18-Hour Bread

In the midst of COVID-19 I decided to head out to the grocery store. I didn’t really need to go, but thought my local store wouldn’t have all the panicked shoppers seen in large cities. I went on a weekday at 9:30 am, which is usually very slow. To my surprise (I shouldn’t have been surprised after watching the news) the place was packed. Shelves were bare and I was in the checkout line for 1 hour. The cashier told me the store had closed at 10 pm the night before (they’re a 24 hour store) because they ran out of food. Two semi’s came in during the night and store was restocked. But by 9:30 am the milk, tortilla, and bread shelves (along with others) were mostly bare. As I passed by the bread shelf, I thought I can just make bread, I bake it on a consistent basis.
 
So here is my 18-hour bread recipe. With 18-hours in the name  -- It sounds like it would be laborious, but it is embarrassingly easy.
 
In a large bowl whisk together flour, yeast, salt, sugar. Then add some water and vinegar just until a ball forms.

Now comes the super easy part. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 18 hours. That’s right just let it sit out on the counter. The small amount of yeast will slowly do it’s magic and the slow fermentation along with the vinegar creates an almost sour dough flavor. Overtime the dough will start to bubble and grow.

After the 18 hours, scrape the dough out onto a floured surface. I like to use my dam aka duck cloth (yes, that’s its name) bread canvas.

​Cover the dough in flour and knead the dough for about 10 seconds. I love that this dough requires very little kneading.

Form the dough into a ball and place on parchment paper in a round pan. I just use a skillet, but a shallow bowl or pie plate could work.

Let the dough rise at room temperature until double in size.

About 20-30 minutes before dough is ready, place a Dutch oven with the lid on in a very hot oven 450-500 degrees. This will create a ‘brick oven’ if you will for the bread. The hot heat of the pan, makes a crispy crust with a tender chewy center.

Once risen, use the parchment to  carefully ‘sling’ the bread into the hot Dutch oven.

Lightly flour the dough, cut slits if desired, cover the pot, return to oven, and lower temperature to 450 degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes. 

Then remove lid and continue to bake another 15 minutes. If you like a lighter colored bread, you can keep covered for a longer time.

Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

18-hour Bread

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3 cups flour
½ t active dry yeast
2-3/4 t salt
1-1/3 t sugar
1-1/2 C water
1 T white vinegar
 
In a large bowl whisk together flour, yeast, salt, and sugar. Add water and vinegar and stir just until a ball of dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 18 hours.
 
Scrape dough from bowl and place on floured surface. Knead dough for 10 seconds, adding flour if needed. Form dough into a ball. Place dough on parchment lined skillet or shallow bowl (to retain round shape).  Let sit at room temperature for two hours or until doubled in size.
 
About 30 minutes before dough is ready place a 6-8 quart Dutch Oven with a lid on the oven rack and heat oven to 500 degrees F.
 
Lightly flour top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and uncover. Using parchment paper to lift dough, place both the parchment and the dough into the pot. Cover pot and return to oven. Lower temperature to 450 degrees F.
 
Bake bread, covered, for 30 minutes, then remove lid and continue to bake another 15 minutes or until bread is browned. Carefully remove bread from pot to a wire rack and cool.