James Beard's White Free-form Loaf

Here's another experiment taking some of my favorite bread recipes and baking them the NYT "No Knead" way. This involves baking them in a dutch oven that's been preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.



Here's the recipe for White Free-form Loaf from James Beard’s Beard on Bread.
First, the sponge...

2 packages active dry yeast
½ cup warm water
2 cups flour
1 cup water

You can make this as a sponge and let sit for an hour, or a day.
The bread will have more lightness if it sits for a day.
Then…

3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup buttermilk or yogurt
2 cups flour plus some for mixing in while kneading
1 tablespoon kosher salt
Cornmeal to cover the bottom of the dutch oven.

Normally the recipe is to bake this at 375 for about an hour. But, I did the No Knead method in a dutch oven. I baked at 450, 30 minutes covered, and about 25 minutes uncovered. Prior to baking I pre-heated the oven for 30 minutes with the dutch oven in it. That way the dutch oven was hot!