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Tavern-Stone Artisan Loaf

On the menu it’s Artisan Country Loaf.

One teaspoon of yeast and eighteen hours. No kneading, no starter, a crust that crackles.

Makes

One round loaf, about 12 slices

Hands on

20 min

All in

19 h

Oven

230 °C (450 °F)

One step at a time, screen kept awake

What you need

• 3 cups (720 ml)bread flour
• 1½ cups (375 ml)warm water
• 1 tsp (5 ml)active dry yeast
• 1½ tsp (7 ml)salt
• 1 tbsp (15 ml)honey or malt syrup — optional, for deeper colour

How it goes

1. 1

   Stir the flour, salt and yeast together. Add the warm water and mix to a shaggy dough. No kneading.

2. 2

   Cover and leave 12–18 hours at room temperature, until doubled and bubbly. Overnight is the easy way to do this.

3. 3

   Turn onto a floured surface, shape gently into a round, and rest 30 minutes.

4. 4

   Put the Dutch oven in with its lid on and heat to 450 °F (230 °C) for 30 minutes.

5. 5

   Lower the dough in on parchment, cover, and bake 30 minutes.

6. 6

   Take the lid off and bake another 10–15 minutes until deep golden and crusty.

7. 7

   Cool completely on a rack to set the crumb before slicing.

A couple of things

• The lid does what a steam-injected bakery oven does — it traps the loaf's own moisture so the crust stays soft long enough for the bread to spring.
• One teaspoon of yeast and eighteen hours does what a tablespoon and two hours cannot. The time is the ingredient.
• Bread flour rather than all-purpose here. The extra protein is what holds the open crumb up.

Contains : wheat