Artisan Bread

Artisan Bread

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp yeast
• 1 1/2 cups room temperature water
• olive oil

15 hours and 25 minutes before you want to be taking a golden loaf of bread from your oven....
In a large bowl mix flour, salt and yeast (no it's not a typo it really is 1/4 teaspoon of yeast)
Pour in water and mix just enough to combine, the dough will be stringy and not very pretty, that's okay!
Prepare a second bowl by greasing the bowl with olive oil, transfer dough into oiled bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.
12 hours later...
Punch down dough and let rest 15 minutes. 
Form dough into a ball, DO NOT KNEAD...it just doesn't need it!  Place ball on WELL floured cotton tea towel, dust top of bread with flour and cover with another tea towel (you may also sprinkle cornmeal onto tea towel for an extra crunch)
Let rise for 2 hours. 
To bake you will need a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid.  I use my cast iron dutch oven.
Place pot and lid in oven and preheat oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, the bread is still tucked under it's tea towel at this point.
30 minutes later...
Remove lid from pot and transfer loaf of bread into pan (this is the tricky part!) Cover pan and bake for 30 minutes, remove lid and bake an additional 10 minutes.  Remove from oven, cool and enjoy!