This bread takes nearly 24 hours from start to baked but most of the time is just waiting for it to do its thing.
Quick instructions:
* Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
* Let sit 15 hours in a warm place, undisturbed and covered with a towel.
* Heavily flour counter and dump out dough. It will be very sticky!
* Let dough rest while you wash, dry and oil bowl.
* The dough doesn't require kneading so just add flour to it until it's not sticky.
* Plop it in the oiled bowl and flip it over so the top is coated in oil.
* Cover and let the dough rise in a warm spot for 2-5 hours.
* Preheat oven, pot and lid to 450 degrees.
* Coat bottom of pot with cornmeal.
* Gently add dough to pot.
* Bake covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes.
* Cool on a rack.
Detailed instructions:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl. It doesn't have to be stirred completely because the starter will take care of mixing stuff up. I usually add 4-5 cups of flour initially and then let the dough sit for 15 hours covered in a warm place.
Mix in the last cup or two of flour, heavily flour counter and dump out dough. It will be very sticky! I usually sprinkle some flour in the bowl and get the dough a little less sticky so it doesn't spread all over when I dump it out.
Let dough rest while you wash, dry and oil bowl. I use about 2 Tbs of oil.
The dough doesn't require kneading so just add flour to it until it's not sticky. It should form a pretty soft loaf that is pretty close to still being sticky. You just don't want to add a ton of flour at this point and make a heavy loaf. Add just enough to be able to handle the dough.
Plop it in the oiled bowl and flip it over so the top is coated in oil.
Cover and let the dough rise in a warm spot for 2-5 hours. You can speed this up with warmth or slow it down in the fridge. Don't let it rise too much though or the dough will begin to fall and you will end up with a flat loaf. If you think it has gone too long or you just don't have time it should be fine if you punch it down and do a third rise. I did this once and it was no problem. I would imagine you could freeze it at this point perhaps.
Preheat oven, pot and lid to 450 degrees.
Coat bottom of pot with cornmeal. It doesn't need a ton.
Gently add dough to pot. You just don't want to plop it and cause it to deflate too much.
Bake covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes. You can probably stop baking it after 30 minutes, cool and freeze it and then thaw and brown it at a later date if you wanted to. I like the crust nice and dark and crispy so the 15 minutes seems to accomplish this but you can take it out whenever you like the way it looks.
Cool on a rack. Eat it hot out of the oven with butter. Yum!