Not *my* Home-made Artisan Bread Recipe

I've had a few requests for the recipe so Izzy and I decided to document our bread making to post along with the recipe.

Start with the ingredients:

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 tablespoon kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose flour
Cornmeal for pizza peel



Add yeast and salt to warm water.





Mix.



Add flour and mix with kneading beaters on mixer...or get in there with your hands.



Mix together until ingredients are combined. Do not knead.

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Cover with loose lid or cling wrap. I like to put my dough into an old salad container with lid which fits nicely in the fridge (a later step).



Allow to rise a minimum of two hours...can take as long as five, depending on temperature of room. My kitchen was very warm, hence the spillage. Dough will be very sticky.



You can use some of this dough now but it is ideal to refrigerate it first. Dough can stay in fridge up to two weeks and this allows for five portions or loaves. I like to transfer it to my salad container first. Dough will deflate. This is okay!




***BAKING DAY***

This method uses a pizza stone and steam to bake. Any baking stoneware should do the trick. I have not tried it on a cookie sheet, myself, but I have read online that it should still work fine. You may not get the same crunchy bottom as the one I make but the steam will work its magic on the rest.

Cut out a piece of dough to work with, about grapefruit size. The dough will be pretty flat. Use some extra flour when cutting the dough to prevent sticking.



Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as need so it won`t stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go. The bottom of the dough may appear to be a collection of bunched ends but it will flatten and adhere during resting and baking. This should take only 30-60 seconds.

Rest the loaf and let it rise on pizza peel (or cookie sheet) with cornmeal on it. It will stick to paper or peel without it. Let it rise about 40 minutes. It will rise more in oven so don`t be concerned too much about its size.



Put baking stone on the middle rack. Have another rack inside the oven that won`t interfere with the loaf. I put it right underneath the stone. This is where I will add a cookie sheet for the water when the loaf is ready to be baked. Set oven at 450 degrees F. The stone needs to be heated a minimum of half an hour at the high temperature.

Dust and slash the loaf. Top the loaf with flour and slash the top of bread with a serrated knife in scallop or tic-tac-toe fashion.



With a quick motion, slide loaf onto pizza peel or put cookie sheet with loaf in. Add one cup of hot tap water to the other pan. Close the door quickly.



Bake for 30 minutes or until crust is nicely browned and firm to touch. Cool on rack.



Yummy!!!

This bread is very easy to make. It takes about five minutes to make the dough. We have found that the flavour peaks around the 4th-5th day in the fridge and then starts to sour...also a good thing for an easy sour dough knock-off. I have also made pocket sandwiches, taking out smaller portions and wrapping them around meat and cheese.



The book is called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I have used many other recipes from this book, like the chocolate bread and pizza dough, and they were fantastic!