Baking Guide Template

Boulangerie Atlas How we make our bread

The

Dawn
Loaf

A sourdough method, copied out from the index cards above my bench.

Written by the bakerYoussef Amrani

04:00every
morning

A note from the bench

04:00a.m., every day

I have made this bread every morning for thirty-one years. First in my father’s bakery in Fès, then here, in the narrow room behind our counter. The alarm goes at a quarter to four. By four the oven is warming, the levain I fed the night before has doubled, and the street outside is still dark.

People ask me for the secret. There isn’t one. Flour, water, salt and time — mostly time. The starter in this loaf is older than my daughter. It has been fed every day through two moves, one flooded cellar and a very long August.

This booklet comes from the index cards pinned above my bench. I have copied them out as I really use them, with the grams and the hours, so you can bake the same loaf at home in a Dutch oven. It will not be perfect the first time. Mine wasn’t. Bake it again on Sunday, and the Sunday after.

If something goes wrong, the last page may help. If it doesn’t, bring the loaf to the counter and we will look at it together.

Youssef

Youssef Amrani
Baker · Boulangerie Atlas

The card above my bench, as it is

Dawn loaf — 1 boule № 1

lev 20 st + 50 fl + 50 w · 26° · 5 h

500 fl (100 ww) + 370 w @ 30° — rest 1 h

+ 100 lev · 9 10 salt + 15 w

bulk 4 h · 4 folds / 30 min · dough 25°

fridge 12–14 h · 3°

250° lid 20' → 230° open 25'. Dark!

01 The formula

One loaf, five things.

About 995 g of dough for an 850 g boule. Weigh everything.

Ingredient	Grams	Baker’s %
Levain · build it the morning you mix
Ripe starter fed 12 h before	20 g	—
Flour 40 g white + 10 g rye	50 g	—
Water, 26 °C	50 g	—
Final dough
Strong white bread flour 12.5–13 % protein	400 g	80 %
Stone-ground wholemeal wheat	100 g	20 %
Water, 30 °C	370 g	74 %
Levain, at its peak	100 g	20 %
Fine sea salt	10 g	2 %
Water, held back for the salt	15 g	3 %
Total dough	995 g	199 %

79_%_ Total hydration

9_%_ Flour in levain

25_°C_ Dough temp · 77 °F

24_h_ Levain to loaf

Reading the percentages

Flour is always 100 %. Every other line is a share of the flour’s weight. For two loaves, double the grams — the percentages never move.

You will need

• Digital scale, to 1 g
• Lidded Dutch oven, 24–26 cm
• Banneton or a bowl and tea towel
• Bench scraper, razor blade

02 The day, on one clock

Mostly, you wait.

Twenty minutes of work over twenty-four hours. The dough does the rest, mostly in your fridge while you sleep.

Day 1 · Saturday

1. 07:00 Build the levain
2. 11:00 Autolyse
3. 12:00 Mix; salt at 12:30
4. 13:00 Folds × 4, every 30 min
5. 16:30 Pre-shape, rest
6. 17:00 Shape; fridge by 17:15

Day 2 · Sunday

1. 13 h In the fridge 3 °C
2. 06:00 Heat pot, 250 °C
3. 07:00 Score, bake, lid on
4. 07:20 Lid off, 230 °C
5. 07:45 Out, onto a rack
6. 09:30 Cut it. Breakfast.

03 The method · Day 1

From flour

to a living dough.

1. 1

Build the levain 07:00 · 26 °C · 4–5 h

Stir 20 g ripe starter into 50 g water, then 50 g flour. Cover and keep it warm — the top of the fridge is a good place. It is ready when it has doubled, is domed and full of bubbles, and a spoonful floats in water. 2. 2

Autolyse 11:00 · 1 h

Mix the 500 g of flour with 370 g warm water until no dry flour remains. Cover and leave it. The flour drinks, the gluten begins to form without you, and the dough is easier to work later. 3. 3

Mix 12:00 · aim for 25 °C

Spread 100 g levain on top. Dimple it in with wet fingers, then pinch and fold for three minutes. Rest 20 minutes. Scatter the salt over, add the last 15 g water, and squeeze it through until the dough comes back together. 4. 4

Bulk, with folds 12:30 · 4 h at 25 °C

With a wet hand, lift one side of the dough, stretch it up until it resists, and fold it over. Turn the bowl a quarter and repeat, four times round. That is one set. Do four, then leave it alone.

13:00slack, shaggy

13:30smoother

14:00holds a shape

14:30silky, elastic
Bulk is done when the dough has grown by half, is domed at the edges, jiggles when you shake the bowl and shows bubbles on the sides. 5. 5

Pre-shape 16:30 · rest 30 min

Tip the dough onto an unfloured bench. With the scraper, tuck and turn it into a loose round. Leave it uncovered until it relaxes and spreads a little.

03 The method · Night & Day 2

Drag the round towards you; the bench pulls the skin tight. Step 6

1. 6

Shape 17:00

Flour the top and flip it. Fold the bottom up, the sides in, and roll it down from the top. Drag it on the bench to tighten the skin. Set it seam-up in a banneton dusted with rice flour. 2. 7

Cold retard 17:15 · 12–14 h · 3 °C / 38 °F

Cover the basket and put it in the fridge overnight. The cold slows the yeast and lets the bacteria work: more flavour, a blistered crust, and you bake when it suits you. 3. 8

Bake Day 2 · 06:00 preheat

Heat the Dutch oven, lid on, for 45–60 min. Turn the cold dough onto parchment, make one long cut at 30°, 1 cm deep, and lower it in.

250 °C Lid on · 20 min
480 °F

230 °C Lid off · 22–25 min
450 °F, deep brown

97 °C Inside the loaf
207 °F · done 4. 9

Cool 2 h on a rack

The crumb is still setting. Listen to the crust crackle. Cut it warm and it will be gummy — I know it is hard to wait.

04 When it goes wrong

Every loaf

teaches you.

• It spread flat in the pot

Over-fermented, or shaped too loose. End bulk 30–60 min sooner and drag the round tighter.

• Dense, with big holes under the crust

Under-fermented. Let bulk run until the dough is airy and domed, even if it takes six hours.

• The cut did not open

Too shallow, or the pot was not hot. Score at an angle, 1 cm deep, and bake straight from the fridge.

• Pale crust

Lid off too soon, oven too cool. Give it five more minutes. Dark is flavour.

• Burnt bottom

Too much heat from below. Slide a tray onto the rack under the pot when the lid comes off.

• Too sticky to shape

Your flour drinks less than mine. Hold back 25 g water next time. Wet hands, not floured.

• Gummy inside

Cut too soon, or under-baked. Bake to 97 °C inside, then wait the full two hours.

What you wantAn open, glossy crumb, and a crust that crackles as it cools.

Bake it again next Sunday.
Bring me a slice — I always want to see.

— Youssef

Boulangerie Atlas
Tue – Sun · 06:30 – 13:00
First loaves at 07:00