The loaf I actually bake
I have tried the complicated versions. This is the one that happens on a weekday, which makes it better than any of them.
Evening to morning, one bowl
- 500 g strong flour, 10 g salt, 2 g dried yeast, 375 g water. Mix with a spoon, no kneading.
- Cover, leave on the counter overnight, twelve hours or so.
- Fold the dough over itself four times in the bowl, rest thirty minutes.
- Into a hot covered pot, 230 °C, thirty minutes with the lid on, fifteen without.
- Cool on a rack. Cutting it hot is the only real mistake available here.
In a cold kitchen the overnight rise needs longer, and in August it needs less; the dough tells you by doubling and smelling faintly of beer. Watch the dough, not the clock.
Leftovers: dried in the oven for soup, or grated into crumbs and kept in a jar.