Good bread, with a beautiful crust is one of the most delicious things in life.

This recipe is simple and doesn’t require much effort from your side, just lots of time to proof. With bread, and many other things in life, it takes time to develop great flavor.  In  German we say: "Gut Ding braucht Weile" = "Good stuff takes time".

I bake the bread in a cast-iron pot, which imitates a little bread oven and helps to develop an amazing crust. I first started to bake my bread this way when we lived in New York. Jim Lahey who owns the famous Sullivan bakery in NYC, shared this bread baking secret in the New York Times food section, and since then I rarely bake bread any other way. It's a genious tip. 

Since then I have experimented a lot with different flour types and mixes. If you are a beginner baker, its easiest to start with wheat flour. Below recipe can be made with 100% white wheat flour or with whole grain flour or a mix of the both.

Ingredients for 1kg wheat bread loaf

700g wheat flour

300g whole grain wheat flour 

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

optional 1/2 teaspoon sourdough (wheat) in combo with 1/4 tsp instant yeast

22 g salt (about 2 Tbsp )

750ml warm water

Flour or wheat bran as needed

Method

 1. Combine flour, yeast and salt in a big bowl or in a standmixer. Add the water and stir or knead until blended.

2.Cover bowl with a snug fitting plate (or some reusable foil) and let it rest for about 24h, at room temperature.

3. Dough is ready when it’s doubled in size. Put a clean tea towel (or a parchment paper) into a bowl (diameter about 20-25cm) and dust generously with flower. 

4.Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; Gently and quickly shape dough into a ball by folding the sides into the middle. The air should stay in the dough as much as possible.

5.Then put the dough with the smooth surface up into the tea-towel (parchment paper) lined bowl.

 6.Cover the bowl with a lid (which protects the dough from drying out) and let rest for about 1h.

7. 15 min before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 230°C including a round cast iron pot (or enamel, Pyrex or ceramic, diameter about 20-25cm) with lid.

 8. When preheated, take the cast iron pot out of the oven and sprinkle wheat bran on the bottom before dropping the dough into it. That’s easiest done by grabbing the tea-towel by the ends and dropping the dough (upside down) into the hot cast iron pot. Shake the pot a bit to center the dough (always use oven-gloves !!) Or if you have used parchment paper you can lift the dough into the hot cast iron. Put the lid on and bake for about 35mins at 230°C. Remove the lid and bake for another 20-mins at 210°C.

Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.

Enjoy!