Margarita Bread Recipe

How to make it

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• Warm the water slightly, should feel a little warmer than body temp - about 100 degrees.
• Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5-quart bowl, or in a resealable, lidded plastic food container.
• Mix in the flour, kneading is unnecessary. Add all the flour at once, measuring it scooping up the flour and sweeping the top level with a knife or spatula. If you are hand mixing and it becomes difficult to incorporate the flour reach in with wet hands and gently mix in the remaining flour. Don't knead. Everything should be uniformly wet without dry patches.
• Allow to rise. - Cover with a lid, not airtight, that fits well. Allow mixture to rise at room temp until it collapses (or at least flattens on top) about 2 hours depending on the room temp. cover and refrigerate overnight.
• Baking Day
• Prepare a cookie sheet by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal.
• Sprinkle the surface of the dough lightly with flour to keep the knife from sticking.
• Hold the dough in your hands, add a little flour as needed so it won't stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter turn each time. Most of the flour will fall off, it's not intended to be incorporated into the dough. The bottom of the ball will be a collection of bunched end but it will flatten. The correctly shaped ball will be smooth and cohesive. The whole process should take less than a minute.
• Shape the ball into a cylinder, and roll into a rectangle, about ½” thick.
• Sprinkle the chipotle peppers evenly over the dough.
• Roll the dough back up into a cylinder.(rolling it up on itself)
• Rest the cylinder and let it rise on the cookie sheet. Allow to rest for 1 hour if it has been refrigerated.
• Heat the oven to 450 degrees 20 minutes before baking. Before the oven is turned on place an empty broiler pan on the lowest rack of the oven, and put a rack above that for baking the bread. You want the broiler pan to be hot when the bread goes in the oven.
• When you are ready to bake, dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour which will allow the slashing knife to pass without sticking. I slash four slashes angled out from the bottom, like a hand, at least 1/4 inch deep to help oven spring. Use a pattern of your own, an X, and tick tac toe square etc.
• Place the bread in the oven and carefully pour a cup of hot or boiling water into the broiler pan and quickly shut the door. Do not open for at least 15 minutes to allow the steam to work. Bake 30-35 minutes until the top is browned and it sounds hollow when tapped, or an insta read thermometer reads at least 190 degrees.