I do not yet have a scale, so I have had to experiment with measurements
.5 cup of active starter
1.5 cup of warm water
2 tsp of salt
Mix until well combined (I use a whisk)
3.25 cup of King Arthur AP
Use your stick of choice to combine, I then use my hands to further combine until a sticky mess
Let sit for 30-45 minutes in a warmish room (I use a flour sack towel to cover, but anything will do), after each step continue to keep the dough covered
3 sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes, I also cup the dough into a ball in between each stretch and fold and before rising
Let rise for 1.5-3 hours (or until 50%) in a warm area (hot take, microwaves with the incandescent light are great warmers)
Once risen, lay flat on a floured surface, pull in the four corners one by one to the center, then flip and shape the dough until a taught surface is created with the dough ball
Flour the dough heavily and whatever you are going to proof in (I use a Ramen bowl in absence of a true basket). If flour sack towel is available, lay into your object of choice and flour heavily as well to ensure the dough will not stick
Let rise again for 30-45 minutes
I then proof the dough overnight in the fridge
Oven gets set to 490f with my cast iron inside, make sure your cast iron is inside while the oven heats so it can also get to temp
Flip the dough out of your proofing device of choice onto floured surface and score to your taste (make sure you score at least .25 inches in, or until you can see the bubbles of the interior)
Plop the ol dough into the cast iron
Bake for 20 minutes with lid on at 490f
Remove lid after 20 minutes, reduce temp to 465f, then bake for another 18-25 minutes
Pull out, let cool for 1.5-3 hours, then enjoy!
by NocturnalNeon
28 Comments
Wow!!! What a gorgeous loaf!!
That’s a fabulous loaf!!!
Absolutely gorgeous
Perfect
Looks fantastic!
i have never seen a loaf so perfect I thought it was AI for a second !!! so beautiful
I hate it when people do this. It took me nearly six months to get anywhere near this result. Congrats!
Took me months and months to get a crumb I liked and it still wasn’t this good
its so pretty!
I wish I could taste your loaf !
And without a scale!
It took me seven tries to get this result…. Nice!
How did you score it please ?
Please, share your secret with us. I’m very far away from this, even though I’ve baked quite some loaves by now.
Way to go!
Lovely. Thank you for sharing.
Whoa, majestic 🤩
Perfect
She’s a beaut!
Turned out beautiful. I’ll need to do more kneading turns to get mine to round out and rise a little more. Thank you for your recipe!
https://preview.redd.it/6evjyfx0sebg1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a26c03d5d3e35eb6989011378efd44fab2a7c496
Yoooooooo
That’s a decent loaf, well done 👍🏻
Great loaf. I can find nothing at all to be critical of. Well done!
3 years in and I’ve never had one like this!
Thought this was ai lmao
I’m almost a year into bread and don’t think I’ve made a loaf this nice! Great work.
The outside looks fantastic! What’s the crumb look like
I should clarify this is not my first loaf! Just the first one that I was happy with. I think it is about my fifth or sixth attempt? The first few were pretty but mighty dense on the inside…