Ingredients (for two loaves or one very large one)

• 1000 grams flour (~7 cups), 700+ should be bread flour (see note on mix of flours)
• 25-50 gm wheat bran (optional and to taste, it’s nice in many breads)
• 2800 grams (1½ cups) lukewarm water (90 degrees F)
• 22 grams (~4 tsp) salt (fine sea salt is best)
• 1/8 + 3/4 tsp (3 grams) instant yeast (see note on yeast, below)

Directions (15 minutes the night before, then 6 or so hours, elapsed, the next day):

1. The evening before you bake, make the poolish:
   • In a large bowl whisk 500g bread flour (don’t use any of the other flour for this) and 1/8 tsp instant yeast. Then add 500g of 80-degree F water, and mix by hand until the mixture is pretty much uniform without clumps. (See note on hand-mixing.)
   • Let the mixture rise overnight (12-14 hours), covered and at room temperature. In the morning, it will have doubled in size and will have lots of bubbles.
2. The next morning, make the dough:
   • In a very large bowl, whisk together 500g flour (see note on mix of flour), 22 gm salt, and 3g (¾ tsp) instant yeast.
   • Add 280g of 105-degree F water to the poolish, not the flour/salt/yeast.
   • Add the now-wet poolish to the dry ingredients, and mix by hand until the dough is pretty much uniform with no clumps. As you go, and depending on the type of flour, you’ll likely need to add more water.  When you feel you need more, toss in a splash, or wet your hands again.
   • Let it sit for a minute or two, then do one quick round of folding (see note on folding).
3. Let the dough rise for 3-4 hours, covered, at room temperature, folding it 2 or 3 times in the first hour (see note on folding.) Two times are likely plenty, three will reduce the size of the holes in the bread, and four will make it quite uniform (too much so as far as I’m concerned).  Don’t overdo the folding!
4. Prepare the loaves for proofing:
   • After 3-4 hours, the dough will have approximately doubled in size and will be a big floppy, sticky glob. Turn it out onto a large floured surface and divide into two. (See note on one vs. two loaves/dutch ovens.)
   • Do a round of folding on each loaf, turn over, and gently used both hands to gently slide the dough on the floured surface. Work your way around the dough.  The sliding will create tension on its surface, transforming it from a flat glob to more of a round-ish ball.
   • Gently transfer each ball of dough into a proofing basket or lightly oiled bowl.
5. Proof the dough, covered, for 45-60 minutes. You can test if it’s ready with a gentle poke with a floured finger. If the dough springs back quickly, it’s not ready. If the dent doesn’t spring back, then it’s been proofed longer than ideal. If it comes back slowly, then it’s ready.
   • While the dough is proofing, preheat the oven to 480 degrees F. Set two racks pretty low and put in your dutch oven(s) so they preheat.  Put a baking sheet on the lower shelf, below the oven(s), to protect them from direct heat coming up from the bottom.
6. Transfer the dough to the hot dutch oven(s)
   • You want to do this pretty quickly to keep the dutch ovens hot. Be careful because these suckers are HOT!
   • Carefully take the dutch ovens out and remove their tops.
   • Gently turn each proofed dough out onto the floured surface, and gently – without burning yourself – transfer it into a dutch oven. You’ll end up having to drop it in; just do it as gently as possible.
   • Sprinkle just a bit of kosher salt on top.
   • If you want, try slicing the top to form some kind of pattern. This can be challenging, though. Even if you use a very thin knife, a razor blade, or a lame, dough this wet tends to stick to the knife. If you’re going to do it, be firm and quick about it.
   • If you have a sprayer, spray the inside of the top of each dutch oven with water just before closing it. If you don’t have one, you can sprinkle a couple drops of water on it… or not worry about it.
   • Put the dutch ovens in to bake.
7. Bake the bread
   • Bake, covered, for 35 minutes at 480 degrees F.
   • Remove the top(s) and bake, uncovered, for 10-20 minutes more. Bread gets better the longer you bake it; the time gets rid of excess moisture. You want to cook it until it’s almost If you think it’s almost burned, give it 2 more minutes and look at it. It probably won’t have changed much. Give it another 2 minutes. If you get to 20 minutes, that’s probably plenty. Take it out. The bread should feel pretty light.
   • Allow to cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before you dive in.

Note: On variations and the mix of flours
You can make this recipe with 100% bread flour.  It’ll be good.  But you’ll find it’s better if you add at least 100g and as much as 300g of other kinds of flour.  No matter what, always make the poolish with 500g of bread flour, adding the other flours later in the process.

Here are some variations I’ve enjoyed.

• Basic bread (light whole wheat): 900g bread flour, 100g whole wheat. You can beef up the whole-wheatiness by using 200g or 300g of whole wheat flour.  It’ll likely require more water when you mix the dough.  At 300g, you may find it rises a bit less.  Also, adding some wheat bran is nice, too.
• My favorite, with a little rye: 750g bread flour, 150g rye, 100g whole wheat. This yields a really nice, all round bread.  Adding 25-50gm of wheat bran add to it, too.
• Corn and molasses is great. Use 100gm of cornmeal and 50gm of whole wheat flour.  When you mix the dough, add 1.5 Tbs molasses, 2Tbs of melted butter, and 3 Tbs of honey to the 105 degree water.  This is the one bread where I’d recommend folding it four times in the first hour.
• You can add seeds to almost any bread dough. The same goes for chopped nuts and dried fruit (pecans and dried cranberries are great in a whole wheat bread with a little cornmeal).
• I’ve done experiments with 100g of spelt flour, 50g of 75g of cornmeal, 150gm of multigrain flour. All are good. Experiment, see what you like, and learn.  It’s tough to go too far wrong.

Note: On yeast
When I started making bread, I had a prejudice against instant yeast.  If it’s “instant” it must somehow be processed, artificial, or otherwise NOT the real thing, right?  Wrong.  Instant yeast is just fine. Real bakers use it and it doesn’t need to be pre-mixed with water.  I’ve been using Instaferm Red, which I buy in one pound packs and keep in the freezer, sealed in a ziplock bag.  It takes me about a year to go through a pound, and I’ve found year-old yeast to still be 100% reliable.

Note: On hand-mixing
You may be reluctant to mix the dough by hand.  Particularly with a dough that’s pretty wet like this one, it’ll feel at first like a really messy process.  However… mixing by hand – and I mean literally WITH YOUR BARE HANDS – is much faster in the end, you get a much better feel for the dough, it’s easer to get the clumps out, and you’ll know when you’ve gotten pretty much all the clumps so you don’t overwork the dough. Use a combination of working your way through the dough by squeezing it between your forefinger and thumb and stretching and then folding it over on itself.

At first, you may be alarmed if the dough really sticks to your hands.  Keep your hands wet, mix with one hand, and use the other to squeegee goopy dough off the mixing hand every now and then.  The cleanup under running water turns out to be pretty easy and quick, particularly once you’re past the initial mixing step.

Note: On folding the dough
At several points in this bread-making process, you’re asked to “fold” the dough. It’s a quick process, as follows: Grab the side of the glob of dough, stretch it out a bit, and fold it over onto itself. Turn it 90 degrees and repeat. Work your way around the bread, folding 4 or 5 times. Then flip it over so the seam is down.  That’s it!  Folding should take maybe 30 seconds.  It’s not a big deal, so don’t overdo it.  Too much folding degrades the quality of your bread.

If it’s early in the process, when you’re making the poolish or dough, mix and fold using wet hands. When you’re preparing the dough for proofing, though, do it with dry, floured hands.

Note: One vs. Two Loaves, and Dutch Ovens
Since this recipe is for a double-batch, you have several options.  You can make one huge loaf in a big Dutch oven, or follow the recipe exactly to make two smaller ones.  If you have only one smaller Dutch oven, you can either make a half-recipe that yields just one loaf (a mistake in my opinion because your life will be vastly improved if you make two and give the extra one – ideally still warm – to someone you care about), or you can bake the two loaves sequentially. To do that, proof one in the fridge.  When the one proofed at room temperature comes out of the oven, take the cold one out of the fridge, get the Dutch oven hot again in the oven for 10 minutes while the cold one finishes proofing and warms a bit, then bake the second loaf.  The baking time for the two loaves should be about the same.