Artisan Basic French Bread and Variations (Overnight)

Name: Artisan Basic French Bread and Variations (Overnight)
Prep time: 14 h
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 14 h 20 min
Yield: 2 loaves
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon instant yeast (dry yeast must be dissolved in water below) or 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast (dry yeast must be dissolved in water below); 2 1/4 cups warm water (~100 degrees, not so warm that it kills yeast); 6 -6 1/2 cups unbleached white flour (I sub about 2 cups whole wheat flour to make it healthier, but I find that more than 30-40% whole wh); 1 tablespoon salt (I use Real salt or sea salt)

Submitted by Chef TanyaW

"Prep time includes dough sitting and rising time, hands on time is about 10 minutes. When it comes to breadmaking, simplest can be best. this recipe has 4 ingredients (or 5 if you decide to use some whole wheat flour). I learned this in a breadmaking class, and have made it before for neighbors for Christmas. Many people are surprised that it is homemade... it's not difficult, it's just a matter of learning. Variations are listed in directions. If you would like to learn more about making great bread, I recommend Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, Amy's Bread, and The Bread Apprentice. Hope you enjoy this!"

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photo by MomLuvs6

Ready In:: 14hrs 20mins
Ingredients:: 4
Yields:: 2 loaves

ingredients

1 teaspoon instant yeast (dry yeast must be dissolved in water below) or 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast (dry yeast must be dissolved in water below)
2 ¹⁄₄ cups warm water (~100 degrees, not so warm that it kills yeast)
6 - 6 ¹⁄₂ cups unbleached white flour (I sub about 2 cups whole wheat flour to make it healthier, but I find that more than 30-40% whole wh)
1 tablespoon salt (I use Real salt or sea salt)

directions

Mix and knead (I mix and knead in my Bosch for about 5 minutes).
Cover and let rise 12 hours.
Divide dough into 2 pieces.
Shape and let rise 2-3 hours (spray plastic with Pam so it won't stick when you uncover).
Preheat oven to 425 degrees for about 30 minutes if using a baking stone (using a stone will give the best results).
Slice tops. If you are not confident in slicing tops, slice before rising -- or dust with flour and use a very sharp knife -- you don't want the whole thing to collapse (brushing with water also works).
For ideal results allow to rise on a pizza peel dusted with flour and make a quick transfer to stone at baking time (or if that's a little scary, let it rise on parchment paper for an easier transfer).
Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, with steam first 10 minutes (spray water in oven liberally about every 3 minutes or see instructions below). Round or boule shaped loaves will take ~ 30 minutes to bake.
Best steaming method: put shallow pan on bottom rack and allow to preheat 10-15 minutes before baking bread. Pour 2 cups into pan so there will be steam throughout baking time.
Variations:
ASIAGO or PEPPER CHEDDAR: Add to basic recipe 1 cup grated or cubed Asiago or 1 cup grated or cubed Cheddar and 1 1/2 t black pepper.
BLACK OLIVE AND SWEET RED PEPPER: After first rising, knead in one sweet red roasted red pepper, thinkly sliced, and 1 cup coarsely chopped black olives (delicious with Kalamata or other deli olives if you like them!). Shape into 3 round loaves and place on cookie sheets sprinkled with cornmeal. Let rise and bake.
FRESH ROSEMARY BREAD WITH OLIVE OIL: Substitute q cup whole wheat flour for white flour, and add in 1/4 cup olive oil to dough. After kneading, knead in 1/3 Celsius fresh rosemary leaves, chopped. Let rise overnight, Shape into 2 or 3 boules (round loaves), let rise and bake. Brush warm loaves with olive oil. also good with 1 cup sunflower seeds.
MULTIGRAIN: Soak together 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/4 cup wheat kernels, 1/4 cup rolled barley or wheat, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds, 1 T millet, 2 T molasses, 1/2 c more water for 20 minutes. Combine with 4 3/4 c whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups water, and 2 tsp yeast. Knead into the basic bread.
PIZZA CRUST: use 1/3 batch for a 14-16" round pizza, 1/2 batch for a rectangular pizza on a cookie sheet.
RYE BREAD/RYE ONION BREAD: Stir 3/4 cup water into 1 2/3 cup ry flour, let sit at least an hour. For onion bread, add in 1/2 cup chopped onion. Mix and knead this in after the first rising. Shape, let rise, and bake.
SEEDS, WHOLE WHEAT, AND FRUIT: Before mixing dough, combine in a small bowl 1 T flaxseed, 1 T millet, 1/2 c raisins, 1/2 c chopped dried apricots, and 1/2 c chopped pitted prunes. Add enough hot water to just cover. Mix dough, subbing whole wheat flour for hal the white flour. Knead till smooth, then knead in seed and fruit, rained, as well as 1/2 c sesame seeds and 2/3 c cooked wheat kernels. Let rise overnight. Shape into 2 disks, 2" thick. Score into 6 wedges each. Let rise until nearly doubled. Bake. Serve warm or cold, plain or with jam or cream cheese.
WHOLE WHEAT AND BARLEY: Mix 4 3/4 c whole wheat flour with 1 1/2 cups water. Add 1/2 t year and 1 cup cooked barley to basic bread dough. Shape, rise, and bake. Great for sandwiches. May also add in 1 cup chopped walnuts.

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Reviews

Sorry, this really didn't work out well for me. I found this recipe to be poorly written and a lot of work for what I ended up with. I have made a lot of bread in my 60 years, so I could figure out what I needed to do, but a novice looking at the directions for this would most likely go in search of another recipe. More detailed step-by-step directions would help. My dough rose fine overnight, nice and high in the bowl, but when I shaped it into a round, and let it rise again on the baking sheet, it just spread out. So I ended up with more of a focaccia. The bread tasted fine, but would have liked a higher loaf. More flour, I guess. I made the rosemary variation. i will stick to the Sullivan St. Bakery method for artisan bread.

Outta Here
I followed the recipe exactly for the olive and sweet roasted red pepper variation. I used black greek olives, pretty much the same as kalamata. We loved the bread. No problems whatsoever. After the 12 hour rise I did kneed it only about 2-3 min with some bench flour. I shaped it into a round, let rise the additional 2-3 hours, then baked. I did use the steam method, put a pan of water on bottom shelf as directed. 20 minutes was not enough baking time, I baked mine for 30 min. I loved both the taste and the creativity of this recipe. The texture was just perfect. Thanks so much. personalchef

personalchef
We enjoyed this very much. Moist, nice texture, crispy crust... And it fit into our schedule. Made half a batch in bread maker on dough setting, put in fridge, took out next morning, shaped, and let rise for about 3 hours. I reduced the salt by 1/3 rd. I used your cheese and black pepper variation. I reduced the black pepper by 1/3 rd. Next time I would add in roasted red pepper. B/c I split my batch the bake time was shorter, just saying so that others will consider baking less time. (I wanted smaller loaves for the two of us.). Thank you for posting, Tanya.

WiGal
I followed the recipe as proposed and I did not have problems. I prepared the half portion for only one loaf (simple plain version). I^m used to bake bread and perhaps some of the steps where clear for me in any case. The dough raised as it should and after 12 house I shaped the bread as maybug using flour to dust or brushing some milk (for the headI) to get a darker shining surface e. The minor change was that I placed an old aluminum mold with some water to produce steam while cooking. After shaping I waited two hours and really only then I used a sharp knave to make incisions. After baking it came out really pretty. The dough hat small (but a lot) air bubbles. All my family liked it very much! If somebody prefer to try it with bigger bubbles, I suggest not to work the dough too much , It's a good base for "shaped" breads. I saw the pizza crust recipe variation. It is exactly the way as I prepare mine when I need it. Thanks a lot for posting this recipe

Artandkitchen
Well, I did NOT want to leave stars for this as I did not think it's fair as I had several problems with this recipe. First and probably what the problem is I just had surgery and was still feeling pretty weak so probably made more than one mistake and I was really tired about half way through. 2nd, the first rise just about exploded over my bowl, I think I should have done a slow, fridge rise as others did. As large as it turned out, I made it into one large boule and 2 large baquettes and then cooked as directed (by the way, I used the rye variation) they never rose in the oven, turned out hard and flat, more like a foccasia than bread and while the taste was OK, just couldn't get through the hard flat taste - and I don't mean crusty - I mean hard. Because of the final look I didn't even take a photo. Like I said though, the way I was feeling it was probably the WORST time to even try this bread, so I really did not want to leave stars and will try it again once I'm feeling much better and revise the rating.

Bonnie G #2

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Tweaks

I debated about how many stars I should give this bread. On the first long (12 hour) rise it rose like crazy and I was concerned about it rising over the large bowl I put it into. However after I shaped the dough for the second rise it took all day to get risen enough to bake. The biggest problem was the same as Galley Wench mentioned. It has too much salt. You can actually taste the salt. I make a lot of bread. I enjoy making bread. My suggestion would be to cut the amount of salt down to about half what is listed in the recipe or add a Tablespoon or so of sugar to balance out the salt. A increase in the amount of yeast should improve on the rise.. I used 1 1/4 cup of wheat bread instead of all white flour as the chef suggested, and the variation I used was 1/3 cup oatmeal and 1/4 cup potato flakes. Made for Variety Is The Spice Of Life game Spring 2012.

CarrolJ

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

Chef TanyaW

Salt Lake City, Utah

I'm a stay at home mom with 4 children. I love discovering great recipes and cooking techniques. Since my 4 children have recently gotten out of the preschool years, I have taken more time to catalog and organize my recipe collection. I appreciate all the wonderful recipes I have found here and the effort to input them. My family and I appreciate the good food that has become part of what we regularly enjoy eating. Besides cooking and taking care of my children and family, I love reading and playing piano. I also love classical guitar, and as my kids grow older, I would like to devote time to learning to play better (I'm really just a beginner). The arts bring me a lot of joy (music, visual, performance, literary, culinary). I also find joy in the beauty that is in the world and nature... I'm fortunate to live close to the beautiful Wasatch Mountains and not too far from many beautiful national parks in the state of Utah. I feel we have a responsibility to reach out and help others, and as a follower of Jesus Christ, I hope to make a positive contribution to my family, local church congregation, neighborhood, community, and to worthy causes that inspire me. I find that many charitable organizations are not giving enough to help the less fortunate or to whatever is their cuase, but I really like The Smile Train, and the programs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints which are mostly run by volunteers (main humanitarian missions... eyeglasses, clean water , Neonatal Resuscitation, Emergency Response, Wheelchairs, Food Production, and Immunizations). I am very thankful for a good and abundant life and am sad for the great suffering that many people endure in life. I believe in an Eternal equalization or fixing of injustice, and I look forward to the day God will surely make everything right.

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