pão alentejano

This was suppose to be "pão alentejano" but since I still don't have a scale, it's just "pão". The measurements were a bit off, so instead of a dense loaf, typical of bread from this region of Portugal, it came out of the oven very soft and full of holes! A very delicious one I would say and Pedro agrees: after the first loaf came out of the oven, he ate half! 

I get most of my inspiration in Paulo's blog and from reading several books. He explains every single detail and what to expect in each stage. After many trials and errors, I now understand how the dough should behave, what a decent starter should smell like, what flours are best and, above all, the importance of patience. This bread took 7 hours from start to finish! I didn't labor around it for 7 hours, as you can imagine. It's quite easy to make, it only took about 30-40 minutes total, from mixing the flour to kneading and shaping.