Artisan Dutch oven bread

Prep Time20

Cook Time45

Proofing time2

Total Time3 5

Calories: 103kcal

Author: The Orange Baker

Put 400 grams of the flour in the mixing bowl and add all of the water. Mix until you have a coarse dough. You do not have to knead yet: it needs to be mixed, that is all for now. Cover with a towel or lid and leave for at least 15, up to 30 minutes.
This is called the autolyse process. During this time, the enzymes in the flour will break down the starch and the proteins: the starch will be converted to sugar and the protein starts becoming gluten. It helps against the over-oxidizing that happens during the kneading (otherwise resulting in pale and tasteless breads), and it makes the dough softer and better to handle when you knead in the next step. Most importantly, it helps build even more flavor. And that’s what we’re after.
Add the remaining flour, and add the salt on the one end of the bowl, and the yeast on the other. Mix all of the ingredients together in the bowl.

Once all of the flour has been absorbed, and the ball of dough starts picking up the loose bits in the bowl, flick over the bowl and turn the dough on your clean kitchen table top. Knead for roughly 7-10 minutes. The dough is ready when you try to make a window of the dough: a thin film of dough, about a millimeter thick, that does not immediately tear up. If it rips easily, just knead a bit more.

Clean the bowl you have been mixing the dough in, and grease it with a bit of oil. Form a ball of the dough, place in the bowl and cover with the lid, clean film or a kitchen towel. Place the bowl on a warm spot. Do not place it on direct heat, and do not place it in the full, hot sun as this will dry out the dough and leave a harder skin that you will see in the dough. Leave for the first proofing for one hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Use the scraper to clear the dough from the bowl and turn on the kitchen table top. Be careful not to just flick over the bowl, as you will stretch the gluten in the dough too much, and the effect is gone, and you also want to maintain the large bubbles in this particular bread. With the dough on the kitchen counter, pull one end carefully, stretch until you feel resistance, and fold it over itself, halfway through the dough. Repeat for the other corners. The result will be a loaf with a cross on the top
Grab your proofing basket or the bowl the dusted kitchen towel. Carefully place the dough with the cross facing down in the basket, cover it with another kitchen towel and leave to proof for 45-75 minutes. It will be ready when you prod it with your finger and the indent slowly pops back. When it immediately pops when you prod, it’s not done yet.
About 20-30 minutes into the second proofing, pre-heat the oven to 235°C/450°F and place the Dutch oven into your oven. The Dutch oven needs to be very hot, so allow enough time to heat up. You don’t need to grease up your Dutch oven.

When your dough has proofed to the correct point, dust your counter top next to where you will place your Dutch oven, and carefully ease the risen dough upside down on the kitchen top. Using oven gloves, take out the Dutch oven. With bare hands, scoop up the dough with the side of your hands -you finger tips alone will rip the soft dough- and carefully, place it in the Dutch oven. With the gloves, place the lid on the plan and slide in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, again using gloves, take off the lid and put to the side, out of reach, and leave the pan in the oven. Close the door and bake for an additional 15 minutes. The bread will be very dark, with deep-brown to black edges.
When the oven pings for the second time, take out the pan -obviously with your gloves on. Immediately, flip it over and place the baked loaf on a cooling rack. Allow to cool before you slice it.

A proofing basket is a round, oval or long basket, usually out of wicker that helps prevent particularly wet doughs from flowing when they proof. You can line them with cloth, or do as I do and cover them in abundant quantities of four to prevent sticking. This is also why you dust your kitchen towel with a lot of flour when you use a bowl and towel. The moisture in the dough will (and I mean will) make it stick to a dry cloth, and it will tear up when you are ready to take it out of the basket.
For a whole-wheat or rye version, replace 100-200 grams of the all-purpose flour with the same amount of whole-wheat or rye. You will need a little bit more water. If the dough is stiff, blend in water by wetting your hands before continuing to knead.
A large or wide Dutch oven will allow the bread to flow, making it a bit flat and wide. A more narrow pan will force it to rise up. The taste is the same, the way it looks in the only difference.
Baking with the closed lid takes away the need to inject steam in the oven as the moisture coming out of the dough is trapped in the closed pan. The result will be a crisp but thin crust.
Because you bake the bread with the seams of the folds on top, you will also not have to cut the bread. It will tear at the folds, which are the weak spots in the dough.