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1
Refresh the massa azeda several hours before mixing. It is ready when it floats in water and smells sharply sour.
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2
Combine the wheat flour and corn or rye flour in a large bowl. Add the salt and mix to distribute. Add the massa azeda and water. Work the mass until no dry flour remains, then develop the gluten by folding and pressing until the dough is cohesive and begins to feel smooth and slightly elastic under the hand.
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3
Cover and allow a long first fermentation at room temperature, folding the dough at intervals, until the mass has risen perceptibly, feels aerated and alive under light pressure, and smells distinctly sour — the sourness of the Alentejo plain, not merely of fresh dough.
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4
Shape the dough into a tight round. A well-shaped round holds its dome under the touch of a finger and springs back slowly. Place in a floured proving basket or bowl, seam side up, and allow a final proof until the loaf has grown and a finger-press leaves an impression that fills back only partway.
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5
Preheat a stone oven or baking stone to 230–250 °C. This step is where the bread lives or dies: the oven must be fully saturated with heat before the loaf enters — a stone oven insufficiently preheated will not produce the deep, almost black crust that defines pão alentejano, and the crust's capacity to resist softening during açorda and ensopado service will be lost.
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6
Turn the loaf onto the hot stone, score the surface, and bake for 35–45 minutes depending on size. The crust should be deep brown to near-black in colour. The internal temperature must reach 98 °C. When lifted and tapped on the base, the loaf sounds hollow throughout.
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7
Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before cutting. The structure sets as it cools — cutting a warm pão alentejano collapses the open, chewy crumb before it has fixed. The finished crumb is open but not holey: denser than a baguette, more open than a tin loaf.