OKnead

• 1 pt water
• 1 lb wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/4 tsp salt

Grind flour. Add water, salt, flour and yeast to mixer bowl. Mix thoroughly with hook. Cover bowl and let rise for 12 - 20 hours. Turn out onto floured surface and shape. Place into heavy covered pot. Set oven to 450 and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove cover, insert probe and bake to a temp of 200.

From the Internet

• Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
• Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
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• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1¼ teaspoons salt
• Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

“. . . I bake the bread using the original recipe method, in an oven-proof bowl, with a lid on top. The other day I was in a hurry, so after the initial rise and shaping the dough into a loaf, I plopped it into the cold bowl, and put it in a cold oven (no preheating). Then I turned the oven to 450 degrees, baked the bread for 30 minutes with the lid on and 30 minutes with the lid off. The bread was fantastic. The crust was crispy on the outside, and the inside was delicious.

“The next day I tried this with dough that was refrigerated overnight. No extra rising, I just sprinkled the dough with flour, shaped a quick round loaf, and plopped it in the cold baking dish, and baked it. It was great! This saves me a lot of time, and I don’t have to preheat the oven. Just thought I would pass this on.”