Crusty 900g Loaf
Adapted from the r/BreadMachines everyday loaf - scaled up, de-fatted and oven-finished for a proper crackly crust. The machine does the mixing and kneading on its dough cycle; you shape it, prove it, and bake it in a screaming-hot cast iron casserole so it steams itself into a crackly, chestnut-brown crust. The hard part is not cutting it while it's warm.
Ingredients
- 400 ml water, lukewarm
- 1 tsp honey
- 590 g strong white bread flour
- 11 g fine salt
- 9 g instant / bread machine yeast — about 1½ tsp also works
- 1 tbsp olive oil — optional, for softness
Method
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Load the pan. Stir the honey into the lukewarm water and pour into the pan. Add the olive oil if using. Tip the flour on top, then put the salt in one corner and the yeast in a small well in the centre of the flour - keep the two apart.
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Run the dough cycle. Check the ball after 5 minutes - it should be tacky and slightly slack, not soupy. Add flour or water a tablespoon at a time if needed.
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Shape. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, knock back gently, and shape into a tight round by folding the edges into the centre and rolling seam-side down under cupped hands. Rest seam-side up in a floured banneton or a tea-towel-lined bowl.
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Prove and preheat. Prove until it springs back slowly when poked. Meanwhile put a cast iron casserole with its lid into the oven and preheat to 230°C.
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Into the pot. Tip the dough onto baking paper, slash the top 1 cm deep with a blade, and lower into the hot casserole. Lid on, back in the oven.
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Uncover and finish. Remove the lid, drop to 210°C and bake until deep chestnut brown. Internal temperature should hit 96°C.
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Cool - properly. Onto a wire rack, and do not cut it. The crust crackles as it cools and the crumb is still setting. An hour minimum.
Yields roughly 1 kg of raw dough, baking down to about 900 g. Check your machine's dough capacity first - that's near 4.7 cups of flour, and some pans cap out at 4. If yours complains, knead by hand or run it at two-thirds and bulk ferment in a bowl.
No casserole dish? Bake on a preheated tray and throw a cup of boiling water into a roasting tin on the shelf below as the loaf goes in.
Wholemeal split. For the original's version, use 390 g white and 200 g wholemeal flour, and add another 20 ml water.
Machine used. Kitchen Arm bread machine - 900 g loaf, medium crust, French setting.