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Rustic Dutch Oven Bread

Rustic Dutch Oven Bread - a hearty, everyday bread with a thick, crunchy crust and tender crumb. | www.brighteyedbaker.com
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A recipe for a hearty artisan boule (a French-style, free-form round loaf) with a thick, crunchy crust and tender crumb.

  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 1 loaf 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) warm water (110º-115ºF)
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 12 3/4 ounces (3 cups, spoon and level) bread flour
  • 4 1/4 ounces (1 cup, spoon and level) whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • whole wheat pastry flour, for dusting
  • white rice flour, for dusting

Instructions

  1. Stir sugar into warm water to dissolve. Sprinkle yeast on top and stir in with a wooden spoon. Let sit until foamy, about 5-10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flours and salt. Add yeast mixture and mix in as best as possible with wooden spoon. Use hands to work together into a single ball of dough.
  3. Turn dough out onto counter and knead for 8-10 minutes, until dough is soft, supple, and elastic, adding a bit more flour or water if needed. Dough should be quite tacky, but not enough to get stuck to hands or counter.
  4. Shape dough into a smooth ball, and transfer to a greased bowl about double its size, turning once to coat both sides in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled, about 1-2 hours.
  5. Remove risen dough from counter and knead briefly to redistribute gas. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, line a clean bowl with a thin kitchen linen and dust generously with a 50/50 combination of whole wheat pastry flour and rice flour.
  6. Making tight folds, fold the third of dough closest to you over the middle third, followed by the third on the right, the third on the left, and finally the third farthest away. Fold side closest to you over last fold and roll seam underneath. Cup dough with palms and gently rotate while pulling outer edges underneath in order to ensure round is tight. Place in prepared bowl, seam-side up, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise another 30-45 minutes. Towards the end of this time, preheat oven to 450ºF with dutch oven placed on middle rack.
  7. Just before baking, dust exposed surface of dough with flour mixture. Carefully turn dough over into hot dutch oven, using shallow (frying pan) side if available.* Use a sharp knife to slash top of loaf in a square pattern. Transfer to preheated oven, cover with other half of dutch oven, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove cover, reduce temperature to 375ºF, and bake about 10 minutes longer, until loaf is golden-brown on top and internal temperatures measures approx. 210ºF.
  8. Use oven mitts to carefully transfer loaf to a wire rack to cool. Loaf is best served the day of baking for ultimate crust texture, but any leftovers may be stored in an airtight zip-top bag at room temperature.

Notes

*Although any dutch oven should work fine here, I'd recommend a cast iron dutch oven combo cooker (I own this one). I prefer to use it with the shallow side on the bottom for this recipe, since it makes it much easier to transfer the dough to the hot pan and slash the loaf.

Recipe adapted from Michael Rhulman via Le Creuset and Tartine Bread