JJ's Overnight Bread

Ingredients

• 1 kilogram flour (bread flour if preferred)
• 20 grams salt (ideally kosher salt)
• 2 1/3 cups warm/hot water
• 1/4 teaspoon dried yeast

Directions

1. Heat up your water.
2. Add the flour and water into your stand mixer. Mix with the paddle attachment until incorporated.
3. Wait for about 30 minutes and then take out the paddle mixer. Add the dried yeast and salt into your mixer.
4. Turn on the stand mixer with the bread hook. Start at “1.” Then go to “2” and let it run for anywhere between 10 and 15 minutes. You are looking for the dough to come together with none of it sticking to the bowl. Take the bowl out of the mixer and cover it with plastic wrap or the like.
5. Come back “overnight” and hopefully your bread has risen. If it hasn’t, don’t worry, find a warm place (like your oven on the lowest setting) and put it in for an hour or so.
6. After the bread has risen, turn your oven to the lowest setting possible, ideally 100°F, and take your dough out of your mixing bowl.
7. Put some flour in your proofing basket.
8. Split your dough into two loaves using the bench scraper and “shape” them by tucking the outsides into the underside of the center.
9. Take one of the shaped loaves and put it seam-side up into the basket.
10. Place the basket, with parchment paper and a plate on top (to make a “seal”), in the oven. Wait about an hour.
11. Take out the basket, put in a Dutch oven or clay pot and cover with a lid. Place into the oven heated to 500°F for another 30 minutes.
12. Take the dough out of the basket by flipping the basket over carefully onto the parchment paper, and “score” the top of the dough.
13. Take the Dutch oven or clay pot out of the oven. Open the Dutch oven or clay pot, take the paper from the dough and place it into the container. Be careful not to shake or move the dough too much and don’t touch the container. The paper is your “friend” here.
14. Cover the container with its lid and put it back into the 500°F oven. Wait about 20 minutes.
15. After 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 450°F and take off the lid of the container. Wait about 15 minutes.
16. At 15 minutes, check the color of your bread. If it’s the color you like, go ahead to the next step. If not, close it and wait until it’s the color you prefer.
17. Take the bread out of the oven and put it on a cooling rack. Wait about 20 minutes before touching it. It’s still cooking, and you need to let it rest.
18. Cut that glorious bread. You’ve earned it! And if you want to do the other loaf, just make sure that you turn the oven back up to 500°F and put the container back in, but wait the 30 minutes after it says it’s heated.