Simple Crusty Bread
Published November 20, 2007
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
- Total Time
- About 45 minutes plus about 3 hours' resting and rising
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
Advertisement
Ingredients
1 ½ tablespoons yeast
1 ½ tablespoons kosher salt
6 ½ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
Cornmeal
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast and salt into 3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Stir in flour, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Cover, but not with an airtight lid. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).
- Step 2
Bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for as long as two weeks. When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and cut off a grapefruit-size piece with serrated knife. Turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Put dough on pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal; let rest 40 minutes. Repeat with remaining dough or refrigerate it.
- Step 3
Place broiler pan on bottom of oven. Place baking stone on middle rack and turn oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for 20 minutes.
- Step 4
Dust dough with flour, slash top with serrated or very sharp knife three times. Slide onto stone. Pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, about 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Variation: If not using stone, stretch rounded dough into oval and place in a greased, nonstick loaf pan. Let rest 40 minutes if fresh, an extra hour if refrigerated. Heat oven to 450 degrees for 5 minutes. Place pan on middle rack.
Private Notes
Comments
I reduced this recipe by 1/3 and it makes a loaf just the right size for a family of 4. 1 1/2 tsp yeast 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 cups + 3 tbsp flour 1 cup water I also used a cast iron dutch oven to bake in the oven. Preheat the oven and dutch oven to 450 for 30 minutes. Put the dough in the dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes covered. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for 5 more minutes. Works beautifully without need for pizza stone or water.
775g flour
8g yeast
23g salt
630g water
Must have done something wrong. Most of the dough wound up attached to me and half the kitchen. I think it could be weaponized and used to subdue the enemy or large rioting mobs in thick, inescapable goo.
This recipe is so perfectly wonderful, and I make it regularly. I have friends that beg me to make it for them. Didn’t think it was possible to make it better until I tried it yesterday with about half a cup each of craisins and chopped walnuts to mimic the “best free restaurant bread” at Le Diplomate. It’s heavenly!
I tried this yesterday and had my doubts because I live at 6000 ft and bread is hard at altitude. Holy mittens though ya'll, it worked! I followed the recipe scaled to 1/2 and instead of all purpose flour I used Caputo Manitoba Oro (strong flour). This made enough dough for 2 loaves. I baked off one and threw the other in the frig for another day. I shaped the one into a baguette and it came out perfect. Stupid easy recipe. I am going to make the full recipe next time and bake them off as needed
Hi. It says 1 hour xtra rise if refrigerated does that mean an hour total or an hour in addition to the original 40 min? Thanks