I seem to have become a disciple of Ken Forkish.
His book "Flour Water Salt Yeast" is not so much a recipe book, more a course in bread-making.
This is my fourth effort, and they have all worked well.
This is an overnight bulk-fermented 78% hydrated loaf.
The slow ferment brings out a lot of flavour.
This is a much wetter dough than I've previously worked with.
The dough is autolysed, meaning the water is absorbed into the flour 30 mins before adding the salt and yeast.
This dough is a 'straight' dough, using dried yeast: all of 0.4g of it!
I have bought a drug-dealer milligram scales to measure this!
The mixing is all the stretch-and-fold method.
After the mixing, this dough has 3 foldings within the first 2 hours of the bulk ferment, to develop the structure.
Next morning, the dough is then shaped and dragged, tightening it into a ball before placing it in a Banneton for the final proof of just over an hour.
The dough is tipped out of the Banneton, so it's now seam-side up. This is how it will be baked.
It's scooped up and placed in the pre-heated Dutch Oven, and baked for 30 mins with the lid on, then a further 20 mins with the lid off.
Bread by
Ron Lowe, on Flickr
Bread by
Ron Lowe, on Flickr