Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City. This is the easiest bread you will ever make. Start it Friday night and you have delicious bread Saturday afternoon. People won’t believe you made it yourself. You will make it over and over and over again.
Ingredients:
Makes one loaf.
2 1/4 cup bread flour *
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
1 1/2 cup cool water
Directions:
1. In a large bowl add flours, yeast and salt. Add cool water and stir with a wooden spoon until all of the flour is hydrated. Dough will be sticky and shaggy. Cover with saran wrap and let rest at room temperature (70 degrees) for about 12 -18 hrs.
2. Dough will be dotted with bubbles. Flour work surface and pour dough on it, sprinkle flour onto dough and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover with saran wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.
3. Use more flour to prevent dough from sticking to hands and shape dough into a ball.
4. Coat a cotton towel with a generous amount of flour, wheat bran or cornmeal and place dough seem side down on towel. Sprinkle more flour on top and let rise another 2 hours. After one hour, place a 6-8 quart cast iron, enamel, pyrex or ceramic covered pot in oven and preheat to 450 degrees
5. When dough is ready, dough will be more than double in size, slide your hand under the towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up. It’s ok it it looks messy, just shake pan once or twice to distribute dough evenly in pan. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake another 15-30 minutes until bread has a nice brown color. Cool and enjoy!
* Try to find “unbleached” flour. I like King Arthur flour, a bit pricier than the regular bleached flour but if you do a lot of baking it’s completely worth it. They also have amazing recipes listed on their website.