Description
adapted from Jim Lahey
Ingredients
Units
- 3 cups all-purpose, or bread flour *see note below*
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (90-110 degrees F)
- 1/4 tsp instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 2 tsp kosher salt (or 1 1/2 tsp table salt)
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients until combined. Add warm water and mix until flour mixture is absorbed by water. Dough will be wet and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and store at room-temp or a turned off oven for 12-18 hours, and up to 24.
- Two hours before you’re ready to bake, gently pull dough out of bowl onto a heavily floured surface, being careful not to puncture too many air bubbles. Gently form into a ball. Place dough on top of cornmeal covered parchment paper and cover with a clean, floured kitchen towel for 2 hours. During the last 30 minutes of those 2 hours, pre-heat your oven and empty dutch oven to 450 degrees. Let it sit in there the entire 30 minutes. When it’s super hot, transfer the parchment/dough into the dutch oven, cover and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. Remove lid after 30 minutes and bake an additional 5-15 minutes, or until bread registers 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Immediately remove bread from the hot dutch oven and let cool on a wire-rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
Notes
This is a wet dough. However, depending on the humidity in your situation, you may need a little more water or flour to help the dough come together. If your dough is unreasonably wet, add more flour. If there are lots of dried flour pockets, add a little more water. There is room for error in this recipe. I usually have to add up to 1/2 cup more water if I’m using bread flour because it is much denser and heavier than regular all-purpose. Play it by ear and go with your instincts. You can do this!
- Prep Time: 12 hours
- Cook Time: 30 mins
