This recipe will produce 15 loaves each with an average weight of 400g.
Time: 09:30-09:45 (the date before the bake)
- 80g flour (equal parts whole wheat and all-purpose flour)
- 80g water
- 40g starter (24hr fed)
200g of 20% seeded, 100% hydrated levain
Even if you keep your starter in the fridge and feed it every week or so, it is a good idea to feed it 24 hours before mixing the levain. This way the starter's strength is restored in preparation for the upcoming bake. Also, when adding the starter to the levain mix, it will be at room temperature. If you take the starter out of the fridge and add it straight to the levain mix, the levain temperature will drop sharply and it will take longer to rise.
Feeding the starter is easy. Just pour the given amounts of flour, water, and existing starter into a bowl and mix. Discard the remaining starter in the jar, then clean and the jar. Now pour the freshly mixed starter into the jar and store in a warm, preferrably dark place.
It is a good practice to mark the level of the starter on the jar as a measure of its initial volume. In a few hours the yeast in the starter will start feeding and causing the mixture to increase in volume and thus rise. The volume increase will continue until a certain maximum volume is reached. From there, the starter begins to deflate and the level will begin to fall. The rise and the subsequent fall of the starter will leave a tidal mark on the wall of the jar. The next day, before feeding it or before mixing it into the levain, note the highest point of the tidal mark and compare it to the initial volume of the starter. Record the maximum increase ratio of the starter can be used to determine when the levain is ready for mixing into the dough. The ratio 2.25 makes for a good starter.
Time: 09:30-09:45
- 742g flour (equal parts whole wheat and all-purpose flour)
- 742g water
- 371g starter (24hr fed)
1854g of 20% seeded, 100% hydrated levain
This step is essentially the same as feeding the starter - except here we feed the starter to get a larger amount of it than our initial batch. So if I usually keep a 200g starter batch and I need 1654g of levain in the final dough mix, here I will feed such that I get, say, 1854g of levain so that I could use the 1654g for the dough and keep the rest as the starter for future bakes. When the starter/levain is at its highest rise, a portion of it will be used in the dough mix and the rest will be kept as the future starter.
Before making the levain (or feeding the starter), if the starter has liquid on top of it (hooch), mix it well before using it. Then, in a mixing bowl, pour the water and add the appropriate amount of the starter and mix well. Then add the flour and mix well.
There is the option to use a 20% seeded levain which rises to full bloom at about 3:30 hr after the mix. 10% seeded levain takes about 4-4:15 hour to rise to full bloom. This can be useful for adjusting the schedule. These times could vary depending on the environment temperature. Usually, after mixing the levain, I place the jar in the oven and heat the oven only a little bit to raise the temperature to about 40-50. Take the temperature into account when adjusting your schedule. Fermenting the 20% seeded levain at temperatures around 30-35 takes up to 6 hours to rise to full capacity. To know when the levain is at its highest, pour the levain into a tall glass jar with at least twice space to hold the initial levain mix (it won't rise to more than twice its initial volume). Throughout the next few hours, the levain will keep rising up to a maximum. At that point it will start falling and leaving a residue mark on the jar that is visible from the outside. Keep watching the levain throughout this time. The levain is ready as soon as the tide mark appears on the jar meaning that it has risen to its highest and is beginning to subside. To make sure that the levain is ready, drop a spoonful of it into a glass of water. If it floats on top of the water, it's good enough for mixing into the dough.
24 hour fed starter after mixing back its liquid - top view
24 hour fed starter after mixing back its liquid - side view
Levain immediately after the mix - notice that I've marked the level of the mixture on the mason jar with a line made of dough.
Levain immediately after the mix - top view
Time: 09:45-13:15
Basically how long it takes for the levain to rise to its highest depends on the temperature and its strength. If you find out that, in the same temperature, your levain takes ever longer to rise, chance is it's losing its strengths. This could happen when you neglect to feed the starter once or twice a week. Probably a full week of feeding the starter every 24 hours, with no fridge storage in between feedings, could restore its vitality. From then on, feed it 3 times a week: once 48h before the levain mix, 24h before, and once the levain mix itself. After mixing the levain into the dough, store it in the fridge for slow fermentation. If not baking for one week, feed the starter twice 24h apart and store it in the fridge after the second feeding.
Levain at its highest rise. Compare the current level with the dough line marking. Also notice the faded tide mark above the surface.
Levain at its highest rise. Notice the bubbles on top.
Time: 12:15-12:35
- 2481g water
- 3308g all-purpose flour
Pour all the water in the bowl and then add about three quarters of the flour and start mixing with hand until you get an almost smooth batter. Continue adding the flour little by little while mixing. Add a small amount of the flour, mix well, then add more flour and so on. Continue until all the flour is gone. Mix ingredients until all the flour is incorporated into the bulk of dough, then perform a series of stretching exercises on the dough for ~5 min.
After you're finished mixing and working the dough, scrape the dough sticking to the walls of the container back into the dough. Dough sticking to the walls dries up fast and, if incorporated later into the dough, could reduce dough hydration more than expected. It could also introduce hard lumps into the dough and the final bread if it dries up too much.
To get a stronger dough before the bulk fermentation begins, you could start the initial dough mix 1:50 before you expect to have the final dough mix and schedule a series of stretches and folds 30 min before the final dough mix. This way, as the fermentation has not yet begun, we're not afraid of losing the fermentation gas inside the dough and could perform stretches and folds more vigorously, more abundantly, and perhaps more effectively. We might kick-start the bulk fermentation with a stronger dough with less need for stretches and folds during the bulk fermentation, trap more gas during the initial stages of the fermentation and avoid losing it while exercising the dough. Perhaps one or two sets - one immediately after the initial dough mix and another 30 min later - could give us enough strength. If the strength is still not enough 30 min after the final dough mix, schedule more sets of stretch and fold 20 min apart. This has however the drawback that you will have to mix the levain into a very strong dough when it comes to final dough mix. This is more difficult as the dough tends to hold itself tighter and might need extra labour. Alternatively, you can start mixing the dough one or two hours before the final dough mix and, immediately after the final dough mix, perform a series of stretches and folds for ~5 minutes.
Place a small bowl of water at hand to wet the hands as needed so the dough doesn't stick to them. Using one hand, detach the top portion of the dough from the container, then, while holding the container with one hand and using the other hand, quickly lift the top portion, so the dough is stretched, and fold it over the bottom portion. Turn the bowl 60 to 90 degrees and repeat. Proceed with a few more turns so the container comes back after a whole 360 degrees. This is one set of stretch-and-folds. Later stretch-and-folds (during the bulk fermentation) must be ever gentler not to disturb the gas that is already built up inside the dough too much.
From the right and left of the container, shove the wet hands underneath the dough and gently lift the middle part so that the top and bottom sides hang. Lift further so the hanging sides stretch enough. Then place the dough back so that one of the hanging sides now lies on the other and the dough is folded. Turn the container so that what was the left and right sides of the dough will now be the top and bottom sides (the dough will turn 90 degrees). Repeat the lift, stretch, fold, turn procedure (another 90 degree). Lift, stretch, fold, and turn two more times so that the whole 360 degree is covered. This method might work better when the dough contains oil because otherwise the dough keeps sticking to the container and, when you try to lift the middle portion, tends to lift the container with it since it can't be held down with one hand.
Use a transparent (glass or plastic, preferrably with volume marking) container for mixing so that the rising progress of the bulk could be tracked after the final dough mix. If you don't have a large enough mixing container with fine enough measurement markings, you can easily make one! A transparent plastic container will be easier for this purpose as you'll be able to engrave permanent markings on the wall using a sharp object. Put your container on the kitchen scale, pour enough water in it so the water rises about 5mm. For my container, 200g of water rises to about 5mm. When the water stands still, mark the water level on the container wall. For me, the first mark stands for 200ml. You can assume the density of water to be 1kg/lit so 200g of water will occupy 200ml. Pour another equal amount of water (according to the scale), wait for it stand still, then put the second marking. Continue all the way to the top of the container. I have placed 200ml markers on my container wall and enlarged marker for multiples of 1 liter.
Container with volumetric markings made using a sharp kitchen knife
Initial dough mix
Time: 12:35–13:15
Cover the dough container with a damp towel and let it rest for an hour so the water is fully absorbed into flour particles and the right chemical reactions take place to turn flour proteins (gliadin, glutenin...) into gluten. Glutens are very long strands of molecules that attach to one another to form a great network across the bulk of dough. This is essentially what we recognize as dough strength. It is responsible for the dough holding to itself without breaking when stretched. The tiny compartments within the gluten network help trap and keep the fermentation gas inside the dough. These compartments will turn to the differently sized holes within the crumb of the finished bread. The gluten is also responsible for the chewy texture of the final bread.
Time: 13:15–13:45
- 5789g autolysed dough
- 74g salt
- 1654g levain
7518g of 80% hydrated, 20% seeded dough
Measure and pour the levain into a bowl, then add the salt to it. Mix well to dissolve the salt in the levain water. Then pour the levain mixture into the autolysed dough. Mix the levain into the dough by consecutive stretch and fold exercises. Continue stretching and folding for about 10 min to make sure that the levain and salt are evenly mixed in. This has the added benefit of building up further dough strength so that fewer stretching and folding sets will be needed during the fermentation. Mixing the levain and salt into the dough through random pinching and squeezing motions tends to weaken the strength that has already been built into the dough during autolyse requiring more stretches and folds during fermentation.
For 15 x 476g dough rounds, we prepare 375g of extra dough to compensate for the dough measurement errors and the leftover dough sticking to the bowl, spillage, etc. Generally, consider an extra 25g of dough per loaf.
The salt is dissolved in the levain and the levain will be added to the dough
After the final mix
Final dough mix volume
Time: 13:45-18:45
Cover the bowl with a damp towel in the room temperature (25~30 deg C)
- 14:15 one set of stretch and fold
- 14:45 one set of stretch and fold (if needed)
- 15:15 one set of stretch and fold (if needed)
Before performing the first set of stretches and folds, just as the dough surface is flat, mark the level of the dough on the exterior of the container (by sticking a thin, line‐like piece of dough on one of the measurement marks) so you can see, at any time during the bulk rise, how much the dough has risen. If you have a container with measurement marks, just note down the starting volume of the dough.
Before every scheduled set of stretch and fold, perform the window pane test to see if the dough has achieved enough strength already or it needs more stretching and folding.
Pinch two points of the dough almost 5cm apart and stretch between the fingers. The dough should be stretched like cling wrap around the fingers to make a very thin, almost transparent window pane. If the dough is not yet strong enough, it will tear before the window pane is formed.
How long the bulk rise takes depends on the strength of the levain and the ambient temperature (which could vary over time). These two factors are not easily measurable or controllable. The bulk rise is done when the volume of the dough increases to about 140% of its starting volume (which you should have noted before the first set of stretch and fold). A rise that's too much less than this could result in a tighter crumb unless the loaves are given a longer final rise (after shaping). A rise that's considerably higher than this could consume all the dough strength and without enough strength the dough will lose much of its gas during the preshape and shape steps. Trust the volume measurements more than the time measurements. Besides when the dough is over-fermented, it becomes extremely difficult to work with due to its loss of strength. It becomes sticky and won't hold to itself as a stronger dough would.
Density of 82% hydrated dough measured to be about 1.3 kg/L.
In my experience (see previous bake entries), for type 500 (all-purpose) flour, a 150% rise leads to a slightly tighter crumb than a 110% rise with equal final rise times. This is because the longer the bulk rise, the more the dough strength is depleted and the capacity to hold fermentation gas. Somewhere in between should be the ideal limit which is different for different types of flour — again different flour types have different capacity for keeping dough strength. For type 500 flour, go for a 125% bulk rise and for type 850 flour you could go up to 160%. For anything in between, make linear adjustments. Although I haven't experimented with intermediate flour types yet, I assume this calculation to be safe. For instance, for type 650, you could go for a 140% bulk rise because: (650 - 500) / 10 + 125 = 140
The window pane test before the first set of stretch and fold
After the bulk fermentation: note the change in volume and the bubbles that are visible inside the dough
After the bulk fermentation: note the bubbles on top
Time: 18:15-18:45
- 65g whole wheat
- 525g water
570g ferni
Pour the water in a small pan and place on the stove on medium heat (number 4), then add the flour little by little while stirring the mixture to prevent formation of clots. Continue stirring until enough water is evaporated and enough flour starch is dissolved and the desired thickness is achieved. The starchier the ferni, the deeper the colour that it will impart to the loaf crust after baking.
Optimal starting rate for ferni seems to be 810% hydrated mixture prepared according to the instructions. Amount of ferni to prepare is about 38g for a 476g loaf of barbari.
Prepared ferni
Time: 18:45-19:15
Prepare the work surface, divide and preshape the rounds, bench rest.
Probably a table top horizontally divided into three sections. The leftmost section is where the bulk is placed (top) along with the scale (bottom left) and a bowl of water (bottom right, for wetting the bench knife and the hand as needed). Also, do not dump the whole bulk on the table (as some recipes indicate) so it doesn't spread (as it is quite wet) to occupy so much space. Just grab a piece from inside the mixing container using a wet hand and cut it off using the bench knife. Place the piece on the floured scale tray and adjust the weight by cutting small pieces off it using the bench knife or adding to it. Then place the dough in the middle section of the table. At this stage, each dough round (or chooneh as it is called in Persian) should be around 476g.
The middle section is the shaping area where the shaping techniques are performed (folding sides, rotating, skin building, etc). While performing the techniques, slightly wet the hand and the bench knife if the dough starts sticking to them. The middle section must NOT be floured previously - the wetness from the hand and the bench knife will keep the skin of the dough wet and prevent it from sticking to the surface too much (unless it's overfermented in which case you're about screwed anyway!). After shaping the dough, lift it using the wet bench knife and place it in the rightmost section of the table.
The right section is slightly floured beforehand and is where the preshaped (and later shaped) choonehs are placed. Allow enough space between them because they might spread (as they are highly hydrated). Also keep the flour on the surface to a minimum with wet doughs because the dough tends to absorb all the flour beneath it by the time that it's lifted off the bench. When you pick up the preshaped and benched chooneh for shaping, the introduced flour will go into the chooneh and create an unpleasant inside. As an experiment, keep a section of the bench unfloured and place one or a few of the preshaped (and later shaped) choonehs there. See if this works better than the floured bench.
If the right section of the table (bench) doesn't have enough room to hold all the choonehs, (as they are sparsely placed), preshape, shape, and bake as many of the loaves as you have room for choonehs on the bench. As soon as the first loaf goes into the oven and a spot on the bench becomes available, divide and preshape another chooneh. Remember to shape each choonehs about 30 min after its preshape.
Work surface
Hold the bench knife in your dominant hand, wet the other hand and wet the bench knife by rubbing the wet hand over it. Grapple into the bulk and take enough for a chooneh and place it on the scale and adjust the weight as indicated before. Quickly remove the piece and put it in the middle section (the shaping area).
After placing each chooneh on the middle section, grab the bottom side, fold 2/3 way back over the top. With both hands (or with the bench knife in turns), stretch from left and right, fold the left over the centre, fold the right over it. Then stretch and fold the top over it to form an envelope shape with a seam on the top. If the dough is too wet to submit to folding by hands, shove the bench knife under each side, then grab it using one hand and the knife, strech and fold it over. Pinch the top to seal the seam. Then flip the dough over (with the bench knife) to get the seam side down. Now rotate on the surface and pull toward you to build more tension on the skin.
The shaping trick for the wet dough is to use the bench knife to shovel underneath the dough (south), push it away while rotating it about 180 degrees around the vertical axis, then pull the chooneh using the bench knife towards yourself. Once the dough comes back to its starting point, pull the bench knife off the back. Using two fingers hold the dough right above the bench knife so that pulling the knife out doesn't strech out the dough. With this technique the bench knife keeps the contact point of the dough with the surface from rising up. With the back side held down and the front side rolling in, the dough skin on the top has to stretch and tension is built up. Perform the manoeuvre 2-6 times so the chooneh rotates 1 to 3 turns about the vertical axis. Do not overdo it.
When enough tension is built on the surface, lift the dough off with the wet bench knife and place it on the lightly floured (or slightly wet depending on how your experiment works out) with the seam side still down. Don't flour round tops.
Rest after the preshape
Time: 19:15-19:45
Preshaping of multiple dough rounds and preparing the ferni takes some time and, by the time that the last dough has been preshaped, the first preshaped dough has already rested on the bench for about 30 minutes and is ready to be shaped. Therefore, start shaping the first dough 20-30 min after its preshape has been done.
To start shaping a chooneh, use the bench knife to sweep it clean off the bench, while trying not to distort it too much, and place it in the shaping area seam side down. Before starting to shape the chooneh, generously flour the bench area where you're going to place the shaped dough after the shaping is done. Now getting back to shaping the chooneh, perform the same rotating technique using the bench knife and the hand just as in the preshape stage.
Shaped rounds
Hours of bench rise will turn the skin of the dough rounds dry. To remedy this, glaze the rounds right after shaping so the final rise won't dry their skin. Glaze the rounds more abundantly and with a rather wet ferni so that the long rise will not completely dry it up and enough wetness remains on the crust to delay its hardening in the oven and there will be enough time for oven spring too. Leave the patterning to be done right before baking.
Shaped rounds after glazing
Time: 19:45-21:55
In this step, the dough rounds should rise up to a critical point where more gas is built up inside but the round doesn't lose too much strength. We aim for about 116% a rise in this step. We can't exactly measure the volumetric rise of each round but, ignoring temperature variance, we could assume that the final rise has an almost equal rate to the bulk rise and therefore the time needed for a 116% rise will be proportionate to that needed for the bulk rise (140%) by a factor that can be calculated as below. Generally speaking, given the temperature remains steady during the bulk and the final rise, we could estimate the time for the final rise as:
t2 = t1 * ln(r2) / ln(r1)
where:
t2: time required for the final riset1: time required for the bulk riser2: volume increase rate during the final riser1: volume increase rate during the bulk rise
Note: For type 500 flour, we go for around 115% rise and for type 850 flour 120%-125%. If the bulk has been over-fermented, you should have a shorter bench rise.
Shaped rounds after the final rise
Preheat time: 21:15 Time: 21:55-02:25
Start preheating the oven 00:40 hour before putting in the first loaf to 250 deg C.
The first round to have been shaped should be baked first. If the glaze is too much dried, apply a little more of it on top of the round. Grooving should be done right before baking (not right after shaping) because the pattern begins to dissappear during the bench rise. Punch the pattern by putting the 6 fingers on your both hands (3 middle fingers on each hand) together in a row to form the likeness of a comb, then punch the comb deep into the flattened dough to create about 5-6 rows of finger-holes that go from the left end of the round to the right end of it. The rows should be about 2cm apart. Leave unpunched margins of about 2cm at the top and bottom and 1cm at the sides.
Barbari pattern on the dough
Place the peel near the bench and flour generously with whole wheat flour or coarse-milled wheat bran. Barbari is characterised by the wheat bran on the underside which you could substitute with wholewheat flour if milled bran is not available to you. Then lift the flattened dough off with both hands and extend it longitudinally to the full length of the loaf (30 cm) while maintaining its width and place it on the peel floured side down. Take care not to disturb the shape too much (except for extending the length) when lifting with the hands. Put your hands together with the back of the hands down right in front of the round. Then shovel both your hands underneath the round. After spreading the dough on the peel you can sprinkle the top with sesame, poppy, other seeds or nuts, etc. Bring the peel near the oven and pull the oven tray out. Then place the loaf in the oven by sliding it on the tray and putting the tray back in the oven. No need to flour or grease the oven tray beforehand. Immediately turn the oven temperature to 225 deg C.
Dough rolled out on the peel and topped with sesame
Dough finally placed in the oven
At this point also start shaping the next barbari dough that has rested on the bench for more than 20 min and, if there is more dough in the bulk that is not preshaped, preshape another dough round. Remember to remove the flour off the bottom middle section using the bench knife before that.
As soon as, or if you see one side of the crust taking a golden colour while the other side is still pale, turn the half-baked bread 180 degrees around the vertical axis to make up for the uneven heat distibution inside the oven. 3-4 min before you expect to bring the loaf out, turn the oven temperature to 250 deg C to form the crust.
The loaf should be ready in 00:18 after being put into the oven. Take the bread out and place it on a rack vertically so that air could flow on both surfaces of the loaf. Give each loaf about one hour to cool down before cutting it. You can store the cut loaves in the freezer (in freezer bags) for up to 3 months. When you need a piece, just take it out of the freezer and heat it in a microwave oven or on the stove.
3-4 min before you expect to take the loaf out of the oven, proceed with galzing, patterning, and topping of the next dough round that is shaped already and rested on the bench.
The glaze serves the purpose of keeping the crust from hardening before the bread goes through oven spring during the first minutes of the bake. Placing a water dish inside the oven is useless and an inconvenience too.
Finished loaves cooling down
Finished loaf of barbari
After sliding the last round into the oven, you could start cleaning your workspace. If you bake every week or more frequently, you'll find that, every time, you're using quite a lot of flour for covering the bench area and the scale tray - not to mention the whole-wheat flour used for the baking peel. I find throwing away all that flour at the end of every bake quite wasteful. So, after all the rounds are gone, I clean all the surface of the working table with the bench knife and pour all the flour, dough residue, etc into a container. I then sift all the contents once or twice to remove large lumps of dough residue and bran. The remaining is some sort of flour which I store and use it for covering the bench area and the scale tray. Remember not to use this flour for mixing the dough as it is of an unpredictable quality.