photo from here
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." ~Oscar Wilde
Thank you Jenn for your inspiration to try something new! I can't think of anything better than fancy bread, baking at home, especially when it is so easy.
THE MASTER RECIPE: BOULE (ARTISAN FREE-FORM LOAF)
MAKES FOUR 1-POUND LOAVES (RECIPE IS EASILY DOUBLED OR HALVED)
3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees)
1 ½ tablespoons granulated yeast
1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt or other coarse salt
6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour (measure with scoop and sweep method)
Cornmeal or parchment for pizza peel
Preparing the dough:
In
a 5-quart bowl or a resealable, lidded, plastic food container, add
yeast and salt to lukewarm water. Don't worry about getting it all to
dissolve.
Add in all
the flour at once. Mix with a wooden spoon (you can use very wet hands
to help if needed) or a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough
hook. Don't knead the dough; just mix until it is uniformly moist
without dry patches.
Cover
with a lid that fits well, but is not airtight. Allow to rise at room
temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours. (You can let it
go up to 5 hours.) The dough is ready to use at this point, but will be
easier to shape if it is refrigerated at least 3 hours first.On baking day:
Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal (or line it with parchment).
Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour.
Pull up and cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough, using a serrated knife.
Hold
the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed
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. (Most of the dusting flour will fall off.) The
bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but
it will flatten and adhere during resting and baking. Handle the dough
as little as possible.
Place
the shaped ball on the cornmeal-covered pizza peel. Allow the loaf to
rest on the peel for about 40 minutes, uncovered. Depending on the age
of the dough, you may not see much rise (more will occur during baking).
20
minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with a baking
stone placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for
holding water on any other shelf that won't interfere with the rising
bread.
Dust the top
of the loaf liberally with flour. Slash a ¼-inch-deep cross, scallop or
tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.
With
a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the
pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly but carefully
pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and
close the oven door to trap the steam.
Bake
for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to
the touch. Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack.
Store
the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight)
container. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them anytime over
the next 14 days. The flavor and texture will improve after even one
day's storage.
Tester's note: If
you don't have a baking stone, you can bake the loaf on a cookie sheet,
but we found the crust was not as pleasantly crisp this way. Francois
also recommends using unglazed garden tiles. If you don't have a pizza
peel, the back side of a cookie sheet is a good substitute.
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