Universal Rustic Bread
Source of Recipe
crust & crumb, peter reinhardt
List of Ingredients
4 cups ( 480 grams) Biga
3-1/2 cups (480 grams) bread flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. instant yeast
½ cup any milk (buttermilk, skim-milk, or water)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 cup cool water
Recipe
Mix on slow for 1 minute, turn to medium for about 8 minutes. You may have to stop and scrape the bowl. The dough will be batterlike and very sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about 4 hours until it swells visibly.
The dough will have stiffened somewhat. Scrape it onto a floured board, flour your hands and roll it a little in the flour to coat it.
Divide it into 3 equal pieces, roll each one into a loose ball, cover it with flour (with a little flour!), then with a plastic bag and let it rise for an hour.
Prepare 3 sheetpans, line with parchment.
Gently stretch each piece into a rectangle, 8 to 12 inches long.
Don’t squeeze too hard, you don’t want to de-gas the dough. Transfer the pieces to the pans.
Dip your hands in cold water and dimple the pieces gently to break up air pockets. Place the pans in plastic bags, let rise about 2 hours until they double (at least) in size.
Heat oven to 250° (500°) 30 minutes before baking, place empty steam pan in oven bottom.
Place one pan in the oven, pour two cups of water into the steam pan, spritz oven. After 2 minutes spritz again.
After 5 minutes, lower heat to 215° (425°).
Bake bread for about 25 minutes, until golden brown.
Let bread in the turned-off oven for an additional 10 minutes, until it seems to overbrown. Let cool on a rack.
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