Well, Mama Gunn bought me a baking stone for my birthday and also sent along a book entitled: "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking". I thought, "Okay sure you can make bread in five minutes if you are Chris Gunn."
But I'm here to tell you, I made that bread today, and it was So. Good.
Here is the recipe. Try it.
Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf)
Makes four 1-pound loaves.
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached all-purpose white floor (do not pack down)
cornmeal for pizza peel
- Put water in a 1 gallon plastic ice cream bucket. Add yeast and salt. It is not necessary to completely dissolve it.
- Mix in all the flour at once, mix with a wooden spoon till it is evenly moist. Don't kneed. This should only take a few minutes.
- Cover with lid and allow to rise at room temperature for two hours. Or, place in fridge and keep overnight or up to two weeks.
- Cover a pizza peel with corn meal (I used a fairly flat plate). Sprinkle the surface of dough with flour. Pull out about 1 pound (size of a grapefruit) and gently stretch surface of dough to the bottom till you get a nice round ball. Cover with flour. Repeat for a second loaf.
- Allow loaves to rise on pizza peel for about 40 minutes.
- At least 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450. It needs to be hot. Place a broiler tray or pan that can handle high temperatures at the bottom of your oven.
- Dust the tops of your loaves with flour and then slash the tops with a knife.
- Transfer your loaves from the pizza peel to the baking stone in your oven. Pour about 1 cup of water in the pan at the bottom of your oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Store the rest of the dough in the refrigerator in your lidded container. Use it over the next 14 days. Generally the longer you store it, the better the flavor and texture.
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