Artisan Bread Recipe

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Make the starter the night before by mixing together with your fingers:

1 cup (4 ¼ ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (or ¾ cup all-purpose flour + ¼ cup whole wheat flour)
3/4 cup (6 ounces) room-temperature water
1 pinch yeast

Cover and let sit at room temperature overnight.

If you need to speed this up, let it sit in the oven with the oven light on for about 6 to 7 hours, and it should be ready to use.

After it sits, it will contain many little bubbles and will have increased in size by about 25%.  The slower overnight fermentation at room temperature will create a more complex flavor in your bread.

The next day – baking day – add:

For 2 medium loaves
all of the starter
1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) lukewarm water
4 1/2 cups (19 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
2 1/2 teaspoons salt (approx.)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

For 2 large loaves
all of the starter
2 1/2 cups less 1 tablespoon (19 1/2 ounces) lukewarm water
6 cups (25 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
1 tablespoon salt (approx.)
2 teaspoons instant yeast

It’s important to combine the ingredients in order, as follows:

Add the starter to the warm water (about 80°F to 85°F) and mix it with your fingers until the two are thoroughly combined.

Add the flour and incorporate so that all of the flour is moist, mixing with your fingers or a dough whisk. Do not add the salt or yeast at this stage.

Let the shaggy dough rest, covered, for 15 to 30 minutes so the flour hydrates. This is key to great bread, and is called “autolyse.”

After the rest period, add the salt and yeast and incorporate well, kneading with your hands until you don’t feel anything grainy from the salt or yeast. This takes about 2 minutes.

Now you’re ready to make the bread. (Oven 500°F)

For the next 2 hours, you’ll work the bread by doing a “stretch and fold” every ½ hour. You never “knead” the bread in the traditional sense; you simply run your hand under the faucet to get it wet, then scoop your hand under the dough, and pull the dough up and over itself about 4 to 5 times. You never pound the dough; try to handle it rather gently. This process helps create nice big holes in the bread.

A good timer is useful here. I use two timers: one set to remind me to do the “turn” every 30 minutes, and the other set for 2 hours so I don’t have to keep track of how many “turns” I’ve done. I wear them around my neck because I get distracted.

During the 2 hours, your dough will increase in size about 20% to 25%.  Keep the container covered, at room temperature, in between the stretch-and-fold processes.

Your dough with be very wet and sticky when you start the process, and it’s tempting to add flour at the early stage; but it will become a bit firmer during the stretch-and-fold period. What you’re going for is the highest level of hydration (wetness) while still keeping the dough workable. The dough in this recipe is about 85% hydration (weight of the water divided by weight of the flour), which is very sticky indeed.

While any container works during this phase, a glass or clear plastic container is preferable as it allows you to see the dough as it ferments and begins to develop little bubbles and holes.

After 2 hours of stretching and folding, turn your container upside down onto a cutting board (or “bench”) and let the dough fall naturally onto the bench. This is the dough’s “final stretch”. Do not put flour on the cutting board before you let it fall; the dough should stick slightly to the cutting board.

Lightly flour the top of the dough and cut it into two sections, cutting with a bench knife or sharp knife. Only flour the top of the dough – not the bottom.* From now on, the outside – the side you lightly flour – will eventually be your crust.  You want the inside to stay as moist as possible, and have minimal contact with additional flour.

*Ed. note: As mentioned above, you may find the dough is so sticky that it’s necessary to flour the surface on which you’re working; just try to keep the added flour to a minimum.

With each loaf, and using the bench knife or something similar, flip the dough over so that the floured side is now on the bottom. Flatten lightly and pull the side nearest you up and over towards the middle. Pull the left side then the right side up and over towards the middle.

Finally, pull the side farthest from you up and over towards you so that the dough now looks like an envelope. Then fold in half, away from you, with the floured side on the outside, and roll the dough into a ball by cupping from underneath with your hands and pushing it away from you, cupping from underneath again, and then rolling back towards you. It should stick slightly to bench and create some tension and something almost like a membrane. Your goal is to create a smooth ball with its seam on the bottom.

Try to work the dough as little as possible, taking just 3 to 5 motions to make a tight ball. This is tricky to learn, but it gets easier with practice. The balls should feel and look (but not smell) like a baby’s behind. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, repeat the process again. Pat the balls down gently, then flour the tops lightly, flip them over so the floured side is on the bottom, make the envelope by pulling the sides and stretching towards the middle. But now, pat into the shape you like. I suggest that for the first attempts, you roll into balls and make two round loaves.

Put each loaf into a basket or bowl, seam side up, in which you’ve put a light towel sprinkled with enough flour so the dough won’t stick. Some people use oil to coat the bowl, but flour will give you a rustic-looking crust. Cover the bowl with a towel, and let the loaves sit for 1½ hours at room temperature, until they’ve risen noticeably.

One of the most important things required for a good, crusty crust is a homemade “steam oven.” This is hard to do for baguettes; but for round loaves, you can replicate a steam oven by creating a large, tall Dutch oven made of two cast iron skillets (or any oven-safe metal or ceramic skillet/pot) that fit on top of each other.

The skillet on the bottom will contain the bread; and the larger, deeper skillet, placed upside-down atop the shallower pan, will be the cover. The pans need to fit on top of each other so that moisture won’t escape. This captured moisture replicates a steam oven.

You can use any covered pot or pan that goes in the oven for this phase. I do find, however, that the more contained the bread is in your skillet or pot, i.e, the more it fits the size of the loaf, the higher your bread will rise. If the dough sprawls too much in a large skillet, the bread will tend to expand sideways as well as upward. But don’t worry; either way your bread will be puffy, light, full of big holes, and delicious.

Thirty minutes before you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500°F with both skillets in the oven – you want them to be very hot. You’ll bake one loaf at a time, so put the second shaped loaf into the refrigerator at the same time you preheat the oven. You can then bake it after you finish the first loaf, or the next day.