Artisan Bread so easy it almost bakes itself Recipe by Dennis (2024)

Ingredients

1. First get your tap water at about 100 degrees (body temperature), make sure the water is not too hot it will kill the yeast. Colder water is ok it will just take longer to rise, if your letting it sit overnight it really doesn't matter.
2. Now add the yeast and salt to the water and mix it up. Don't worry if all the yeast does not dissolve, it will finish mixing in the flour.
3. Now add your flour and start your mixer. If you are using a food processor, use the pulse just until the dough forms. This is wet dough.
4. Now place your dough into your container, and cover but not tightly and place on the counter for about 2 hours to rise. If you don't have time to wait let it sit out for about a half an hour or so, and put it in the refrigerator overnight, it will rise just more slowly. The dough does need to sit in the refrigerator after the initial rise for at least 3 hours before using. Its best to make it a day or two before you need it, remember this dough will last up to 14 days in the refrigerator, and the older it gets the better it will taste. You'll begin to get more of a sourdough taste as it ages, in fact when you make your second batch don't clean out the container and let the scraps of your original dough speed up the fermentation process..
5. Now that your dough has set up we are ready to form a dough ball. Pull off about a one pound piece of dough (this recipe will make about 3 loaves this size). This is the only time you really handle the dough. You need to pull it down to form a ball, tucking all the ends in at the bottom. The ball should be semi smooth.
6. Now place this on the pizza peel with liberal amount of corn meal under it so it will not stick.
7. Let this dough rise for 40 minutes, and while it is rising lets preheat our oven and stone to 450 degrees for at least 20 minutes.
8. Before sliding the dough off the peel, dust the top with flour and make some light slices into the dough for that artisan look. (You can form the dough into a longer loaf if you like, or make a bigger loaf, a bigger loaf may require a longer cooking time though)
9. Now before you slide it into the oven you need one more thing, in another baking dish, or the broiler tray add two cups of water, the steam it creates will give the crust that nice crackle.
10. Now slide of the dough closer the door and give it 30 minutes to start.
11. The dough should have a dark colour (probably darker than you think it should be), this is our rustic artisan bread.
12. You may have to experiment a little to get it just right for your oven, but you won't be far off the mark with this as your starting point, I have a convection oven at home but I needed 40 minutes for my bread.
13. As tempting as it may be to cut right into the bread, restrain yourself and let it rest for about an hour. You want the outside crust to settle and the delightful crumb inside to be perfect!! Serve it up plain, with seasoned olive oil, or your favorite butter (I love Kerry Gold's and its the only salted butter I buy)
14. If you want to make pizza out of this dough, you will want to add a little more flour in as you work it into a circle on your counter just keep dusting it with flour until its shape is good.
15. Dom Peppino makes a pretty good pizza sauce and any shredded mozzarella cheese will work well.
16. Just remember you should be able to see the dough through the sauce, and see the sauce through the cheese.

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