Simple Crusty Bread
- Total Time
- About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours' resting and rising
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1½tablespoons yeast
- 1½tablespoons kosher salt
- 6½cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
- Cornmeal
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Preparation
- Step 1
In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
- Step 2
Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
- Step 3
Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
- Step 4
Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
- Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.
Private Notes
Comments
775g flour
8g yeast
23g salt
630g water
I reduced this recipe by 1/3 and it makes a loaf just the right size for a family of 4. 1 1/2 tsp yeast 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 cups + 3 tbsp flour 1 cup water I also used a cast iron dutch oven to bake in the oven. Preheat the oven and dutch oven to 450 for 30 minutes. Put the dough in the dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes covered. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for 5 more minutes. Works beautifully without need for pizza stone or water.
Must have done something wrong. Most of the dough wound up attached to me and half the kitchen. I think it could be weaponized and used to subdue the enemy or large rioting mobs in thick, inescapable goo.
I don't have a pizza stone, so I greased my regular old cast-iron skillet (no lid, and it's giant), preheated it for 12-ish min, and plopped my dough ball in the middle. I don't have broiler pan either, so I heated water in my electric kettle, poured it in a sheet pan, and put the sheet pan on the bottom rack of the oven. I've always been intimidated by breadmaking, so I was shocked by how great this turned out! A kitchen miracle!
It is too doughy when cooked, the bottom isn't crusty and it doesn't taste that great. I wouldn't make it again.
One of the best bread recipes I've tried. Starting from Mike Burton's weights: 681 g water, 16 g salt, 923g AP flour, 14g yeast. I like whole grain and rye flavor so I made 1/2 batch with 340 g water, 8 g salt, 100 g Bob's Red Mill dark rye flour plus 361 g AP flour, 7 g yeast. Followed the mixing directions. Rest at room temp for 5 hours, then refrigerate overnight. Warm for 2 hrs on parchment paper sprinkled with corn meal. Baked in dutch oven 32 min with lid. 5 min without lid. Great!
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