The Eighteen-Hour Loaf

There is a moment, somewhere around hour fourteen of fermentation, when our miche de campagne begins to smell less like dough and more like something alive. This is not an accident. It is the entire point.

Most bread is rushed. Commercial yeast can leaven a loaf in under two hours, and for most bakeries, that is reason enough. We do not use commercial yeast. Our levain is fed daily, by hand, and has been in continuous use since our first Paris counter opened in 2011.

Eighteen hours produces a crumb that is open, faintly sour, and deeply structured — the kind of bread that improves for two days after it leaves the oven, rather than staling by evening. It is slower. It is also, we believe, the only way to do it properly.