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Artisan Bread

Prep Time 4 hours 30 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 5 hours 5 minutes

Equipment

  • 1 Dutch Oven, aka Casserole Dish (Any large, deep oven-safe dish with a lid)

Ingredients

  • 500 g Strong White Bread Flour
  • 9 g Salt
  • 5 g Instant Dried Yeast
  • 350 g Luke-warm Water

Instructions

  • Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl
  • Add the luke warm water and mix to combine.
  • Set bowl aside in warm spot for 45 minutes.
  • Perform a series of 4 stretch-and-folds, spaced 45 minutes apart. See blog post for all the details, including a video!
  • After the final stretch-and-fold, leave the dough for another 45 minutes before shaping.
  • Shape dough into a ball, using your hands to pinch the dough into the center, then pick up the dough ball, and drag it along the worktop to create surface tension. See blog post, once again for more details + video.
  • Leave to prove for 30 minutes.
  • While dough is proving, preheat oven to 230 degrees C / gas mark 8 / 450 degrees F. Put the dutch oven / casserole dish with lid into the oven to preheat too.
  • Score the dough ball quite deeply using a very sharp knife. Remove the dutch oven / casserole dish from the oven, take off the lid and quickly drop the dough into the pot. Replace the lid and put the whole thing back in the oven.
  • After 35 minutes you can remove the lid and cook for another 5-15 minutes for a loaf that's deeper in colour and crustier. Otherwise, remove the whole thing from the oven, and carefully remove the loaf from the pot.
  • Put the loaf on a cooling rack and allow to cool before cutting.