Total Time: 14 Hours
Ingredients
1000g bread flour
780g (95F) water
22g salt
0.8g (1/4tsp) yeast
Procedure
I have to start by giving credit to Ken Forkish for this technique, I learned it from him and it’s by far the best no-kneed technique I’ve come across thus far.
Mix phase Start this phase around 7pm the night before you want to bake.
Start by weighing 1000g of bread flour in a large mixing bowl.
Heat 780g of filtered water to 95F, and mix into the flour. Mix either by hand, or using a dough whisk.
Once all of the water has been evenly incorporated into the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, sprinkle 22g salt, and 0.8g yeast evenly over the center of the dough.
Pick up 1/4 of the dough, stretch up, and cross over the center of the dough mass, to cover where you just sprinkled salt and yeast.
Repeat this process for the remaining 3/4 of the dough mass. Grabbing 1/4 section, pulling up, and stretching over the center until the entire center has been covered and encased where the salt and yeast was sprinkled.
Using your thumb and entire forefinger (creating a grip like a lobster claw) make 4 or 5 incisions (squeezes) along the length of the dough mass, squeezing the dough all the way between your thumb and forefinger, until your hand makes an almost-fist. You will feel the salt and yeast rubbing against your hand.
Once you make incisions along the length of the dough mass, pick up one end, stretch, and fold it over itself.
Now, using the pincer method as before, make another 4 or 5 squeezes / incisions along the opposite length of the dough that you just folded, perpendicular to the original incisions you made previously.
Once done, grab the end half of the dough mass, stretch it up, and fold it over itself.
Repeat this pincer process another 3 or 4 times until the dough has been completely combined and the salt / yeast has been fully incorporated.
Once you’ve completed the final stretch and fold, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for another 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the plastic wrap, and grab 1/4 of the dough mass. Pull, stretch, and fold the dough completely over itself, just like before. Continue to pull, stretch, and fold over itself for the remaining 3/4. Doing so will cause the dough to get tight and not want to stretch further each time. If necessary you can shake your hand a bit to get the dough to stretch. Also, it helps if you wet your hand between every couple of stretches. Don’t worry about drying your hand off all the way, this is a high-hydration dough and a little extra water wont hurt anything. Once you’ve stretched all four quarters of the dough mass, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for another 30 min.
Repeat the stretch, fold, and rest process a total of three times, or 90 minutes worth of separate rest periods.
Once the final 30 minute rest period is complete, stretch and fold the dough one final time, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap, poke a few holes in it, and lay a kitchen towel over the top.
Bulk Fermentation Phase
Let rest for 12 – 14 hours @ 70F.
Bake Phase
After about 12 hours the dough should be about triple in size, with big, large bubbles of CO2 pressing against the plastic wrap.
Flour a work surface, and pull the dough out of the mixing bowl.
Sprinkle flour over the dough so you can work with it without it sticking to your hands.
Cut the dough into two even portions, flouring the cut if necessary
Perform the pull, stretch, and fold technique, to tighten the dough mass back up again, adding flour if needed.
Roll the dough into itself, to create the loaf. For this part, you want to take the dough in both hands, press the dough against the counter infront of you, and pull it back toward’s you as your roll the dough into itself. Pick up the piece that you just rolled, and turn the dough 1/4 turn and do it again. You are shaping the loaf at this point, and want a nice, tight, round ball, with a single seam at your finger tips. Add more flour to keep it from sticking if necessary.
Once you have a tight, round ball that’s been folded in on itself, put the dough in a proofing basket with the seam side down.
Repeat for the other dough mass.
Cover both loaves in the proofing baskets with a kitchen towel, and let proof for about 1 – 1.25 hours.
While the dough is proofing, pre-heat two 12qt cast iron dutch ovens in the oven at 475F.
After 1 – 1.25 hours, check to make sure the loaves are proofed. The dough is fully proofed when you press a finger into the loaf, and it slowly and incompletely bounces back. If you press your finger into the loaf and it quickly springs back, it needs more time.
Once the loaves are proofed, remove the dutch ovens and take off their lids.
Flip the loaves onto the counter, so that now the seam side is facing up.
Carefully lift each loaf and place into each of the dutch ovens, then replace their lids and put back in the oven.
Bake for 30 minutes
After 30 minutes, remove each of the Dutch Oven’s lids.
Continue to bake for another 15 – 25 minutes until the crust is a nice, dark brown color.
Remove the bread from the oven, and place on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing.
The bread will crackle and “sing” as it cools.