Artisan White Bread Recipes

ARTISAN BREAD RECIPE

Steps:

• Add the yeast, sugar and warm water to the bowl of your stand mixer, or to a large bowl. Leave for 5 minutes, until the yeast starts to foam.
• Add the flour, then the salt. Mix together using the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer, or mix together with your hands until fully combined.
• Using the dough hook, knead the dough on a medium setting for 10 minutes. If you want to do this with your hands, oil the work surface and your hands with a little olive or vegetable oil, and knead for 10 minutes. It will be a sticky dough - this is fine.
• Once kneaded, place the dough in an oiled bowl (wiped with a little olive or vegetable oil). Cover with clingfilm or a wax wrap and prove for 1 hour - until doubled in size.
• Sprinkle the work surface with 1/4 cup (30g) flour and tip the dough out onto the flour. You'll probably need to use your hands to tease it out of the bowl, as it will still be quite sticky. Sprinkle with a tablespoon of the flour.
• We DON'T want to knock the air out of the dough at this point. We simply want to shape the dough by grabbing a piece from the outside and pulling it into the middle.
• Continue this, pulling the dough in all the way around until the dough no longer wants to stick in place (see the video for a visual on this). You may need a little more flour to prevent it sticking.
• Then turn the dough over and use your hands just to finish off rounding it out.
• Place the dough in a well-floured proving basket or floured bowl - SEAM-SIDE-DOWN.
• Cover with clingfilm or a wax wrap and prove for 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place a dutch oven (approx 25cm/10" diameter) in the oven and preheat the oven to 230C/450F.
• When the dough has finished its second prove, remove the cover, take a long piece of parchment or greaseproof paper and place on top of the bowl.
• Gently tip the bowl upside-down the dough ends up on the paper.
• Very carefully take the hot Dutch oven out of the oven and remove the lid (leave a tea-towel on top of the lid, so you don't forget it's hot and grab the lid without thinking).
• Use the edge of the baking parchment to carefully lower the bread into the Dutch oven. Place the lid on top and carefully place back in the oven.
• Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing and serving.

NO KNEAD ARTISAN BREAD

Steps:

• Combine flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add water and oil, mixing to incorporate all of the ingredients together. Dough will be wet, sticky and shaggy.
• Lightly spray the top with cooking oil spray. Cover with plastic wrap and place a dry tea towel over the top.
• Leave in a warm, draft-free place for 2-3 hours, until doubled in size. Dough will have a lot of little holes or bubbles and be wobbly like jelly.
• Place a large (10-inch or 26cm) dutch oven or heavy based pot in the oven with a lid. Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C) 30 minutes before baking.
• Lightly flour work surface and plastic spatula with up to 1 tablespoon flour. Scrape dough out of bowl onto work surface with spatula. Sprinkle the top of dough with a large pinch of flour and fold it over on itself with the spatula (about 5-6 folds). Roughly form a round shape.
• Measure out a large piece of parchment paper, large enough to transfer the dough into the pot. Place paper next to the dough and roll dough onto the paper, smooth side up. Carefully move it to the centre of the paper and reshape if needed, or shake pan a couple of times to evenly distribute dough. (It will even out while baking.)
• Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest while oven is preheating.
• Use oven mitts to carefully remove hot dutch oven from oven. Grab the parchment paper from each end to pick up the dough and transfer it into the pot.
• Cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully golden browned.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

NO-KNEAD ARTISAN STYLE BREAD

Steps:

• Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the water and herbs, if using, and mix well. The dough will be very sticky and shaggy-looking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for 18 to 24 hours.
• Generously flour a work surface. The dough will have risen and will be covered in bubbles. Transfer the dough to the work surface and dust it with flour. Fold the dough in half, and then form the dough into a ball by stretching and tucking the edges of the dough underneath the ball.
• Liberally flour a kitchen towel (do not use terrycloth). Place the dough ball on the floured towel. Cover with another floured towel. Let the dough rise for about two hours [see footnote].
• Preheat an oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place a lidded Dutch oven or deep heavy duty casserole dish (with lid) into the oven to preheat.
• Carefully remove the hot baking dish from the oven. Remove the lid and gently turn the dough ball into the ungreased baking dish, seam-side up; shake the dish so the dough is more evenly distributed.
• Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake until the crust is golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the loaf from the baking dish and let it cool on a rack before slicing.

ARTISAN WHITE BREAD

Steps:

• Mix yeast, salt, sugar, butter and water together.
• Add flour ans stir until all flour is incorporated.
• Put dough in a container and cover loosely with a lid.
• Allow dough to rise for 2 hours at room temperature.
• Refrigerate dough overnight or up to 7 days.
• On baking day:.
• Grease a 9x4x3 loaf pan.
• Dust the surface of the dough with flour and pull out a 1 1/2 pound piece of dough.
• Dust the dough with more flour and gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides. Form into an oval and place it in the pan.
• Allow the dough to rest and rise for at least 1 1/2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Bake the bread for 45 minutes or until golden brown and an internal temperature of 180 degrees.
• Remove from pan and cool on a rack until completely cool.

ARTISAN WHITE BREAD

Steps:

• In a medium large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and yeast together. Pour the water over the flour mixture and mix with a spoon until the flour is absorbed and the mixture resembles wet sticky dough.
• Cover the bowl with a wet kitchen towel. Place the bowl in a warm place and allow to rise overnight.
• Prepare an oven proof covered pot with a piece of parchment paper trimmed to be slightly smaller than the base and place the parchment paper in the pot.
• Sprinkle flour on the dough and use floured spatula to remove dough onto floured parchment surface on counter.
• Sprinkle the dough again with flour and start bringing in each edge of dough into center, forming a large ball. Flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking.
• Place the dough ball in the center of the pot, on top of the parchment paper.
• Place the oven-safe lid on top of the pot and place it in the cold oven. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees F and set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, carefully remove the lid from the pot and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven and carefully remove loaf from the pot and place on a cooling rack.
• Allow the bread to rest at least 5 minutes (preferably closer to 30 minutes) before cutting into slices.

THE SATURDAY WHITE BREAD

Steps:

• Autolyse: Combine the 1,000 grams of flour with the 720 grams of 90°F to 95°F (32°C to 35°C) water in a 12-quart round tub or similar container. Mix by hand just until incorporated. Cover and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
• Mix: Sprinkle the 21 grams of salt and the 4 grams (1 level teaspoon) of yeast evenly over the top of the dough. Mix by hand, wetting your working hand before mixing so the dough doesn't stick to you. (It's fine to rewet your hand three or four times while you mix.)
• Reach underneath the dough and grab about one-quarter of it. Gently stretch this section of dough and fold it over the top to the other side of the dough. Repeat three more times with the remaining dough, until the salt and yeast are fully enclosed.
• Use the pincer method to fully integrate the ingredients. Make five or six pincer cuts across the entire mass of dough. Then fold the dough over itself a few times. Repeat, alternately cutting and folding until all of the ingredients are fully integrated and the dough has some tension in it. Let the dough rest for a few minutes, then fold for another 30 seconds or until the dough tightens up. The whole process should take about 5 minutes. The target dough temperature at the end of the mix is 77°F to 78°F (25°C to 26°C). If the final mix temperature is cooler, don't worry, it will just take longer to fully rise (in this case tripling in size). If you have a warm spot where the dough can rise, that will help make up for the cooler dough temperature. If your dough is warmer, the dough will triple in size sooner. (The next time you make the recipe, you can adjust the final mix temperature by using warmer or cooler water.) Cover the tub and let the dough rise.
• Fold: This dough needs two folds. It's easiest to apply the folds during the first 1½ hours after mixing the dough. Apply the first fold about 10 minutes after mixing and the second fold during the next hour (when you see the dough spread out in the tub, it's ready for the second fold). If need be, it's okay to fold later; just be sure to leave it alone for the last hour of rising.
• To fold the dough, dip your active hand in the container of warm water to wet it so the dough doesn't stick to you. With your moistened hand, reach underneath the dough and pull about one-quarter of it out and up to stretch it until you feel resistance, then fold it over the top to the other side of the dough. Repeat four or five times, working around the dough until the dough has tightened into a ball. Grab the entire ball and invert it so the seam side, where all of the folds have come together, faces down. This helps the folds hold their position. The top should be smooth.
• When the dough relaxes a bit and flattens repeat the process for the second fold. When the dough is triple its original volume, about 5 hours after mixing, it's ready to be divided.
• Divide: Moderately flour a work surface about 2 feet wide. Flour your hands and sprinkle a bit of flour around the edges of the tub. Tip the tub slightly and gently work your floured free hand beneath the dough to loosen it from the bottom of the tub. Gently ease the dough out onto the work surface without pulling or tearing it.
• With floured hands, pick up the dough and ease it back down onto the work surface in a somewhat even shape. Dust the area in the middle, where you'll cut the dough, with a bit of flour. Cut the dough into 2 equal-size pieces with a dough knife or plastic dough scraper.
• Shape: Dust 2 proofing baskets with flour. Shape each piece of dough into a medium-tight ball. Place each seam side down in its proofing basket.
• Proof: Lightly flour the tops of the loaves. Set them side by side and cover with a kitchen towel, or place each basket in a non-perforated plastic bag.
• Plan on baking the loaves about 1¼ hours after they are shaped, assuming a room temperature of about 70°F (21°C). If your kitchen is warmer, they will be optimally proofed in about 1 hour. Use the finger-dent test to determine when they are perfectly proofed and ready to bake, being sure to check the loaves after 1 hour: Poke the rising loaf with a floured finger, making an indentation about ½ inch deep. If it springs back immediately, the loaf needs more proofing time. If the indentation springs back slowly and incompletely, the loaf is fully proofed and ready to bake. With this bread, 15 minutes can make the difference between being perfectly proofed and collapsing a bit.
• Preheat: At least 45 minutes prior to baking, put a rack in the middle of the oven and put 2 Dutch ovens on the rack with their lids on. Preheat the oven to 475°F (245°C). If you only have 1 Dutch oven, put the second loaf into the refrigerator about 20 minutes before baking the first loaf and bake the loaves sequentially, giving the Dutch oven a 5-minute reheat after removing the first loaf. Alternatively, you can keep the second loaf in the refrigerator overnight, in its proofing basket inside a non-perforated plastic bag, and bake it early the next morning; if you do this, put the second loaf in the refrigerator immediately after shaping.
• Bake: For the next step, please be careful not to let your hands, fingers, or forearms touch the extremely hot Dutch oven.
• Invert the proofed loaf onto a lightly floured countertop, keeping in mind that the top of the loaf will be the side that was facing down while it was rising-the seam side. Use oven mitts to remove the preheated Dutch oven from the oven. Remove the lid. Carefully place the loaf in the hot Dutch oven seam side up. Use mitts to replace the lid, then put the Dutch oven in the oven. Maintain the temperature at 475°F (245°C).
• Bake for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the lid and bake for about 20 more minutes, until at least medium dark brown all around the loaf. Check after 15 minutes of baking uncovered in case your oven runs hot.
• Remove the Dutch oven and carefully tilt it to turn the loaf out. Let cool on a rack or set the loaf on its side so air can circulate around it. Let the loaf rest for at least 20 minutes before slicing.