Homemade crusty loaf, with or without a dutch oven

***RECIPE***

2 cups (474mL) water, divided in two
2 teaspoons (10g) salt (based on the Morton Kosher I use)
1/8 teaspoon dry yeast (two small pinches)
bread flour (you'll need maybe 5-6 cups, 500-600g, but this recipe is not based on firm quantities)
a little whole wheat flour, if you want (I like to replace maybe a tenth of the white bread flour with whole wheat — I just eyeball it)

The night before you want to bake, mix a poolish by combining half of the water (1 cup, 237mL) with the yeast and enough flour to get a thick batter / pudding consistency. I think a wooden spoon is the best utensil to use for this, but whatever spoon you use, use something rigid. You can just leave the spoon in the poolish overnight. Cover the poolish and let it ferment 8-24 hours.

About four hours before you want to bake, uncover the poolish and mix in the remaining cup (237mL) of water, salt, and as much flour as you can stir in with a spoon (no hand kneading). Again, you can leave the spoon in there. Cover and let rise/hydrate for about an hour.

Check it again and see if you can stir in a little more flour now that the previous addition has hydrated. When you're done, you can get rid of the spoon. Cover and let rise/hydrate for another hour.

These next steps I do in the bowl, just to keep the mess contained, FYI. Sprinkle the dough with a little flour to keep it from sticking to you. Grab one side of it and pull it out until just before it's going to tear, then fold it back in on itself. Rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat until you've done this four total times. Position the dough so that the seems are on the bottom and the smooth surface is on top. Cover and let rest for about 20 minutes.

Do the whole folding and stretching procedure again, rest 20 minutes, and then do it a third time.

The following instructions are for baking this with a dutch oven. If you're using a baking sheet with a heat-safe metal bowl, skip to that part now.

Get a sheet of parchment paper, crumple it up into a ball, un-crumple it and stuff it down into the bottom of your dutch oven. Transfer in the dough, smooth-side up. Cover the dutch oven (but not with the lid). Put the lid in your oven and get it heating to 500ºF/260ºC (some people get better results with slightly lower temperatures, but every oven is different). Let the dough proof for about a half hour while the oven heats up.

When the dough is looking puffy, score the surface — I find a few quick, confident slashes with a serrated knife work ok. Put the dutch oven over a burner on your stove, turn the heat on high, and cove it with the hot lid from the oven. When the side of the dutch oven feel hot (it should just take a couple minutes), transfer the whole situation to your oven and let bake for a half hour undisturbed, so as to not let any steam escape.

Carefully remove the hot lid, reduce the heat to 450ºF/230ºC and let the surface of the bread brown while the interior finishes baking, 10-20 more minutes. You can test the interior with a thermometer — anything in the neighborhood of 200ºF/93ºC is good. Let the bread cool before slicing.

The following instructions are for doing this with a baking sheet and a heat-safe metal bowl.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. After you've done the whole folding thing three times, position the dough on the baking sheet, smooth-side up. Cover it with a heat-safe metal bowl that's big enough to not touch the dough as it rises and/or bakes. Get your oven heating to 500ºF/260ºC (some people get better results with slightly lower temperatures, but every oven is different). Let the dough proof for about a half hour while the oven heats up.

When the dough is looking puffy, score the surface — I find a few quick, confident slashes with a serrated knife work ok. Move the whole pan/bowl rig into the oven and let bake for a half hour undisturbed, so as to not let any steam escape.

Carefully remove the hot hot bowl. If your oven has a convection fan, turn it on. If not, just crank your oven to its highest temperature, if it can go any higher. Let the surface of the bread brown while the interior finishes baking, 10-20 more minutes. You can test the interior with a thermometer — anything in the neighborhood of 200ºF/93ºC is good. Let the bread cool before slicing.

[daviddeming]

As one who carves wooden spoons for cooking and eating, it's nice to see the humble wooden spoon thanked for it's bread making service. I can't recall another cooking video where a low end implement gets it's due.

[Kojo]

An important note about hydration, I've found that relative humidity makes a significant difference in the amount of water I need to add when baking bread from a recipe. I noticed that nearly every recipe I followed didn't seem like it had enough water in it, especially when I was working from a recipe I found on a video. My dough never looked like the dough in the video, it was always too dry and thick. Then I remembered that I live in a desert, and the air here is almost always dry.

This wouldn't seem like it would make much difference, but the effect is compounded by two factors:

1: Dry flour has much more capacity to absorb water so your recipe wants more water to begin with.
2: (And probably more important) Dry flour weighs less. If you're weighing your ingredients, you're using more flour in your recipe than you would if you lived in a more humid environment, but the weight of the water remains constant. I'm a woodworker, and the water that wood absorbs from the air will make up anywhere from around 8% to 20% of the total weight. That's a LOT. If flour acts at all similar (and I suspect that it does), this would make a huge difference in your recipe.

Because of this, whenever actually following a recipe (instead of measuring with my heart as Adam suggests here), as a rule of thumb I put in about 15% more water than the recipe calls for just because I know my climate requires it, and my dough started turning out great right from the start. If you live in a humid climate, you may want to adjust in the other direction if your dough is always too sloppy.

[joshboozer]

When you do your stretch and fold method, try wetting your hands rather than adding more flour. The additional flour will give you a denser crumb at the end. It’s really not a big difference, but it’s easy to add too much.

[dozyote]

An alternative non-dutch oven method I discovered when I was too broke to afford one. Bake your loaf with an aluminum foil tent over it and a cookie sheet or baking tray filled with water on a lower rack to generate steam. Remove the aluminum foil after the half hour and let it bake uncovered for the rest of the time.

[ninjacell]

Thanks for this Adam, people think bread is far more intimidating than it is, so keeping it casual like this encourages new people.

[alexisgill]

For homecooking, baking bread doesnt require precise flour measurement. There are sooo many factors like type of flour, humidity, luck, ect that I just end up eyeball it anyway. I try to keep the dough sticky cause it produces a more open crumb, which I love. Using a recipe is a good jumping off point, but actually baking bread is where you learn :)

[jeanlou]

I would mention that preheating the pot only really work on gas stovetops, that blast lots of heats to the sides (and the wooden spoons you rest on the pot, and the whole kitchen) . If you have an induction top, even if it probably heats faster than even a gas top, I would not recommand as youll burn the bottom before heating the sides

[agtwil]

Pro (safety) tip: when taking off the 500F hot lid put the lid back into the oven instead of somewhere else in the kitchen!! Then there is no risk of anyone severely burning their hands by accidentally picking up the hot lid... 🙂

[Rampage]

I love your constant recommendation to cook with your senses. Knowing techniques and using your instincts is so much more valuable than memorizing recipes. It means you can adapt dishes when you don’t have the exact right ingredients. My wife is GF and the variance between GF flours is so widespread and every recipe online is based off a different type of GF flour. We just buy whatever is on sale and I have learned to adapt. It doesn’t take long to gain the confidence to break from the recipes

[goattactics]

Baking in a Dutch oven from cold (no heating whatsoever) before it goes in the oven has similar results to preheating the pot. King arthur flour had a good post on this method. Also, Brian's method of scoring with scissors (cutting slashes in the dough) is a good option if you don't have a lame

[juanplay]

Tried the recipe, worked like a charm. Nothing beats freshly baked bread with butter, eggs, bacon, cheese and hot chocolate. Thanks Adam.

[PatataMaxtex]

The "cooking with your senses" is something I love. I hardly ever look into recipes while cooking. I use them to get an idea what proportions might be good and then do what feels right. I had 3 occasions in which it wasnt the best idea, but not the worst either and my gf never complained about taste (we are german, she would complain if there was a good reason, it is part of our culture) so I assume it works well that way.

[TaleDreamer]

Going to cook with our senses? Oh! Adam is using not bad, not bad.

[currywinborn]

Hey Adam, just two pieces of bread advice that seem very on brand:
1. You mentioned it, but all purpose and bread flour are very similar protein wise and create virtually identical breads at reasonable hydration levels. I worked at a French style bakery and we only used all purpose flour.
2. Consider trying the Ken Forkish scoring method from the book Flour Water Salt Yeast. Bake the bread seam side up instead of down. The seam will act as a score and create really beautiful, wild designs when the bread springs. No knives, no razors!

[johnmccarrick]

Hey Adam, I didn't follow you 100% I actually went a little simpler, but this was the main video I used to make my own homemade bread. I just lost my mom this month and was in a real bind financially, being able to make this bread really helped me out in a big way. It came out fantastically with barely any effort - I didn't even have some of the stuff you used, I just used my convection oven, all-purpose flour, water, yeast and salt. Heck I think I even over-added the yeast but it still came out great.

Really excellent way to learn how to make bread for those of us who like to cook with our senses like you say! I always enjoyed cooking but baking always turned me off because of the measurements and seemingly complicated method. I'll be making this bread more often, thank you again for sharing these home-kitchen friendly options!

[Ryan_Perrin]

I appreciate the "no measurement" idea a lot, but for those who are curious about measurements:

a poolish will be 1:1 water and flour, say 100g (just over 1/3c water and about 1 cup flour) each. Then about 0.25g of yeast.

for the bread in this method, you'd want about 350g (about 3 cups) of flour total (an additional 250g (about 2 cups) more than the poolish) and shoot for around 85% hydration (essentially how much water mass you want based on the flour amount). 350g*0.85 = 300g (1.25 c) of water (an additional 200g (just over 3/4c) than the poolish). For every 100g of flour, use about 2g of salt, so one heaping teaspoon for the above amount (7g total).

Regarding the salt, Adam used two tsp of salt and two cups of water, so assuming he was close to this 85% figure (I think he was a bit lower, actually) then he is pretty close to this 2g of salt to 100g of flour ratio.

[Crazt]

For the pan and bowl method, spray the inside of the bowl with enough water to stick to it, but not so much it drips. It'll add a little extra moisture.

[MegaXflare]

Amazing video as always Adam!

That is an interesting recipe for baking Bread and it's nice to see the contrast between the dutch oven and aluminium baking tray. I have adapted my own go to recipe for a simple bread dough using Chef John and your refrigerated Pizza dough recipes. It is designed to be as lazy as possible, so little to think about and is really straight forward. I will typically make a really large batch of dough that I can not only use for Bread, but also Pizza, etc.

To make the dough, I will mix in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon:
- 1kg of Flour
- 1-2 tsp of Salt (may need more for Morten Kosher)
- 1/2 tsp of dry active Yeast
- 1L of hot/ warm Water

The good thing is that this can be scaled up or down depending how much you want (so 250g/ 500g/ 750g/ etc).
Once mixed together it will seem like too much water has been added to the mix, however it will keep the dough hydrated as you are now going to leave it to ferment for up to 7 days. I usually keep the bowl out in the house at room temperature rather than the refrigerator which works just as well (I live in the UK so it's usually cool and humid most of the time).

After 7 days I will get the bowl and add enough flour to get the dough to come together and knead it on the work surface (it will take a while for a larger dough). Once rested I will portion it into either bread rolls, baguettes, one loaf, etc. It's quite adaptable as to what you want to make it into.

Once I have made the rolls/ baguettes/ etc I will then let it proof for a second time for 30 mins - 1 hour. 20 mins before they are done I will switch my oven on with a water bath at the bottom. I typically put it on to 210°C Convection setting from the get go as this works fine in my oven, but you may need to go to a higher temperature if that works best for you.

Just before I put the bread into the oven I will slash the top several times and then stick them in the oven for 20 minutes uncovered and pull them. They may need a few more minutes, but if it's nearly done I switch the oven off and leave them to bake in the residual heat.

Voila place them on a cooling rack and eat once cooled.

Another recommendation would be to add in some dried fruit and nuts into the dough and/ or some seeds on top of the bread before baking. Walnuts, Dates and Figs work amazingly well in the dough and complements the yeasty flavour very well.

[gurneyqueen]

Every other bread video: "this is impossible to make without a food scale, and there needs to be exactly 0.5% salt and 69.7386% hydration"
This video: "the spoon will measure for me"

[MrBigCookieCrumble]

When i bake i do this all the time here at home in Sweden.
I use my poolish for basically the entire dough, just mixing in enough flour in the morning to make it workable.
Then i fold it like you and roll it up so seams are at the bottom. Then rest for 30 min in the "dutch oven"-substitute i have.
I dont have a real one, nor metal bowls, but i _do_ have a oven proof glass bowl with a lid. Just straight into the oven.
Very similar results as to what you showed in the alternative version.

*_Definitively_* stealing the crumpling up of the baking paper tho, always used the paper but didn't even consider crumpling it, brilliant!!
Learnt a lot of why things work the way they do, thank you so much, taking away a lot from this. <3