EASY ARTISAN DOUGH

Easy Artisan Dough image

This past Summer I bought a book on "Fast and Easy Artisan Breads. I have been wanting to learn how to make all those crusty artisan breads that you see in markets that go so well with Boeuf Bourguignon , a home made soup or just with a nice jambalaya...well, I made it for the first time today and it turned out fantastic and so...

Provided by Doreen Fish

Number Of Ingredients 4

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Ingredients

6 1/2 c unbleached all purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 Tbsp instant or bread machine yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp fine salt or kosher salt
3 c lukewarm water ( 100 degrees)

Steps:

1. Spoon out flour into a measuring cup , level with a knife or your finger and dump into a 16 cup mixing bowl. Add the yeast and salt and stir together with a wooden spoon. Pour in the water and stir together until just moistened . Beat 40 strokes , scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl until dough forms a sticky , lumpy mass. (I didn't beat it 40 strokes with the spoon...I did it with my hands). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature in a draft free area for 2 hours or until the dough has risen to the top of the bowl and has a sponge like appearance. Use right away or place in the fridge , covered with plastic , for up to 9 days before baking.
2. If using right away transfer your dough to a lightly floured surface. work the dough as little as possible, adding a little flour as necessary but make sure all the stickiness is gone and the dough is soft but not sticky. Form your dough into a shape and place on a 3 sided cookie sheet sprinkled with corn meal. Cover with a towel and let rest at room temperature for 40 minutes. About 30 minutes before baking,place a broiler pan on the lower oven rack and a baking stone on the middle rack. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.Artisan breads do their last rise in a hot oven... Making sure your bread has no cracks or seams slide the bread dough off the cookie sheet onto the hot stone. Slide the rack back into oven, Slide out bottom rack and add hot water to the broiler pan and slide back in. Bake approx 27 minutes or until an instant read thermometer reads 190 degrees. It might sound complicated but it was so easy and the bread was delicious. I only used half of it and I have dough for a fresh loaf tomorrow. We had it with homemade turkey soup....isn't everyone???LOL ****I actually used 4 1/2 cups unbleached flour and 2 cups of whole wheat