to make the dough easier to handle. Put your dough on a floured work surface and sprinkle some flour on it. Now shape the dough with your floured hands. For Pain Rustique I form it into a batard and put it in a cane banneton to proof for at least half an hour. For proofing I put the banneton (covered in plastic) on a rack on the warming plate of my Aga. My oval banneton I ordered at the Weekend Bakery Webshop: it works very well!
The best instruction video you can find on YouTube for shaping bread is probably this one.
After proofing and scoring the bread with a razor blade it is time for the Aga: bake the bread in the roasting oven for about 45 minutes. In my post about baking Spelt Bread I described how I use my roasting oven for baking bread. Don't forget to create steam by pouring some hot water in a baking tin.