Lean Yeasted Breads
Simple doughs with flour, water, salt, and yeast — high crust-to-crumb ratio, minimal fat or sugar
- Hydration
- 65–80%
- Leavening
- Yeast + preferment
- Bulk ferment
- 3–5 hours
- Bake
- 230–250°C w/ steam
Toasting & Sandwich Loaves Recipes
4 recipes
About Lean Yeasted Breads
Lean breads use four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and a leavening culture. Nothing else competes for the gluten. French baguettes, Italian ciabatta, and pain de campagne all sit here, defined by crisp crusts, open crumbs, and a hydration percentage you can read on the slice. There's no fat to tenderize, no sugar to brown early, no dairy to soften the crumb. What gets dialed in instead is time. Long preferments, cold retards, and well-judged bulk fermentation are the only levers, which is why bakers obsess over schedule rather than ingredient lists.
Characteristics
Hydration typically lands between 65% and 80%, climbing into the 80s for ciabatta and slack baguette variants. Flour is almost always white wheat with a protein content around 11.5–13%, sometimes blended with a small percentage of whole grain for flavor. Most modern formulas use a poolish, biga, or pâte fermentée preferment alongside instant yeast. Preferments contribute 20–30% of total flour and ferment 12–16 hours cool. Final bakes happen at 230–250°C with strong steam in the first 10 minutes for crust expansion. Total dough time from mix to oven is rarely less than 4 hours, often 24+ with cold retard.
Tips for getting it right
Underproofed lean dough is the most common beginner mistake, and the easiest to confuse with overproofing. If the crumb is dense with a thick gummy gum-line near the crust, you pulled it from the oven too early. If it shreds and tears, you pushed bulk too far. A poke test on the shaped loaf beats relying on time alone: the indent should slowly spring halfway back. The other reliable failure is weak shaping. Lean doughs depend on surface tension for oven spring, so a slack pre-shape with no resting time will collapse during the bake regardless of hydration or fermentation.