Artisan Bread in a Dutch Oven

A few weeks back a friend of mine came over for a while and showed me her way of making bread. It was wonderful and now has been adopted as the ‘go-to’ recipe to make with dinner for our family.
It is from the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Here’s the recipe:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (1 1/2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons of kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached, all-purpose white flour, measured with the scoop and sweep method
*** for the large bread in the dutch oven above, I substituted half hard red wheat flour and half white***

Mix water with yeast and salt in a 5 quart bowl or food grade container. Mix in flour until incorporated, but don’t knead. Cover with plastic wrap.
Let sit in container for several hours while it rises.
Then transfer to refrigerator for at least 3 hours or up to 12 days.

When you are ready for baking, take out your container and sprinkle the top with flour. Pull up a grapefruit size portion of dough and saw off with a serrated knife.
*** Using this method, you will make 4 loaves***

Form the dough into a ball, tucking under the edges and then let it rest for about half an hour. DON’T KNEAD!
*** NOTE! For the dutch oven bread I used all the dough in my container. I won’t do that next time. For although it turned out nicely, I believe I should have halved the dough, for it ended up a bit heavy.***

Meanwhile heat your oven to 450*- 500* with your dutch oven inside getting mighty hot!
Once your resting time is over, gently toss your dough into the inside of the HOT dutch oven, place the lid on and put inside oven. DO NOT OPEN DOOR!
Also, please be aware of your dutch oven’s capabilities. If your oven has a limit on the heat, please don’t disregard that!! 450* is the max for my Lodge Dutch oven
Bake for about 30 minutes.

Now, open oven and remove lid carefully!
Bake another 20 minutes until nicely browned.

There you go!
I hope you enjoy, I know we are!
Another handy tip… this bread makes great bread bowls! We gutted the bread and made a bread bowl for spinach dip through the holidays. It was VERY yummy!