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Made a new bread recipe that Hitesh cut out for me from November’s NYT. The bread rises for a long long time, uses almost no yeast, has no oil, and is cooked in a covered cast iron pot. It was delicious. We had some for dinner (with our quiche) and it really tasted like France (for me, it brough me back to the convent at Pradines, the last time I lived in France). With a little over-aged Brie (courtesy of Alex’s Christmas visit) we really felt we were back there. Here’s a summary:
3 cups flour (I used one quarter whole wheat, three quarters white, per my custom, and this worked just fine).
1 5/8 c. water (yes, this is a wet, shaggy dough).
1 1/4 t. salt (the bread’s a bit saltier than usual, but nice)
1/4 t. instant yeast (I used regular dry active yeast, and had no problem).
Mix flour, salt, and yeast together. Add water and stir. Cover with saran and let set aside for 18 hour (or so) until bubbly on top. This is a very wet dough.
Place dough on a floured surface and turn it over on itself once or twice (use just enough flour to keep your hands from sticking). Let sit for 15 minutes.
Shape into a ball and lie dough on a cotton (non terry-cloth) towel covered with flour, cornmeal or wheat bran (I used cornmeal). Cover with flour/cornmeal/wheat bran and lie another towel on top of it. Let it rise another 2 hours (approximately) until double in size.
1/2 hour before baking, pre-heat oven to 450 degrees with a dutch oven inside it (they say to use a 6 quart but I used a 5 quart and this was plenty big). Then dump the dough (seam-side up) into the pan (jiggle if it sticks) and bake covered for 30 minutes, then another 15-30 minutes until top is brown. Let cool on a rack (my cooking time was closer to 35 minutes in total–the bread was pretty brown when I took the top off). Delicious!
