Taken from: Crumb - Richard Bertinet

1-2 days prep, 35 mins cooking makes one large loaf

Ingredients

Recipe

  1. Put the ferment into a large mixing bowl, add the flour and salt, then pour in the water.
  2. Mix the ingredients thoroughly in the bowl, using the curved side of a dough scraper. Make sure there's no flour left in the bowl - don't rush this stage. The dough should look like thick porridge.
  3. Tip the dough onto the work surface (no flour) and use Richard's method to 'work' the dough. See video and pages 39-52 in Crumb.
  4. Lightly flour the work surface and turn the dough over, so the top is directly on the surface. Fold each 'corner' of the dough into the middle, going round the circle until you're left with a neat ball. Turn back over and place in a lightly floured bowl.
  5. Leave to rest for 45 minutes until just under double in size.
  6. Turn out the dough and reform into a ball, as before, and leave to rest for a further 60 minutes.
  7. Shape the ball of dough into the desired shape and place in a proving basket.
  8. Cover again and leave to prove for 4-6 hours, until just under double in size. Alternatively you can prove the dough for 3 hours and then put the basket in the fridge overnight (you'll need to bring the dough back to room temperature - remove from the fridge an hour before baking).
  9. Preheat the oven to 240ºC and put a baking stone or upturned tray in the oven to heat up for an hour.
  10. Lightly flour the baking stone or upturned tray. Turn out the dough, keeping it the same way up. Slash the top of the dough in any pattern and dust with flour.
  11. Put the bread in the oven. Mist the inside of the oven with a spray bottle filled with water, or put boiling water in the bottom of the oven to create steam and form a better crust.
  12. Bake for 5-6 minutes at 240ºC.
  13. Turn the heat down to 220ºC and bake for 20 minutes.