Description
Crusty, airy, bakery-style bread in your home kitchen? Yes. You. Can. This dough takes 5 minutes to stir together, and from there, time does the work. If you love a rustic boule for dipping in your soup or toasting and slathering with butter and jam for breakfast, this recipe is for you.
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s “The Minimalist” column in The New York Times: Dining In November 8, 2006 / Recipe from Jim Lahey
Notes:
Flour/Salt: I’ve adjusted the recipe by adding a touch more salt than suggested in the article and converting the recipe to grams. The key here is to use roughly an 80% hydration dough, so regardless of how much flour you use, be sure the water amount is roughly 80% the amount of flour. Similarly, the salt should be roughly 2 to 3 % the weight of the flour, which for this recipe is 7 to 11 grams.
Time: Be sure to read the recipe through entirely before endeavoring to make this bread: you need 12-18 hours initially in rising time and 2 more hours subsequently for a second rise.
Equipment: You’ll need a lidded vessel to bake this loaf. I use my 5-qt Lodge Double Dutch Oven for this one. Parchment paper is helpful as well for transferring the dough from the towel to the preheated Dutch oven.
Ingredients
- 385 grams (about 3 cups) bread flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 gram (¼ teaspoon) instant yeast
- 11 grams (about 2 teaspoons) kosher salt
- 308 grams (about 1 5/8 cups) water
- Cornmeal, wheat bran, or oat bran as needed
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water, and stir until blended. The dough will be sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 12-18 hours at room temperature. (Note: Optional Step: If time permits, 15 to 20 minutes after you cover the bowl, perform one set of stretches and folds: simply grab an edge of the dough using a wet hand and stretch it up and in. Repeat this 8 to 10 times, grabbing a different edge each time. I find performing a set of stretches and folds gives my dough the teensiest bit more strength and ultimately a bit more loft. See photos in the post above.)
- After the 12 to 18 hours, or when the surface of the dough is dotted with bubbles, lightly flour a work surface and place the dough on it. Sprinkle a little more flour on the dough and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for about 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, lay a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) on a counter or tabletop in a draft-free area. Generously coat it with cornmeal, wheat bran, oat bran, or any combination of the three. After the 15 minutes, using as much flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your fingers and the work surface, quickly shape the dough into a ball and place seam side down in the center of the prepared towel. Dust with more cornmeal, wheat bran, or oat bran. If the towel is large enough, fold the sides up over the bread so that it is completely covered. Otherwise, cover it with another towel. Let rise for another 2 hours. (I like to set my towel-wrapped dough into a bowl or banneton to provide a little more support during these 2 hours.)
- Forty-five minutes before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 450°F. Place a 6- to 8-quart heavy-covered pot (I use this Lodge Double Dutch Oven) in the oven while it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up. This is tricky — I find that parchment paper helps: open your towel, lay a sheet of parchment paper over the dough, place your hand on the parchment paper and carefully flip the dough over so that the seam side is up and the dough is resting on the parchment paper. Use the overhanging parts of the parchment paper as handles, then lay the bread, parchment paper and all, into the Dutch oven.
- Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until it sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from oven, and turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Dutch Oven
- Cuisine: American
