Full Wholemeal Loaf, Container-Baked

Ingredients

• — Dough ingredients —
• 250 g strong wholemeal bread flour, weighed
• 0 g strong white bread flour, weighed
• 4 g fast-action (instant) dried yeast (1 tsp, half a 7 g sachet), weighed
• 10 g caster sugar (2½ tsp), spooned level
• 4.5 g salt (¾ tsp), spooned level
• 185 ml hand-warm water, poured from a measuring jug
• 20 g olive oil, spooned
• — Proving bath —
• About 300 ml hand-warm water (about 40 °C, comfortable to the touch), poured from a measuring jug for the proving bath
• — Container prep —
• A little olive oil, kept nearby for greasing, and a little flour, kept nearby for dusting the container and work surface
• You will also need: both containers and the 1.6 L cooking lid, a large bowl, a damp tea towel, a wire rack

Method

1. Oven to 190 °C conventional / 170 °C fan, a shelf in the middle — but switch it on later, when the shaped loaf goes in for its second prove (step 5), so it is hot exactly when the loaf is ready. Everything before that is dough work.
2. Everything into a large bowl in one go: both flours, the yeast, the sugar and the salt mixed together, then the hand-warm water and the 20 g olive oil. Mix to a shaggy dough, then knead for 8–10 minutes by hand or mixer until it is smoother and springy; wholemeal dough stays slightly tacky, so resist adding more than a light dusting of flour.
3. FIRST PROVE: pour about 300 ml hand-warm water into the 1.6 L. Put the dough in the lightly oiled 1.0 L, lower it into the water and rest the 1.6 L cooking lid loosely over both. Prove until doubled — about 45–60 minutes; the volume is the gate, not the clock. Risen to about a finger-width below the rim of the 1.0 L is enough — do not let it climb past the rim.
4. Pour the water out of the 1.6 L and dry it. Brush the base and sides with olive oil, then dust lightly with flour and tap out the excess. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface, press out the largest bubbles, fold the edges into the centre and shape a short oval that fits the container. Set it seam-side down in the 1.6 L; a softly domed loaf is the goal, not a square sandwich shape.
5. SECOND PROVE: switch the oven on now — 190 °C conventional / 170 °C fan, shelf in the middle. Cover the container with a damp tea towel and leave it somewhere warm until the dough has risen about 1.5× and a floured finger-poke springs back slowly — about 30–45 minutes.
6. Bake on the middle shelf, no lid, at 190 °C conventional / 170 °C fan — one setting for the whole bake. Set a timer for 30 minutes. When it goes off the top should be deep golden; oven gloves on, run a palette knife or thin spatula right around the sides to loosen the loaf, tip it out onto the wire rack and tap the base — it should sound hollow (88–94 °C in the middle if you use a probe). Not there? Slide it back into the container and set a timer for 5 minutes, then check again; if the top is already dark, rest the cooking lid loosely over the container for those extra minutes.
7. Loosen the sides with a palette knife if it has not already come free, turn the loaf out onto the rack straight away, and cool at least 30 minutes before slicing; a hot loaf cuts gummy. Never put a storage lid on a warm loaf — it sweats and the crust goes soft.
8. To reheat: the loaf keeps two days in a bread bag and freezes well, sliced, for a month. From the fridge or from the bread bag, refresh it whole or in thick slices in the oven at 180 °C conventional / 160 °C fan on the middle shelf: set a timer for 8 minutes; when it goes off the crust should be crisp again and the crumb soft and piping hot right through. From frozen: slices go straight into the toaster, or lay them on the shelf at 180 °C conventional / 160 °C fan and set a timer for 10 minutes; when it goes off they should be piping hot right through.