The Cottage Loaf: Elegant, Simple, and Delicious

The cottage loaf is another recipe from the great British bake off cookbook. A traditional bread with a fine-textured crumb and a shape not seen too much these days. The loaf is in essence two loaves, one on top of the other, so the dough will be quite firm. Beware of over-proofing the dough as this will cause the loaf to not be “Instagram-worthy” it will still taste good though. But if you didn’t post about it on social media, did it actually happen? Anyway, if you haven’t already jumped to the recipe, here are some tips for how to nail this bread the first time.

Notes about the Dough

The cottage loaf is a simple dough, there’s flour, salt, yeast, and water, that’s it. The loaf is two-tiered so the dough is going to be quite firm. This is so that it can hold its shape during its second proof. A firm dough means low-hydration. So the dough is going to look wrong if you’re used to working with sourdough or other higher hydration doughs. If the dough is sticking to your hands, don’t be afraid to add a bit more flour. The dough should be firm but easy to work with.

Cottage Loaf Dough Technique

When mixing the dough, you can just chuck everything in the stand mixer with the dough attachment and start mixing. Be sure to start the mixing on the lowest setting so the flour doesn’t go everywhere. Also, take care to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary. This is to ensure you don’t get any pockets of flour in your dough. When proofing the dough, leave it to proof at room temperature. Normally, I leave my dough to proof by my oven where its going to be a little warmer. This helps the yeast to activate and the dough to rise. In this case, we don’t want the dough to be super active and bubbly. This will cause the structure of the loaf to either collapse or rise in some weird ways when baking. See below for an example

Loaf Assembly Technique

Knock the dough back once doubled in size and knead for a few minutes to get any air bubbles out. Then cut a third of the dough off and shape into a round ball and set on a greased baking tray. Shape the other piece of dough into a ball as well and place on the baking tray with the smaller piece. Leave some space between the dough to allow for spreading during the second rise.

Once the dough has rested a second time, flatten each piece with your fingers. Take the smaller ball and put it on top of the larger one. Dip your fingers on flour and press down in the center of the loaf to join the two pieces together.

After the loaf has been “assembled,” wait 10 min then brush the loaf with an egg wash. Then score the bread using a razor or sharp knife. Don’t be afraid to make decent cuts on the bottom part of the loaf. This will ensure that the dough doesn’t puff up in the middle and rise in ways you don’t want. Gotta get that perfect shot for bread porn daily.

When going to bake your loaf, chances are, you don’t have a steaming oven. I don’t either so when preheating the oven, I place a small baking tray on the bottom of the oven. After I place the loaf in the oven to bake, I pour some cold water on the tray in the bottom to create a blast of steam. This will help the loaf develop that golden, crisp crust. Take care to turn the temperature down after 15 minutes. The loaf is initially baked at 450 deg F and then reduced to 400 deg F. If you tap the bottom of your loaf when you take it out of the oven and it sounds hollow, you know its done. Let cool on a wire rack and dig in!