It snowed today in Chicago.  No accumulation, but there were some serious flurries happening this afternoon.  Fortunately, I didn’t have to go out in the cold and spent some time huddled around my oven where a fresh, round loaf of bread, or Boule, sat baking.  I watched the crust brown as the smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the house – truly comforting.  The cold is here to stay – at least for the next several months, so I know I will be making this bread (and several variations) throughout the winter.

This recipe came from a book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day – this book is amazing, go purchase it right after you read this post!  It’s full of quick, foolproof recipes for baking homemade bread – you won’t go back to buying it at the store or waiting around to monitor the doubling or tripling of volume in your traditional recipes.  I’m going to quickly summarize the recipe in this post, but there is an entire process that you should really follow and read about in the book.  This recipe can easily be doubled or halved.

Makes four  1-pound loaves

Ingredients

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 1  1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
• 1  1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
• 6  1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop-and sweep method
• cornmeal for pizza peel

Directions

Once again, the following are basic instructions, for more details refer to the book!

Add the yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart bowl or lidded (not airtight) food storage container (don’t use glass containers).  Mix in the flour until everything is uniformly moist – do not knead, it isn’t necessary.  Cover with a lid and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for at least 2 hours.

At this point the dough is ready to use, but refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and easier to work with than room temperature dough, so I recommend putting it in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 3 hours), before shaping a loaf.

Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off (with a serrated knive) a 1 pound piece, about the size of a grapefruit.  Dust the piece of dough with more flour and quickly shape a round loaf in about 30 to 60 seconds.  Let the loaf rest on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 40 minutes.

Twenty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 450°F, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack.  Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread.

Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour, which will allow you to slash a 1/4-inch deep pattern into the top, using a serrated bread knife.

After a 20 minute preheat, it’s time to bake, even if your oven thermometer indicates that you haven’t reached 450°F.  With a quick forward jerking motion of the wrist, slide the loaf off the pizza peel and onto the preheated baking stone. Quickly, but carefully pour about 1 cup of hot water from the tap into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap the steam.  Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch.

Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.  Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded container and use it over the next 14 days.