French or Italian Bread

Name: French or Italian Bread
Yield: makes 4 small baguettes, 3 larger baguettes, 2 round loaves, 1 huge round loaf
Ingredients: 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed; 2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast, such as SAF; 2 teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt

December 14, 2011

The basic European bread, which requires more patience than work. It’s eminently flexible, because at any time you can refrigerate the dough and retard the process for hours, even overnight. Many people, in fact, believe that the slower you go with bread, the better. So it’s not only acceptable but preferable to make the dough at night, leave it in a cool place to rise for 8 or 10 hours, then proceed with the recipe, taking all day—if you like—to finish it. So, this recipe is written as if you will proceed from start to finish, but you don’t have to do so.

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