Yeasted Artisan Bread

Step 1

To a medium bowl add: 788g bread flour. 17g salt and 4g instant yeast.

Step 2

Mix up the dry ingredients.

Step 3

Then add: 591g water.

Step 4

Mix the dough with your hands until all the flour has been hydrated.

Step 5

Then put the dough on your kitchen counter and perform some slap and folds until the dough comes together. Then put the dough in a see-through container and level the top of the dough.

Step 6

Mark the top of the dough with a white board marker and let the dough grow to almost 100%.

Step 7

Then put the dough in the refrigerator for at least 8, but up to 72 hours.

Step 8

When you are ready to bake, grab the dough from the fridge and pour it out onto the kitchen counter. Don’t let it come up to temperature.

Step 9

Divide the dough into two equally sized pieces. Shape each piece into a loose ball with your bench scraper.

Step 10

Then let the dough rest for 20 minutes to relax the gluten.

Step 11

Then final shape both dough balls. I recommend that you watch the video at the bottom where I give a tutorial on how to shape a round bread (boule) and a bâtard (cigar shaped).

Step 12

Place the final shaped doughs in bannetons.

Step 13

Heat your oven to 260°C/500°F with a baking steel (or pizza stone) and a dutch oven inside. Let it heat for an hour.

Step 14

When the hour is up, grab the first dough. Dust the bottom with rice flour so it won’t stick to the peel and flip it onto the peel.

Step 15

Dust the top with rice flour for a cool look, then score the bread. Put the bread into the dutch oven.

Step 16

Add the lid on the top and bake for 20 minutes.

Step 17

When the 20 minutes are up, remove the lid and turn the oven down to 230°C/450°F.

Step 18

Bake for 20-25 minutes more until the bread is to your liking.

Step 19

Take the bread out of the oven, and let it cool on a wire rack.

Step 20

Bake the other bread the exact same way.