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5 from 3 votes

Easy Rustic Artisan Bread

With little ingredients, little time, little tools, and little effort, you can make your own artisan bread from home. This bread has a nice perfect exterior and an incredibly soft interior. This bread is a classic for long time bakers and a perfect beginning for new bakers!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 7 hours
Servings: 1 loaf
Author: Lori Vaughn

Ingredients

  • 420 g (3 ½ cups) bread flour plus more for dusting
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4-1 tsp yeast *see notes for timing options to determine yeast amount
  • 355 ml (1 ½ cups) water, room temperature

Instructions

  • Dough: Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl. Add water and mix together until incorporated and all the flour is mixed in. The dough will look and feel sticky and shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for a minimum of 5 hours and up to 24 hours.
  • Shaping: After a long rest, the dough should be risen and have bubbles on top of the dough. Dust a clean surface with flour. Dust your hands with flour as well. Using your hands or a bowl scraper, scoop out your dough onto the floured work surface.
    View your ball of dough as having 4 corners. Using a bench scraper or your hands, pull in each corner to gather into a round ball, creating a seam on top. Turn it over so the seam is now on the table and with your hands, continue to gently reinforce the round shape, by cupping your hands around the dough, and turning it several times.
  • Rest: Place the dough ball on a proofing basket seam side up, or on a piece of parchment paper seam side down and then transfer it to a bowl to rest. Both of these items help it rest and keep its shape, but if either of those are unavailable, you can just let it rest on a parchment lined baking sheet. Dust the top lightly with flour.
    Cover with plastic wrap or a light towel and let the dough rest for 45-60 minutes. Meanwhile, place your dutch oven in your oven and preheat to 450° F. If you don't have a dutch oven, you can cook on a baking sheet or baking stone, the exterior of the bread just may be less crusty.
  • Baking: After its rested and risen slightly, place in your dutch oven. If you wish, you can keep the bread on the parchment paper and transfer it over that way. It also makes it easier to remove the bread when finished as well. You can score the bread into a design before putting into the oven but you don't have to.
    Bake with the lid on at 450° for 25 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 8-12 minutes, or until it gets a nice golden finished color. The bread will sound hollow when you tap it. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting.
  • Storing: This bread stores wonderfully. You can wrap it airtight and leave on the counter for a few days or you can wrap it up and store it in the freezer for a few months. Just let it thaw at room temperature, cover with foil, and let it reheat in the oven before serving for best results. If you somehow have bread that's gotten dry at the end of the week, it also make amazing homemade croutons!
  • Flavor additions: When mixing the dough in step one here's different variations you can add:
    - 4 cloves roasted or minced garlic + 3 TB chopped rosemary
    - 1 cup chocolate chunks
    - ¾ cup cranberries + chopped nuts of choice

Notes

Yeast:
Yeast quantities listed below for desired first rise time. After shaping, account for 1-2 more hours for second rise, timing depending on yeast amount and kitchen temperature. (These estimates are for the FIRST rise, not total rise.)
8 hours+ : 1/4 tsp yeast (incredible overnight rise results - great texture!)
~4 hours: 1/2 tsp yeast
~2 hours: 1 tsp yeast
Flour:
You can substitute all purpose flour, but I prefer the results from the higher protein content in bread flour. I don't suggest this bread as 100% whole wheat, as it just makes it denser, but you can do half and half if you prefer. 
Loaf shapes:
I demonstrate this as a round loaf, but you can also make as longer loafs and make 3 slashes down the center more like a french baguette.