Serves : 1 bread
Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Proofing Time:12 hours + 2 hours
Cooking Time : 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 400g strong white bread flour
- 320ml room temperature water
- 2 tbsp of golden caster sugar
- 3.5g active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (optional)
- 1 tsp of rock salt
- 1 tbsp of organic sesame
- extra flour for dusting the working table and the dough
Instructions

Mix the golden caster sugar in the water, then add the active dry yeast.

You may add a table spoon of extra virgin olive oil to make the dough easier to manage and give the bread a darker colour. Then let the yeast to rest for 10 minutes.

In a big bowl, mix 400g of strong white bread flour and 1 tea spoon of rock salt together. Make a well in the middle afterwards.

Pour the activated yeast mixture in the middle of the flour.

Use a fork to mix the flour and water together to form a soft dough. You can use a spatula to scrub all the flour on the bowl and mix into the dough.

A rough and soft dough would form without kneading. Cover the dough with cling film or wet cloth.

Leave the dough in the fridge overnight (about 12 hours). It would expand a lot and look like this.

Sprinkle some flour on the working table first, then sprinkle some raw sesame seeds on top.

Place the dough on top of the sesame and press the dough with your fingers to get rid of the air.

Then fold the flatten dough like this.

Fold again to form a square. The dough is very soft, you have to shape it by folding it.

Flip the square dough over and tuck the edges under the dough to form a round dough.

Line a piece of baking paper in the big bowl and sprinkle a lot of flour inside.

Then put the dough inside and sprinkle more flour on top of the dough. Cover the dough with a piece of cling film and let it proof for another 1.5 to 2 hours.

Pre-heat your oven to 220°C. Afterwards put your cast iron pot inside the hot oven for 15 minutes.

Get the hot cast iron pot out of the oven. Flip the proved dough in your hand and drop it into the hot pot. Put the lid on and put it in the oven to bake for 25 minutes, then take off the lid to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes. If you bake the bread without lid would create a thicker crust.

Let the bread rest for 30 minutes on a cooking rack.

This is a very simple and basic bread recipe. We make it quite often for serving with soup or stew. Good for picnic too! 🙂
Cooking Tips
- Pre-heat your oven to 220°C, then put your cast-iron pot inside the oven for 15 mins to heat up the pot. If you don’t have a cast-iron pot, you can use a thick ceramic pot too.
- If you use a ceramic pot, it would take about 5 mins more. 30 mins with lid on and 10 mins without lid.
- When you put the dough inside the hot iron pot, be very careful. You can flip the dough on your hand, then drop it inside the pot.
- Let the bread rest for at least 30 mins on a cooling rack before eating. It takes about an hour to completely cool down.
- If you have kids, you could add some Cheddar cheese cubes or ham when you fold the dough. They love it. I prefer plain bread.
- You can skip olive oil and bake the bread without lid for 10 mins, so you can get a more crispy crust.
[…] English Version Click Here […]