the dan & carrie show

Step One. (Thursday evening)
Ingredients: 3 cups spring water (room or tap temp, doesn't matter), 1/4 teaspoon yeast, 3 cups flour.
Use a 3-4 quart bowl. Sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the water and stir to dissolve. Add the flour and stir until a smooth batter forms. This is called a poolish.
Cover and let stand 8-24 hours, whatever is most convenient.

Step Two. (Friday morning, or right after work)
Ingredients: Poolish (above), 6 cups lukewarm water, 2 cups whole wheat or spelt or rye (or whatever) flour, 4 cups all purpose flour. Herbs if desired (I like to make "Simon and Garfunkel bread" with parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme from my garden. I use about a tablespoon of each one).
Add the water to the poolish in the same 3-4 quart bowl. Whisk it together well. Now transfer that to your Very Large Bowl and add the "special" flour and herbs if you're keen to. Or just use 2 cups of your all purpose flour, that'll work too. This is where I switch over to a big flat wooden spatula (aka risotta spoon I think). Add the 4 cups of all purpose flour (2 cups at a time) and stir (always in the same direction) until smooth. This stage is called the sponge.
Cover and let stand 4 to 12 hours, whatever is most convenient.

Step Three. (Friday evening)
Ingredients: Sponge (above), 3 Tablespoons of sea salt, 7-10 cups of all-purpose flour.
Sprinkle the salt onto the sponge and stir it in. Add the flour (2 cups at a time), stirring and folding the dough over to absorb the flour until it's too difficult to stir and fold. Flour a work surface well (with another 2 cups of flour) and turn the dough out. Knead for 5-8 minutes, incorporating the flour from the work surface and adding a little extra to the surface if needed. The mass should be soft, smooth, and almost sticky. This is your dough.
Return the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 3.5 hours or overnight, whatever is most convenient. If you live in a warm place and wait overnight your dough will be more than doubled and may actually take over your kitchen. ;)

Step Four. (Saturday morning)
Ingredients: Patience, time, appetite. Flour, tea towels, baskets or bowls.
Flour your tea towels and line your baskets. However many loaves you want, that's how many baskets you'll need. You don't actually bake the bread in them, they are only used for "proofing" (rising) the dough.
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and divide into 4 (or 6, or 8) equal pieces. I find that I have a hard time fitting two loaves of a 4-batch in my oven at one time (on a 14x18" pizza stone), but once that brick oven is done outside we should have no problem! Tuck the sides of each piece of dough under all around to make a large round boule. Pinch together underneath and transfer to the basket seem side up. Repeat with your remaining pieces of dough.
Cover with another tea towel and let rise at least 1.5 hours.
Start to preheat your oven to 500º F 45 minutes before you bake, with the stone already in place.

Step Five. (Saturday afternoon)
Place a sprayer bottle filled with water near the oven. Dust a peel (or the back of a cookie sheet or cutting board) with flour. Flip the first boule onto the peel and lift off the basket and the cloth. Use a sharp knife to slash 3 parallel deep cuts across the top of the loaf, then place in on the far back corer of the hot baking stone, jerking the peel out from under it. Use the sprayer to spritz water into the oven (spraying directly at the oven walls I have found to work best, do not spray the loaf itself, the goal is to create lots of steam). Repeat with the next loaf if you have room. Spritz another 3-4 times in the first few minutes of baking to attain a crackly crust.
Bake until domed and darkly golden, 25-30 minutes. To test for doneness, take the loaf out of the oven, tap on the bottom (it should sound hollow) and pinch the bottom edges to see that they are firm. Transfer to a rack to cool and repeat with the remaining loaves.

Alternative: Focaccia
Step Four.
Lightly grease two 12x18 baking sheets and sprinkle on semolina or bread crumbs if available. Using one quarter of the dough, divide it in half (so 1/8 each baking sheet). Flatten each piece on a lightly floured surface, stretching it using the backs of your hands (rings off!). Transfer to the waiting cookie sheet and gently press and stretch it out to the size of the sheet. If it's springing back too much let it rest for several minutes and come back to it.
Dribble 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil over each one, and spread it with your hands. Dimple all over with your fingertips or knuckles, then sprinkle on a teaspoon or so of sea salt and rosemary or other herbs, or sun dried tomatoes, or caramelized onions, or...
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise about 45 minutes while you preheat your oven to 500º F with the stone already in place.

Step Five.
Bake each one 12-15 minutes, until very browned in patches. Transfer to racks to cool or put it right in front of your guests and watch it disappear before it's even cool!

Alternative: Pizza
Step Four.
Flour a stack of tea towels. Divide the dough into small balls about the size of a small orange. One at a time, flatten each piece on a lightly floured surface, stretching it using the backs of your hands (rings off!) to about an inch thick. Transfer to the waiting tea towels, sprinkling top and bottom with cornmeal or semolina, and folding them over to hold each one in layers. Once you have them all prepped, they can rise there for an hour or so, then invite your guests in to assemble their personal pizza (from the toppings they all bring). The proofed dough rounds can now be stretched to the size and thickness you desire. Place them each on their own cutting board or peel (using generous amounts of cornmeal) so that you can slide them one by one into the oven when they are ready. Sprinkle cornmeal or semolina liberally on the peel to make sliding it off into the oven easier.

Step Five.
Preheat the oven to 500º F for about 45 minutes with the stone in place. Or fire your brick oven an hour or so until the walls and dome turn white. Floor of the oven should be at least 700F.
Bake each one 12-15 minutes, until your cheese is melting and the crust around the edge is browned and crispy. In a brick oven it will take about 4.2 minutes.

Use caution with the pizza and focaccia - remember it just came out of a 500 (or more!) degree oven!