Bread

I bought a great cookbook a few months ago that I have used a lot-- and still have to try more recipes in. It is called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and was worth buying. I will post the basic recipe which I use all the time. It is similar to the New York Times no knead bread that you can cook in a dutch oven-- and I am guessing you could adjust the baking style and cook it in a dutch oven also.

The thing that is so great about this recipe is you make a LARGE batch and stick it in the fridge. Then for dinner each night you can cut off a chunk of dough and make a fresh loaf--- not having to mix ingredients again until you run out. Then-- when you are done and ready to mix a new batch, you actually do not rinse out your container-- yuck? No-- it is like sourdough, it will add flavor to your bread.

Master Recipe (Free-form loaf)

3 Cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 TB granulated yeast (I use instant)
1 1/2 TB Kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 Cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measure with the scoop-and-sweep method
Cornmeal for the pizza peel

1. Warm the water slightly (use warm water from tap if you want)
2. Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart bowl, or preferably in a resealable lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food grade bucket (I use an ice-cream bucket, perfect size).
3. Mix in the flour- kneading is unnecessary: Add all the flour at once, measuring it in with dry-ingredient measuring cups. Mix with a wooden spoon, or mix with your hands (slightly wet). Do not knead-- just make sure the dough is all wet.
4. Allow to rise covered with a lid (not airtight) on your counter. You can use the dough once it has risen, but the best flavor will come if you keep it in your fridge overnight and use it the next day.

Baking:
1. Prepare a pizza peel (very good investment if you don't have one:) by sprinkling it with cornmeal. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with some flour so you can grab it-- then with a serrated knife cut off a 1 lb. piece of dough-- about the size of a grapefruit. Add a little more flour in your hands if it is sticky and then gently roll the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. Most of the dusting flour will fall off-- it is not meant to be incorporated. As you do this, you will form a nice smooth ball with a "gluten cloak".

2. Rest the loaf on the pizza peel. Allow to rise for about 40 minutes.

3. Twenty minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450. Use a baking stone-- put it in the oven to pre-heat.

4. Just before baking, dust the top of the dough with flour and slash diagonally into dough to allow it to rise more in the oven.

5.After a 20 minute preheat, you're ready to bake, even though your oven thermometer will not yet be up to full temp. Quickly jerk the dough off the pizza peel onto the stone. Quickly but carefully, pour 1 cup of hot water from tap into a broiler tray in the bottom of the oven. Close the oven to trap the steam. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is nicely browned.

6. Store your extra dough in the fridge.

Now-- if you don't have a baking stone, you could try using a dutch oven lined with parchment paper like the NYT recipe-- I am guessing it would work-- and you don't need the cup of water for the steam effect if you do it that way. I haven't cooking it that way yet.