Ingredients
- 3 1/4 cups poolish (22.75 oz.)
- 3 cups unbleached bread flour (13.5 oz.)
- 1 3/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 3 to 6 3 to 6 oz. milk or buttermilk, lukewarm 90F to 100F
- Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting
Preparation
Step 1
1. Remove the polish from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough to take off the chill.
2. To make the dough, stir together the flour, salt and yeast in a 4 qt mixing bowl. Add the polish and 6 tbsp of the milk. Mix on medium speed until ingredients form a sticky ball. If there is still some loose flour, add the additional milk as needed and continue to mix. Switch to the dough hook for the last two minutes of mixing. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. You may need to add additional flour to firm up the dough enough to clear the sides of the bowl, but the dough should still be quite soft and sticky.
3. Sprinkle enough flour on the counter to make a bed about 8 inches square. Using a bowl scraper to spatula dipped in water, transfer the sticky dough to the bed of flour and proceed with the stretch-and-fold method. Dust the top of the dough liberally with flour, patting the dough into a rectangle. Wait 2 minutes for the dough to relax. Coat your hands with flour and lift the dough from each end, stretching it to twice its size. Fold the dough over itself, letter style, to return it to a rectangular shape. Mist the top of the dough with spray oil, again dust with flour and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
4. Let rest for 30 minutes. Stretch and fold the dough again; mist with spray oil, dust with flour, and cover. Allow the covered dough to ferment on the counter for 1 ½ to 2 hours. It should swell but not necessarily double in size.
5. Set up a couche and carefully remove the plastic from the dough and proceed to shape the dough. Using a pastry scraper dipped in water, divide the dough into 2 or 3 rectangles, taking care not to degas the dough. Sprinkle the dough generously with more flour and, using the scraper to get under the dough, gently lift each piece from the counter and then roll it on both sides in the loose flour to coat. Lay the loaves on the couche and gently fold each piece of dough, from left to right, letter style, into an oblong about 6 inches long. Mist the top of the dough with spray oil and dust the dough with more flour, then cover the cloth with a towel.
6. Proof for 45 to 60 minutes at room temperature, or until the dough has noticeably swelled.
7. Preheat the oven to 500F.
8. Generously dust a peel with semolina flour or cornmeal and very gently transfer the dough pieces to the peel, using the pastry scraper if you need support. Lift the dough from each end and tug the dough out to a length of 9 to 12 inches. If the dough bulges too high in the middle, gently dimple it down with your fingertips to even out the height of the loaf. Slide the 2 doughs onto the baking stone, and proceed with steaming. After 2 minutes, reduce temperature to 450F and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the loaves 180 degrees for even baking, if necessary. Continue baking for 5 to 10 minutes until done. The bread should register 205F in the center and should be golden in color (but the flour streaks will also give it a dusty look). The loaves will feel quite hard and crusty at first but will soften as they cool.
9. Transfer the bread from the oven to a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 45 minutes before slicing or serving.