Pão - Portuguese Bread

I could never, ever, ever... ever, ever go on the Atkins Diet.



Pão - Portuguese Bread
slightly adapted from here

For the Ferment:
1 1/2 cups active sourdough starter
1 x 7g sachet of instant yeast 

a pinch of sugar

For the Bread:
450g plain flour
50g rye flour
1 heaped teaspoon fine sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
200ml warm water

Make the Ferment:
Combine everything in a bowl, mix well and let sit, covered, in a draft-free place for a few hours until nice and bubbly.

Make the Bread:
Combine the ferment  and the dough ingredients - in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix the dough about 10 minutes on low speed. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and bring it together with your hands. You may need to add some more flour to make a smooth dough. Form it into a ball and put it into a large clean oiled bowl covered with clingfilm and let rise for about 1½ hours, until doubled in size.

Line a large Dutch oven with baking paper and preheat the oven to 220°C.

Knock the dough back and form it into a ball again.  Place it into the prepared Dutch oven.  Leave to rise again for another hour.

Once puffy, slash the top,put the lid on the Dutch oven and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove the lid and bake for a further 15 minutes.  Take the loaf out of the pan and place it on the shelf in the oven to continue baking for a further 10 minutes.  It's done when the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Leave to cool on a rack.