Homemade bread

This recipe couldn't be easier. The hardest thing about it is planning, as the dough needs to rise for 12 hours. You also need to have a heavy baking dish with a lid, for example a cast iron dutch oven.

2500 kcal per loaf

Cooking time: 30 minutes of actual work, but altogether 13.5 hrs

Instructions

1. Warm 250 ml of water up to 90-95 F (30 seconds in the microwave usually does the trick). Make sure it is not hotter than 100 F, or it will kill the yeast.
2. Add 1 tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of dry yeast, and mix well. Set aside.
3. Sift 600 g bread flour into a large bowl (a bowl with a dedicated lid would be best). Add 2 tsp of salt.
4. Add the yeast mixture and 250 ml of buttermilk into the flour.
5. Mix the flour with a spoon for about 3-5 minutes. You should get a consistency of a thick, gooey pudding. It should not be runny, but it should not be dry and smooth either. If your dough looks too runny or too dry, you can add water or flour as needed (best 2 tbsp at a time to not overdo it).
6. With the spoon, form the dough into a rounded blob and pour 1 tbsp of olive oil over it, spreading it around with the spoon (the point is to cover the dough to prevent it from drying out). Cover the bowl (with a lid or, in a pinch, a clean dish towel) and leave in a semi-warm spot for 12 hours (not necessarily next to a running heater, but not next to the AC either — somewhere reasonable).
7. After 12 hours have elapsed, set the oven to 430 F. Put the baking dish (with the lid) into the oven so they heat up together.
8. Sprinkle about 1 tbsp of flour over a big wooden board, and keep about 4-5 tbsp of flour handy (for example, in a bowl). With a spoon, mix the dough quickly in the bowl and then push out onto the board. It will look somewhat like this:
9. Kneed the dough a couple of times. If it feels runny, sprinkle some flour on it.
10. Lay the dough flat on the board, stretch it a couple of times sideways (so that it forms an elongated shape), and then fold it from both sides toward the middle. Turn it it around, so that the fold faces downward and the elongated shape runs top to bottom, and again stretch a couple of times sideways. Repeat. As before, if the dough feels runny, sprinkle some flour either directly on the dough or on the board, but it should generally be a bit sticky. It it sticks too much to the board (so that it's hard to move it around), sprinkle some flour on the board. After folding the dough 4-5 times, form a round shape.
11. When the oven reaches 430 F, take the dish out (obviously, it will be hot!!!). Put a parchment sheet on the bottom of the dish (If You Care makes ones which fit my 4-Qt. round dutch oven really well). Then plop the dough into the dish, cover it with a lid, and put into the oven for 30 minutes.
12. After 30 minutes, take the lid off and bake for another 30-35 minutes.
13. Take the dish out of the oven, and take the bread out onto a wire rack. Try to let it cool a little bit before you dig in :-)