artisan boule

My mom introduced me to this is amazing bread from scratch. You can make & eat it the same day!  Your family will love you for it.

what you need to make this bread:

 pizza/baking stone

5 quart bowl with lid or plastic container with lid
electric mixer & dough hook attachment (you can also mix by hand if necessary)
kitchen scissors

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water

1 tbsp yeast (1 packet)

1.5 tbsp coarse (kosher) salt

6.5 cups all purpose flour  (you can experiment with 1/2 wheat flour also)

*makes four 1 lb round bread loaves

Add water, yeast & salt into an electric mixing bowl. Add flour and mix with dough hook until incorporated. The dough should be very wet & sticky. Transfer dough into 5 quart plastic tub. Let it rise at room temp for 2 hours with lid on but not air tight. Place in fridge for another 2-3 (or so) hours. (cold dough is easier to shape & handle).

When you are ready to make a loaf, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with pizza stone on the center rack. Remove the tub from the fridge and cut with scissors a 1 lb portion (grapefruit size) out of the dough.  Try your best not to disturb the remaining raised dough.  Have flour handy to help shape the piece into a sphere.

Using your scissors, cut 4 slits at the top of the dough round before baking. Transfer dough loaf onto the preheated baking stone and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

Refrigerate left-over dough in its container and repeat process to make fresh loaves for up to 2 weeks. The longer the dough sits in the fridge, the better the flavor!  For sourdough, don't wash the dough container before making a new batch.

Enjoy!