Measure out ingredients: In a large bowl, mix the flour, yeast and salt. I use this Danish whisk whenever I bake bread.
Mix dough: Add the water to the dry ingredients. Mix together with a Danish whisk or wooden spoon. If the mixture is very dry, slowly add a teaspoon at a time of water. You don’t want it to get too sticky. For mixing, I like to get my hands in and give a really good mix, but you don’t have to! What you want to do here is strengthen the dough so it rises nicely when in the oven. Mix until the dough forms a big ball in the middle of a mixing bowl.
Rest dough: Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and place in a warm place in your kitchen to rest for 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Once your dough has doubled roughly in size, give your bowl a nudge and if the dough wobbles it is ready to bake!
Pre-heat oven: once your dough has risen, pre-heat your oven to 220°C (428°F). Place your casserole dish (dutch oven) inside your oven to get hot.
Shape bread: while the oven heats up, rip out a sheet of baking paper onto your bench. This baking paper will be what you drop inside your casserole dish. Tip out your dough onto the baking paper and shape how you like for baking. Either a round or oval shape is ideal. You may like to use a knife to cut a 1 inch deep slit to create crunch texture on top.
Bake bread: Use gloves to take your casserole dish out of oven and place your bread and baking paper inside. Close the casserole dish lid again and put back in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes with the lid on. Then take the lid off your dish and bake for a further 10 minutes with the lid off to brown the top of the bread.
Rest: Once cooked, remove from oven and rest. Allow it to cool slightly before cutting. That is the hardest part!
Enjoy: enjoy your delicious warm bread! I like to serve with butter and honey.
