In praise of Steve Gamelin.

Youtuber Steve Gamelin was the first artisan bread instructor that I stumbled upon. Prior to discovering him, I was just a bread-machine guy.  I liked his videos so much that I bought one of his Kindle books, just to send some money his way.  He got me into long-ferment baking, and that got me here.

His formulas are pretty forgiving, they don't have to be exact, so he does volumetric-only measuring. His method uses an  overnight bulk ferment, and a 90 minute proof.

http://www.youtube.com/user/artisanbreadwithstev        - - - no final "e"

I've made a few dozen of his loaves with near 100% whole wheat flour.   First, follow his recipes closely, and you'll learn how the high hydration feels, before you substitute in more whole wheat flour like I did, which needs extra water.  

He uses commercial yeast only, no sourdough.  But with an overnight rise, all you need is 1/4 tsp per loaf.

No starter, no biga, no poolish, no barm. No weighing.  No kneading. No stretch-and-folds.

He has mainly 100% white flour recipes, and then some 50-50 whole wheat/white flour recipes.

He has two broad cateories, 1) the  8-16 hour rises, and 2) the "turbo" process.

The 8-16 hour rises are more open crumb, I think, than the speeded up process. The longer rise loaves taste better, imho.

Watch a few of his videos.  His mixing method is so easy, it's much easier to clean up than a bread machine's mixing paddle and pan.

Granted, it's not the kind of "Instagram-worthy"  open crumb and big oven spring that you can learn here on this web site.  But if you are looking for K.I.S.S., I have not found anything simpler than Steve's method for basic "good enough" bread.

Here is my favorite recipe from his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcmS7uahscI

it's a 50-50 white/whole wheat.   Enjoy.