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Artisan Bread Recipe
Artisan Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 cups warm water
- 1 ½ Tbsp. coarse Kosher salt
- 1 ½ Tbsp. active yeast
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 6 ½ – 7 cups white, unbleached flour, additional for dusting
- Cornmeal for dusting
- 1 cup water
Preparation:
Artisan Bread Recipe
Step 1: Mix warm water, salt, yeast and honey in a large bowl. Let stand for a few minutes.
Step 2: Add flour and mix with wooden spoon or spatula just until the flour is incorporated, about 1 minute. Cover bowl loosely with lid or plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 2-5 hours. The dough can be used right away or stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Step 3: Dust pizza peel with a thin layer of cornmeal. Take a grapefruit-sized amount of dough out of the bowl and shape into ball. NOTE: At this point you incorporate some dried fruit, herbs or other ingredients as you gently shape the dough into a ball. I’ve found the easiest way is to flatten the dough, sprinkle my ingredients over the top and then fold the dough in half a couple of times as I work the ingredients in.
Step 4: Place dough onto pizza peel, dust top with flour and let rise for 40 minutes (or 90 minutes if refrigerated). You may want to loosely cover dough with a kitchen towel or place a large bowl over the top so the dough doesn’t dry out.
Step 5: Twenty minutes before dough is finished rising, place baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and a metal broiler pan (or something similar) on the bottom rack. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Step 6: Make a few cuts in the top of the dough with a serrated knife (for decoration and to control where the crust will crack as the bread is baking) and gently slide the dough onto the baking stone in the oven.
Step 7: Quickly pour a cup of water into the pan on the bottom rack and close the oven to capture as much steam as possible inside the oven. Bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Let bread cool for at least 15-20 minutes before cutting.