INGREDIENTS
2.25 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
1 tsp sugar
1.25 cups warm water (about 100 degrees F)
1.5 tsp kosher salt
2.5 cups flour, plus more for dusting
INSTRUCTIONS
- combine the yeast, sugar and water in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook (or you can make by hand if you don’t own one)
- let it proof (fyi, proofing means resting to rise) for about 5 minutes, once it’s foamy.
- add kosher salt, and then the flour — a little bit at a time with the mixer on at a low speed until it’s all incorporated and the dough looks …doughy. if it’s too wet, add a little more flour. if it’s pulling away from the sides before you’ve added all the flour, you also don’t need to add it all.
- turn off the mixer, remove dough hook. lightly flour all sides of the dough, and turn it over in the bowl to add flour to the bottom as well. cover with a tea towel and let it rise on the counter for an hour. it will double in size!
- once it’s risen, lightly flour a large cutting board. tip the dough onto the board. sprinkle some more flour across it and begin to shape it. pull each corner of the dough in towards the center like an envelope a few times — then flip it upside down and cup your hands around the sides to make it a round shape.
- flour a small mixing bowl (or a proofing basket) and carefully place your loaf inside, seam side down. cover with a tea towel and let it rise another 30 minutes.
- while it’s proofing, place your empty dutch oven with the lid on in your oven and heat to 450° F.
- once the half hour is up and your oven is hot, take the dutch oven out of your oven with oven mitts obviously, and lay your dough in the middle of a square piece of parchment paper, seam side up this time. remove the lid off your dutch oven and drop the parchment inside. put back into the oven and let cook for 30 minutes. (my oven has a tendency to get REALLY hot and can burn the bottoms of things, so i start checking it around 22-25 minutes)
- remove from oven and remove lid, the parchment paper is cool enough to grab and remove the loaf as long as you’re careful. place onto a cooling rack for 20 minutes.
