Heather's Artisan Bread

My friend Heather Clark has made this bread several times and I decided I needed to recipe.  It is amazing!

Artisan free-form loaves - Becky Vincent

Makes four 1 pound loaves (recipe is easily doubled or halved)

3 Cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees)

1 ½ Tbsp granulated yeast

1 Tbsp kosher salt

6 ½ cups un-sifted, unbleached all-purpose flour

Cornmeal or parchment for pizza peel.

Preparing the dough:

In a 5 quart bowl or re-sealable, lidded food container, add yeast & salt to lukewarm water. Don’t worry about getting it all to dissolve.

Add in all the flour at once. Mix with a wooden spoon (you can use very wet hands to help if needed) or a heavy duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.

Don’t knead the dough; just mix until it is uniformly moist without dry patches.

Cover with a lid that fits well, but not airtight. Allow to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours (you can let it go for up to 5 hours) The dough is ready to use at this point, but will be easier to shape if it is refrigerated at least 3 hours first.

On Baking Day:

Prepare a flat surface (pan, cutting board, etc.) by sprinkling liberally with cornmeal (or lining with parchment)

Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour.

Pull up and cut off a pound (grapefruit-sized) piece of dough, using a serrated knife.

Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won’t stick to your hands.

Gently stretch the surface of the dough around the bottom on all fours sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. (Most of the dusting flour will fall off) the bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten and adhere during resting and baking.

Handle the dough as little as possible.

Place the shaped ball on the cornmeal-covered surface.

Allow the loaf to rest there for about 40 minutes, uncovered.

Depending on the age of the dough, you may not see much rise (more will occur during baking)

20 minutes before baking preheat the oven to 450 degrees, with the baking stone or pan placed on the middle rack.

Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour.

Slash a ¼ inch deep cross, scallop or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.

With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the cornmealed surface and onto the preheated baking stone.

Quickly but carefully pour about 1 C of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.

Allow to cool completely, preferably on wire rack.

Store the remaining dough in refrigerator in your lidded ( not air-tight) container.

Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them anytime over the next 14 days.

The flavor and texture will improve after even one day’s storage.

*Tester’s note: If you don‘t have a baking stone, you can bake the loaf on a cookie sheet, but we found the crust was not as pleasantly crisp this way