Artisan Bread

Because many of you have told me "I don't make bread....it's too hard!". I'm here for you ;)

What you need:
Pizza Stone
Big Ass Bowl

What you'll want:
Pizza Peel
Danish Whisk
Baker's Blade
Big Green Egg, aka Louie!

Basic Artisan Dough Recipie
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6 1/2 cups bread flour (don't use AP flour, trust me)
4 1/2 Tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp kosher salt
3 cups of filtered water, warmed to about 100 degrees F (38 Celsius for you youngans)

OK, so measuring flour 101 is in session. Grab your big ass bowl. Using dry measuring cups, scoop the flour with your 1/2 cup size and dump into the 1 cup. Do not pack it down! Dump two heaping half cups in to the 1 cup and using a knife, scrape the excess off. That's your 1st cup. "Rinse and repeat" 6 times. Using your 1 cupper, fill the 1/2 cup and again scrape the excess. Measuring this way is important since there is a huge difference in the volume you will get....too much flour equals heavy bread.

Add the yeast and salt to the dry mixture and stir using your Danish dough whisk or a wooden spoon until combined. Once you get rolling on this, you'll seek out the Danish dough whisk...I know you will. I got mine from Goldaskitchen.com. On a side note, I'm not extremely impressed with their baker's blade though.

Now, add all the water to the dry ingredients and stir together until moistened. Now comes the kneeding...no wait, that's the beauty of this recipe. All you need to do is scrape the dough off the sides, folding it back upon itself about 40 strokes. You'll end up with a sticky mass....perfect!

Cover your bowl tightly in cellophane and set in a warm place to rise. I typically turn the oven on until it is in the high 70's, turn the oven off, and then put my bowl'o'dough in there and close the door. As my Italian friends say...."forget'a'bout it" for 2 hours.

OK, in 2 hours you've got your dough. Now what? I don't know, you tell me! See the following posts for various sized breads and mine and Louie's favourite....pizza dough!