Easy to make and flexible to bake. Mix up a batch, and then about 90 minutes before you want to serve bread, grab a handful of dough, shape it, let it rise, then bake for 30 minutes. You can use the dough throughout the week – it becomes more and more like sourdough the longer it sits. Thanks to King Arthur Flour for the recipe.
Prep: 5-10 mins; Bake: 30-4o min; Total time: 4 1/2 hours – 7 days
Ingredients
- 3 cups lukewarm water (comfortable to the touch)
- 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons instant or active dry yeast
Directions
- Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, or a large (6-quart), food-safe plastic bucket.
- Mix and stir everything together to make a very sticky, rough dough. If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed with the beater blade for 30 to 60 seconds. If you don’t have a mixer, stir with a big spoon or dough whisk until everything is combined.
- Let the dough rise in 6-quart bowl by covering with a lid or plastic wrap. There’s no need to grease the bowl, though you can if you like; it makes it a bit easier to get the dough out when it’s time to bake bread.
- Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
- Next, refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or for up to about 7 days. (If you’re pressed for time, skip the room-temperature rise, and stick it right into the fridge). The longer you keep it in the fridge, the tangier it’ll get; if you chill it for 7 days, it will taste like sourdough. Over the course of the first day or so, it’ll rise, then fall. That’s OK; that’s what it’s supposed to do.
- When you’re ready to make bread, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; this will make it easier to grab a hunk. Grease your hands, and pull off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough — a 14-ounce to 19-ounce piece, if you have a scale. It’ll be about the size of a softball, or a large grapefruit.
- Plop the sticky dough onto a floured work surface, and round it into a ball, or a longer log. (It doesn’t have to be perfect.)
- Place the loaf on a piece of parchment (if you’re going to use a baking stone); or onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sift a light coating of flour over the top; this will help keep the bread moist as it rests before baking.
- Let the loaf warm to room temperature and rise; this should take about 60 minutes (or longer, up to a couple of hours, if your house is cool). It won’t appear to rise upwards that much; rather, it’ll seem to settle and expand.
- Preheat your oven to 450°F while the loaf rests. If you’re using a baking stone, position it on a middle rack while the oven preheats. Place a shallow metal or cast iron pan (not glass, Pyrex, or ceramic) on the lowest oven rack, and have 1 cup of hot water ready to go.
- When you’re ready to bake, take a sharp knife and slash the bread 2 or 3 times, making a cut about 1/2″ deep. The bread may deflate a bit; that’s OK, it’ll pick right up in the hot oven.
- Place the bread in the oven — onto the baking stone, if you’re using one, or simply onto a middle rack, if it’s on a pan — and carefully pour the 1 cup hot water into the shallow pan on the rack beneath. It’ll bubble and steam; close the oven door quickly.
- Bake the bread for 25 to 35 minutes, until it’s a deep, golden brown.
- Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack. Store leftover bread in a plastic bag at room temperature.
Tips from King Arthur bakers
- The flour/liquid ratio is important in this recipe. If you measure flour by sprinkling it into your measuring cup, then gently sweeping off the excess, use 7 1/2 cups. If you measure flour by dipping your cup into the canister, then sweeping off the excess, use 6 1/2 cups. Most accurate of all (and guaranteed to give you the best results), if you measure flour by weight, use 32 ounces.
- Using the same ratio/measuring, you can make a half-recipe if you prefer. While it’s great to have dough on hand, it’s fine to make less.
- To try this with whole wheat flour: You can absolutely make up to half of the total flour whole wheat. Add an additional 2 teaspoons water per cup of whole wheat flour to prevent the dough from being too dry.
