Rustic Precision Blog

Ingredients 3 cups unbleached white bread flour (e.g., Whole Foods bulk item #5100) 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp (no mistake!) instant yeast Approximately 11 oz of water

• Optional: cornmeal, bran, coarse or fine flour to sprinkle on top

Equipment

• 8-10″ wide round or oval pot, with sides at least 5-6″ tall, with tightly-fitting lid. Cast-iron dutch ovens work well
• Pizza stone, ceramic tiles, or bricks in the oven for thermal mass (I got two 16″ tiles from the Cupertino HomeDepot for about $7)
• Shallow roasting pan

In ceramic or glass mixing bowl, mix dry ingredients with a rubber spatula (or a wooden spoon). Add water and continue mixing to create a very wet dough that sticks to everything. If it seems too dry (more like a normal dough), add more water, a bit at a time. Just get it thoroughly mixed. Don’t bother kneading; the yeast and long rising time will do the rest.

Fit a dinner plate over the bowl and let rest at room temperature for 12-18 hours, or until dough has roughly doubled in size and shows signs of bubbles on top.
Use the rubber spatula (or spoon) to scrape and press the dough repeated from the sides of the bowl, working out the C02. Cover with a cloth. Let it rise again for about 2 hours, until it has again doubled in size.

About 1 hour before the dough finishes its final rise, arrange the roasting pan on the bottom shelf of the oven, then arrange the stone or tiles or bricks on a shelf immediately above it. Finally, put your pot with the tightly-fitting lid on top of the stone/tiles/bricks. Pre-heat the oven to 500 degrees F. Note: if you don’t pre-heat the pot with the oven, bad things can happen: your stones/tiles/bricks may shatter when you set the cold pot on them; your pot could shatter; and your bread will fuse to the pot and become impossible to remove intact.

When the dough has risen and the oven has hit the target temperature, pull the pot (with mitts!) from the oven and set it on a stove-top burner. Pull the lid off and set it on another burner. Using the rubber spatula, carefully pour and scrape the dough, trying to heap it as much as possible in the center of the pot. Sprinkle optional flour, cornmeal or bran on top of loaf. Now pour 1/8 cup of water (approximately) into the pot, trying not to let the water touch the bread before it turns to steam (too much water reaching the dough at this point can cause the loaf to stick). Slam the lid on to trap the steam, then put the whole thing back in the oven. Slide the roasting pan partway out from underneath, and pour 1 cup of water into the roasting pan, shove the pan back in, and quickly close the oven door. Set a timer. Baking time should be between 30 and 40 minutes. Add more water to the roasting pan at 8-10 minutes into the bake.

Steam in the first 15 minutes forms the thick crust and causes the unconfined loaf to rise properly.

At 30 minutes, remove the lid and check the loaf for done. If the loaf is relatively light and hard, pull out the pan and remove the loaf. Place loaf on a wire rack (or cool stove burner) to cool for at least 20 minutes. The finished loaf should be relatively light and well-browned. Caution: cut it too soon, and you’ll ruin the loaf! The heat trapped inside is needed to finish the baking process.

Bon Appetit!

Variations: