In a time when individual homes lacked kitchens, bread was baked in communal ovens. It was necessary then to have a stencil or signature to your bread to distinguish whose was whose when loaves were pulled from the hearth. Nature, family crests, personal hobbies, and moon cycles are just a few places to draw inspiration from when creating your own stencil. I like to take a walk by the river before I start.
TOOLS YOU’LL NEED
Firm piece of paper such as a file folder or Bristol board
Pen or pencil
X-Acto knife with a fresh blade
Self-healing cutting mat Flour sifter
1 cup flour
Kitchen towel
Sheet pan with raised sides
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees and arrange the racks so that one is in the center of the oven and another is just below it.
Cut a rectangle of firm paper to match the surface area of the 9-inch loaf pan. Using a pen or pencil, mark a ½-inch border around the outside of the paper. Draw your chosen design, focusing on the center strip of the stencil. Once the loaf has risen, your design will be more detailed in the center and diffuse on the outer edges, so keep this in mind. Using the X-Acto knife and self-healing mat, cut the design out.
Place the stencil on top of the loaf. Fill the sifter with flour and evenly sift back and forth over the paper. You only need a light dusting to make your image appear. Too much flour will burn and create a dry mouthful. Set aside the sifter and remove the stencil, lifting directly up so as to not spill the flour.
When baking with a Dutch oven, the moisture released from the bread is held close to the skin, providing ample steam, yet here you must provide the steam separately. Steam softens the skin of the bread and reduces tears and blowouts. To steam: soak the kitchen towel in water, place it in the sheet pan, and position it on the bottom rack underneath the bread when you put the loaf in to bake. Remove the pan with the towel 15 minutes into the bake. Bake for a total of 25 to 30 minutes, or until it is ruby red and done. Remove the bread from the pan as soon as it comes out of the oven, and cool it on a wire rack for between 1 and 2 hours to taste the full flavor.