Saturday White Bread: Take 1

This was a fun recipe to work with! I adapted it from an adaptation (funny, I know) found at this website, and it turned out quite well! 

Interestingly, the recipe (shown below) makes quite a wet dough, but this paid off in the end as the extra moisture evaporated within the Dutch oven to create an amazing crust.  Letting this rise for 2.5 hours in a floured bread basket also gives this bread a nice look at the end.  I didn't even score the top of this (forgot), but it turned out nicely.

The end product was chewy and soft with a great flavor, I'll definitely be trying this one again.

Ingredients

• 500g white flour, such as King Arthur All Purpose
• 360g water at 90-95 degrees F
• 11g fine sea salt
• 2g instant dried yeast

Instructions

1. Combine the flour and water in a large round bowl. Mix by hand until incorporated. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest 30 minutes.
2. Sprinkle the salt and yeast on top of the dough. Mixing by hand, reach underneath and pull the dough over working your way around the bowl. Mix by hand until the yeast and salt are fully incorporated using pinches and folds. Let rest for about a minute, then repeat another fold, the dough should tighten up a bit. Cover the bowl with your kitchen towel and let rise for 4-5 hours (with folds in step 3 and 4). It's ready when the dough is 2.5-3 times larger after the second fold.
3. After 1 hour 30 minutes, fold the dough and knock it back.
4. After 1 hour 30 minutes, fold the dough and knock it back a second time.
5. Dust a proofing basket with flour. Shape the dough into a medium tight ball. Using the same method as the fold, pull the underneath side over the top working your way around until it is a tight ball. Place the dough, seam side down in your basket or bowl. Cover with your kitchen towel and let proof for baking. This could take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours depending on the temp in your kitchen. Use the finger dent test to know when they are ready. Lightly push in the dough with your index finger, if the dough springs back slowly then it is ready.
6. While your bread is proofing, preheat your oven to 475 F. place your dutch oven with lid on, in the oven and preheat for at least 45 minutes before baking. Carefully remove dough from proofing basket and place seam side up in hot dutch oven. Bake for 28 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid for the last 8 minutes, checking the bread regularly. 
7. Remove bread from dutch oven immediately when done. It should tip out easily. Let cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before slicing into the hot bread.

Update

Round 2, I let the bread rise for 1 hour in steps 3 & 4 rather than a full hour and thirty minutes.  I baked this loaf in a different oven, which had different hotspots and I ended up burning the bottom of the loaf! :( But it was delicious. The one hour rises were more than enough.