Pa de Pagès Català

Pa de Pagès Català is Catalonia's country loaf: large, round, formed by hand, with a deeply browned crust and a moist cream-coloured crumb crossed by uneven holes. Slow massa mare, natural wheat leaven, gives it flavour and keeping power, while the hot stone hearth builds the substantial crust. It isn't a white barra made round. The crust, crumb, patient fermentation, and hand-shaped form belong together.

Fermentation decides this loaf. Give the dough enough time to swell by half and feel aerated beneath your fingers before you shape it. An underfermented dough bakes dense; an exhausted one spreads before the oven can lift it. Watch the dough as well as the clock. That one habit matters more than clever scoring or heroic kneading.

If Catalan harina panificable isn't sold where you live, use an unbleached wheat flour with 11.5 to 12.5 percent protein. Very strong bread flour makes a chewier loaf, so blend 350g bread flour with 150g plain flour for the final dough if necessary. A thoroughly heated baking stone or steel stands in for the refractory floor of the village oven. No hace falta haber pisado España. My margin beside this loaf says only, "let it cool." Cut too soon and you crush the crumb you waited all day to make. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.