ARTISAN FREE FORM BREAD STARTER

Artisan Free Form Bread Starter 

For the dough: 

3 cups lukewarm water 

1.5 Tablespoons granulated yeast 

1.5 Tablespoons kosher or other course salt 

6.5 cups white all purpose flour 

cornmeal 

Mix water, yeast and salt in a large container no smaller than 5 quarts. It should have a lid but not an airtight lid. 

Measure your flour using a spoon to scoop and sweep method so that the flour is not compacted. 

Add the flour all at once but do not knead. Just stir so that there aren’t any pockets of flour. The dough will be moist…cover and leave at room temperature or until it has doubled. 

Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. 

The dough may now be used or left in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. The longer it sits in the fridge the more the texture and flavour improves. This quantity of dough makes 4 goodsize loaves. Or I like making smaller loaves for the 2 of us. 

Baking Day: 

Artisan Bread is crusty and usually free form (no pans). Sprinkle the surface of the dough with a little flour and pull up and with a serrated knife, cut off 1 ball the size of a grapefruit. This should weigh about 1 pound. Lightly dust the ball with flour so it won’t stick to the work surface. Gently stretch teh dough out and under so that you have a smooth ball with a collection of “edges” at the bottom. Sprinkle a pizza peel with cornmeal and place the dough on the peel. Allow to rest for 40 minutes at room temperature. After 20 minutes, place a baking stone on rack in oven and on any rack which will not interfere with the baking process, place an empty broiler pan. Preheat the oven to 450F Dust the top of the loaf with flour and with a serrated knife slash the top of the loaf. Quickly slide dough onto hot baking stone. Also quickly pour 1-2cups of water into the heated broiling pan. This produces steam. Quickly close the oven door. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Cool on a cooling rack. 

NOW….I do not have a pizza peel and a baking stone. I do have a silicone nonstick sheet… So I put the cornmeal on the sheet and the dough on that. I didn’t preheat the pan…( I do now) just the broiling pan. 

My bread turned out great! The steam makes it nice and crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. I think the longer you leave it in the fridge, the lighter and airier your bread could become. But I haven’t done it often enough to know that for sure…. 

Enjoy!!!!