With a handful of ingredients, not much hands on time and basic baking equipment you can have a flavorful bakery-style boule at home.

Overnight Rustic Oatmeal Loaf

Makes 1- 1kg (2.2 lb) loaf

This is a great hearty loaf that I have tried to make accessible to everyone no matter what your level of experience using only basic baking equipment. The loaf pictured here was made without a proofing basket (causing it to spread a bit more) and without a combo cooker or Dutch oven using foil to cover the baking sheet as an alternative way to trap steam.

While I have also included instructions for what to do if you own specialty equipment, I purposely baked my loaf the way I did to show that baking a higher hydration loaf like this does not require it. Though your result may not always look like you would get from a bakery it will be close and, you will still wind up with a loaf that is delicious.

Ingredients

324ml (1.5 c + 2 T) water 

*75g (3 T) Korean rice syrup

30g (2 T) olive oil

8g (2 t) kosher salt

4g (1 t) instant yeast

100g (0.75 c) old fashioned rolled oats

65g (0.50 c) whole wheat flour

341g (2.5 c + 2 T) bread flour

Recipe Know-how

1.      In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the water, syrup, oil, and salt until the salt dissolves.

• Add the yeast and continue to whisk until dissolved.

• Whisk in the oats and whole wheat flour until fully incorporated.

• Add the bread flour and using your hands, mix until all the flour has been hydrated.

• Using a scraper, remove the dough from your hands and clear the sides of the bowl.

• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment for 30 minutes.

• Give the dough its 1st fold in the bowl.

To fold: wet your dominant hand and grab a grip of dough across from you, lift and stretch the dough out a few inches then fold it over the center. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat this process, wetting your hand as necessary to prevent sticking, until you reach the point where you began. The dough should have formed a loose ball at this point. Grab the dough and flip it, placing the “seams” of the dough on the bottom and tuck the dough together to make a ball.

Do not add flour during the folding.

• Cover and repeat after 30 minutes.

• For the final fold, lightly flour the surface of the dough and use a bench scraper to release the dough from the bowl.

• On a lightly floured work surface, pour the dough onto the bench with the top (floured side) down.

• Starting across from you, use both hands and gently stretch the dough out a few inches and fold over the center. Dust off excess flour and repeat with the left and right sides ensuring they overlap. Finish by bringing the bottom up over the folds.

• Flip the dough over with the seam now on the work surface, round gently and place back into the bowl before covering.

• Refrigerate overnight, 18 – 24 hours.

2.      Prepare a length of parchment to place the dough on. Set aside.

3.      Do not punch down the dough rather, lightly flour the top and use a bench scraper to remove the dough from the sides of the bowl.

This step can be a bit sticky but try not to add more flour than necessary, if the dough is sticking to your hands lightly flour them but try not to add too much flour to the dough itself.

If you move quickly, it will also help to mitigate the sticking.

• Lightly flour the work surface and place the dough top side (the floured side) down (the damp sticky side should face up).

• Place your hands under the dough and gently stretch the dough out a little to form a rectangle.

• Fold the bottom over the center and press to seal.

• Repeat with the right and left sides, brushing away the flour on the dough as you go.

• Finish by folding the top down over the folds.

• Starting from the top, “stitch” the dough together.

To stitch: place your hands at the top corners. Beginning with the right corner, lift and fold in and down at a diagonal toward the center pressing to seal the fold. Repeat with the left side, placing the fold over the one just created. Repeat, working down the length of the dough.

If there is too much flour on the surface of the dough it may be a little difficult but reseal as necessary.

• Once stitched along the length of the dough, place your hands at the top and fold the dough down pressing well with each roll until you reach the bottom.

• Flip the dough over and use your fingers to seal the seam of the dough well.

• Place the dough, seam side down onto the length of parchment.

If you have one, you can place the dough, seam side up into a floured bread basket.

• Cover loosely and proof for 2 – 3 hours or until doubled in size.

If the dough has not doubled, continue to rise until it does so. The dough will be wobbly and delicate when ready.

4.      Preheat oven to 220 C / 430 F.

If you have a cast iron combo baker or large Dutch oven that you would like to bake the loaf in, preheat it along with the oven.

• Place the dough on the parchment onto a rimmed baking sheet and lightly rub the top of the loaf with flour before scoring the loaf.

The flour helps to provide grip to making scoring the loaf easier.

If you used a bread basket, carefully, flip the dough out onto a piece of parchment, seam side down before flouring and scoring.

• Spritz the dough with water from a spray bottle.

• Cover the baking sheet with foil (shiny side facing the loaf), tightly sealing the edges, leaving a dome over the loaf itself to allow for expansion.

• Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

If using the combo baker or Dutch oven, carefully lower the dough on the parchment into the heated pan.

• Carefully uncover the loaf and continue to bake for 30 – 35 minutes longer.

Optionally, instead of covering the baking sheet, after spraying the dough, place directly into the oven and bake for 20 minutes at 220 C / 430 F. Reduce the heat to 200 C / 400 F and bake 25 – 35 minutes longer.

A fully cooked loaf will be well browned and register 94 C / 200 F or higher on an instant read thermometer.

If the dough has not reached this temperature, continue to cook until it does, covering the loaf with foil if necessary to prevent over browning/burning.

• Test the loaf for doneness by inserting an instant read thermometer into the center of the loaf from the bottom, the temperature should register 94 C / 200 F.

  Without an instant read thermometer the loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom and it should be well browned

• Remove from the oven to a cooling rack and cool completely.

While cutting into a hot loaf of bread is tempting, it will ruin the texture of your remaining loaf. Additionally, the bread will reach its optimal eating once cooled.

5.      Serve.