Walnut Bread ('Walnussbrot')

Prepare the poolish:

The day before you plan to bake, combine the whole wheat flour, water, and yeast in a small bowl. Use your spatula to incorporate all the water into the flour so that no dry spots remain. Cover the bowl and let the poolish sit at room temperature for 2 hours. Then, place it in the fridge and let the poolish ferment for 24 hours.

Autolyse the rest of the flour:

The next day, in a large bowl, combine the rest of the flour with 250 g water. Mix briefly with a wooden spatula, so that no dry spots remain. Leave the dough to hydrate ('autolyse'), covered, for 30 minutes.

Add the poolish, salt, and yeast to your dough. If using a stand mixer, knead the dough on the low setting for 8 minutes followed by 1 minute on the high setting. If kneading by hand, knead the dough until it has firmed up and becomes less sticky. After kneading, incorporate the roasted walnuts into your dough.

Cover the dough and leave it to rise at room temperature until it has tripled in size, about 3 hours. While rising, the dough needs to be folded 2 times. Do this 30 and 60 minutes after you have finished kneading the dough. Lightly wet your hands and fold the dough over itself 3-4 times.

Once the dough has properly risen, take it out of the bowl and transfer it to a floured work surface. Fold the dough inwards to create a smooth surface. Rotate the dough with the palm of your hands to create a smooth ball that has enough tension to hold up its shape. Place the dough, seam side down, in a small proofing basket or bowl that roughly fits the size of the dough. Make sure to line the bottom of the bowl with a kitchen towel that is generously dusted with potato starch so that your dough won’t stick.

Preheat your oven to 475 °F (245 °C). Place a large Dutch oven inside your oven and leave it in there for at least half an hour to get hot.

Proof and bake your bread:

Leave the dough to proof until ready to bake. This took me about 60 minutes at 68 °F (20 °C) room temperature. You can verify if your dough is ready by poking it with a floured hand. If the indentation springs back slowly and incompletely, the dough is fully proofed. If it doesn’t spring back at all, your dough is over-proofed. In that case, deflate the dough and shape it into a dough ball again. Leave it to proof a second time and be careful not to overproof it again. Under-proofed dough will spring back immediately and completely.

Shortly before baking, take the Dutch oven out of your oven and place the proofed dough into the center of the Dutch oven, seam-side down. Score the top of the loaf in a criss-cross pattern with a bread knife. You can also invert the dough into your Dutch oven seam-side up. That way, you don't need to score it. Cover the Dutch oven with the lid and place in the oven. Let the bread bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Then, remove the lid from the Dutch oven and let the loaf brown for about 20 minutes, or until the color of the crust is to your liking.

Once fully baked, take your bread out of the oven. Lightly spray the outside of the hot loaf with water and leave the bread to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing it.