By far the easiest bread I have ever made.
Makes four 1-pound loaves. The recipe is easily doubled or
halved.
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour,
measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
Cornmeal for pizza peel
1. Warm the
water slightly: It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature,
about 100 degrees F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for
storage in about 2 hours. You can use cold tap water and get an identical final
result; then the first rising will take 3 or even 4 hours. That won’t be too
great a difference, as you will only be doing this once per stored batch.
2. Add yeast
and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl or, preferably, in a resealable, lidded
(not airtight) plastic food container or food-grade bucket. Don’t worry about
getting it all to dissolve.
3. Mix in
the flour–kneading is unnecessary: Add all of the flour at once, measuring it
in with dry-ingredient measuring cups, by gently scooping up flour, then
sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula; don’t press down into the flour
as you scoop or you’ll throw off the measurement by compressing. Mix with a
wooden spoon, a high-capacity food processor (14 cups or larger) fitted with
the dough attachment, or a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook
until the mixture is uniform. If you’re hand-mixing and it becomes too
difficult to incorporate all the flour with the spoon, you can reach into your
mixing vessel with very wet hands and press the mixture together. Don’t knead.
It isn’t necessary. You’re finished when everything is uniformly moist, without
dry patches. This step is done in a matter of minutes, and will yield a dough
that is wet and loose enough to conform to the shape of its container.
4. Allow to
rise: Cover with a lid (not airtight) that fits well to the container you’re
using. Do not use screw-topped bottles or Mason jars, which could explode from
the trapped gases. Lidded plastic buckets designed for dough storage are
readily available. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it
begins to collapse (or at least flattens on the top), approximately 2 hours,
depending on the room’s temperature and the initial water temperature. Longer
rising times, up to about 5 hours, will not harm the result. You can use a
portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough
is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature. So,
the first time you try our method, it’s best to refrigerate the dough overnight
(or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf.
5. On Baking
Day: The gluten cloak: don’t knead, just “cloak” and shape a loaf in 30 to 60
seconds. First, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal
(or whatever your recipe calls for) to prevent your loaf from sticking to it
when you slide it into the oven. 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; it’s not
intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the loaf may appear
to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out and adhere during
resting and baking. The correctly shaped final product will be smooth and
cohesive. The entire process should take no more than 30 to 60 seconds
6. Rest the
loaf and let it rise on a pizza peel: Place the shaped ball on the
cornmeal-covered pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest on the peel for about 40
minutes (it doesn’t need to be covered during the rest period). Depending on
the age of the dough, you may not see much rise during this period; more rising
will occur during baking (“oven spring”).
7. Twenty
minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F, 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.
8. Dust and
slash: Unless otherwise indicated in a specific recipe, dust the top of the
loaf liberally with flour, which will allow the slashing knife to pass without
sticking. Slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross, “scallop,” or tic-tac-toe pattern into
the top, using a serrated bread knife
9. Baking
with steam: After a 20-minute preheat, you’re ready to bake, even though your
oven thermometer won’t yet be up to full temperature. 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. Because you’ve used wet dough, there is little risk of drying out the
interior, despite the dark crust. When you remove the loaf from the oven, it
will audibly crackle, or “sing,” when initially exposed to roomtemperature air.
Allow to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack, for best flavor,
texture, and slicing. The perfect crust may initially soften, but will firm up
again when cooled.
10. Store the
remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and
use it over the next 14 days: You’ll find that even one day’s storage improves
the flavor and texture of your bread. This maturation continues over the 14-day
storage period. Refrigerate unused dough in a lidded storage container (again,
not airtight). If you mixed your dough in this container, you’ve avoided some
cleanup. Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them. We often have several
types of dough storing in the refrigerator at once. The dough can also be
frozen in 1 pound portions in an airtight container and defrosted overnight in
the refrigerator prior to baking day.
