This is simple and can be made entirely in a dutch oven as long as you have some parchment paper or newspaper to put the dough on between risings. You can substitute whole wheat, rye, or buckwheat flour for half the white flour, but it will take longer to rise.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups of bread flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or other oil
- 2 cups or slightly less of water, hot but not boiling. Boiling water will kill the yeast.
- 2 tablespoons of corn meal
Instructions:
Mix the dry ingredients together in a slightly oiled dutch oven. Add the oil to the water, or alternatively drizzle the oil over the dry flour mixture and stir it up. Add the water to the flour mixture. Stir for several minutes until there is no longer any dry flour. It will be a stringy, slaggy mixture.
Cover the dutch oven and put it in a warm place, not in the fire. Let it rise for at least an hour, preferably several, until it is at least double in bulk.
Scoop and pour the dough onto a large piece of parchment paper, aluminum foil, or newspaper. As you do this, use the back of the spoon or wooden spatula to deflate the large bubbles in the dough, and knead it until its bulk is reduced.
As the dough rests, wash out the dutch oven. There will still be pieces of dough in it; it’s impossible to get them all out. Wash only with water and no soap.
Dry the dutch oven and then pour in about a tablespoon of oil. With your hands or a piece of paper, coat the bottom and walls of the oven up beyond the point where the bread is likely to rise. Add the cornmeal and roll the oven around until the bottom and walls are coated.
Pour and scrape the dough back into the dutch oven. This will be hard and messy.
Let the dough rise again for at least 30 minutes. If the dutch oven is large you won’t get a dome of dough but a plateau. Gently put the oven over coals and add coals to the top. Bake for at least 45 minutes, checking occasionally and turning if necessary. Crack the top for the last 15 minutes of baking to release steam. This may help make the top crusty. The top should be golden brown.
Cool the bread in the oven for about 10 minutes, then dislodge it with the spatula and let it cool further on a plate or board.
To watch a demonstration of Dave making this bread, and Julia making this Shepherd’s Pie, view the recorded Upstream Alliance Celebrity Check In here.