Basic Hearth Bread Recipe

How to make it

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• Combine 5 ounces of flour, ¼ teaspoon of yeast, all of the honey, and all of the bottled water (making certain the water is around body temperature of 98 or 99 degrees) in a straight-sided plastic container.
• Cover loosely and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours.
• After you take the starter out of the refrigerator, place it in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the remaining 11 ounces of flour, the remaining yeast, and all the salt.
• If you like, you can add a crushed Vitamin C tablet -- this aids the dough in forming glutens, so your bread will end up with a better texture.
• Using the dough hook, knead the mixture on low for 2 to 3 minutes just until it comes together. Cover dough with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, knead dough on medium speed for 5 to 10 minutes or until you are able to gently pull a small piece of the dough into a thin sheet that (1) doesn't tear, and (2) allows light to pass through. The dough will be sticky, but not so sticky that you can't handle it.
• While the dough is kneading, pour half of the hot water into a shallow pan and place on the bottom rack of your oven. This creates a warm, humid environment, which is perfect for the rising process.
• Grease inside of a straight-sided container with vegetable oil. Place dough ball into container and set on the rack above pan of water. I like to use a clear plastic juice pitcher, so I can see exactly how my dough is rising. If you put a rubber band around the pitcher just at the top of your dough, you'll know precisely how much it has risen).
• Allow to rise until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.
• Once the dough has doubled (it may even have tripled after 2 hours), turn it onto counter top, lightly dust your hands with flour, and press the dough out with your knuckles; then fold 1 side in towards the middle of the mass and then the other, as if you were making a tri-fold wallet.
• Repeat a second time.
• Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and allow to rest for another 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, flatten your dough again with your knuckles and then fold the dough in onto itself, as if you were shaping something that looks like a jellyfish.
• Turn the dough over and squeeze the bottom together so that the top surface of the dough is smooth.
• Place the dough back onto the counter and begin to roll it gently between your hands. Do not grab the dough; simply allow it to move gently back and forth between your hands, moving in a circular motion.
• Move the dough ball to a pizza peel that has been sprinkled with the cornmeal.
• Cover with the kitchen towel and allow the dough to bench proof for 1 hour, or until you poke the dough and it quickly fills back in where you poked it.
• Place an unglazed terra cotta dish upside down into the oven (unless you have a pizza stone, which is what I use -- it's perfect for this) and heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Combine ⅓ cup of water and cornstarch in a small bowl.
• Uncover the dough and brush the surface with this mixture.
• Gently slash the top surface of the dough ball in several places, approximately ⅓ to ½-inch deep. This helps the bread to expand once it starts baking.
• Add more of the hot water to the shallow pan in the oven if it has evaporated.
• Slide the bread onto the terra cotta dish or the pizza stone in the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. (No need to overbake -- the last time I made this loaf, it took only 47 minutes for the bread to reach the proper internal temperature.)
• You only need to bake the bread until it has reached an internal temperature of 205 to 210 degrees F. (The reason you don't want the internal temperature to reach the boiling point of water -- 212 degrees F. -- is simply that you don't want the water to vaporize and leave you with a dried-out loaf.)
• Remove to a cooling rack and allow to sit for a minimum of 30 minutes before slicing.