PÃO DA AVÓ - Sarah Schmidt Ferreira (Brussels)

Prep Time:

12 hours

Cook Time:

40 Minutes

As long as I can remember, entering my grandparents place in the west coast of Portugal meant the smell of delicious freshly baked bread to me. The smell that for me meant ‘home’! After many unsuccessful trial and errors, I discovered below recipe, which is not as good as my avó’s wood baked bread.

Ingredients

3 tea cups of flour (about 420gr)
1 ½ tae cups of water (300-360ml)
1 teaspoon of dry baker's yeast
1 teaspoon of salt
A baking pan with lid – ideally a cast iron pot

Method

Mix all ingredients together, (start by adding only 1 cup and 1/4 and if necessary, add the rest) and let it rise for 8-12 hours minimum (I usually prepare the dough in the evening and put it in the oven in the morning).
When that time is up, line your counter with flour (or baking paper, which is easier) and pour the dough. Pull from the outside inwards a few times until it forms a small ball.
Turn the seam side down and leave it to rest covered while you preheat the oven to 250° with your pan inside (with the lid).
As soon as it's hot, put the dough in the pan, cover and bake for 30 minutes.
Take the lid off and bake for another 10minutes or so for a nice crispy crust.

Tips & Hints

Different flours have different absorption powers, so start by adding the water little by little. Otherwise you will be tempted to add too much flour when you have to knead, before going to the oven, and the result will be a very dense and heavy bread.
You don’t have an iron cast pot? - use a clay pan, stainless steel, enamel etc, it works just as well! As long as it's very hot and does the steaming effect.