Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed
Method:
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir
until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature,
about 70 degrees.
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work
surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it
over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about
15 minutes.
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your
fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton
towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side
down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another
cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be
more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a
finger.
At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees (I’ve
started using 425 degrees – you know your oven. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy
covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When
dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and
turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is
O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will
straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid
and bake another 15 to 20 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a
rack.
