Ingredients:
- 3 cups of bread flour
- 1/4 tsp of yeast
- 2 and 1/4 tsp of Kosher salt
- 1 and 1/2 cup of lukewarm water
Instructions:
- cups of bread flour
- 1/4 tsp of yeast
- and 1/4 tsp of Kosher salt
- and 1/2 cup of lukewarm water
- Stir everything together with a wooden spoon.
- You should have a thick, goopy mass of dough.
- Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and set it in a warm place to rest for at least 12 hours.
- If the dough is going to be sitting for more than 24 hours, store it in the fridge. It will keep there just fine for about 2 weeks turning more and more into sourdough as the days pass.
- When you are ready to bake the bread, flour a board, moisten your hands to prevent the dough from sticking, and scoop the dough onto the board.
- Fold the dough over into a four corner package shape.
- Flour a clean cotton dishcloth.
- Rub the flour in well and then pick up the dough and gently lay it smooth side facing up on the dishcloth.
- Place the dishcloth and the dough in a tall bowl. This helps things keep their shape.
- Cover the bowl loosely and let it rise again for another 2 hours.
- One hour and 30 minutes into the rise, place the La cloche, both top and bottom, or a pizza stone, into the middle rack of a cold oven. Turn the oven on to 450 degrees.
- After the oven comes up to speed, let the stone or the La Cloche heat for at least another 30 minutes. You want every thing hot, hot, hot.
- When the bread is ready to go into the oven, take the lid off the la Cloche and dump the dough into the bottom half.
- Put the lid on the la Cloche. If you are using a pizza stone, scatter some coarse corn meal on the stone before the bread dough goes on it to prevent sticking. You don't have to do this with the La Cloche.
- If you are using a pizza stone, put a pan of hot water under the bread as it bakes. This provides the proper moisture in the oven.
- Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake for an additonal 15 to 20 minutes until the bread is crisp and done.
- When the bread comes out of the oven, take it out of the pan and place it on a cooling rack for at least an hour. Put your ear to the bread, you should hear a faint cracking noise. That's not in your head…that's the bread “singing” to you, a sign of a perfect crust.