How to Make Bread
Last updated: August 27, 2026
Makes 1 batard
Ingredients
400 g bread flour
330 g water
1 g Fleischmann’s Active Dry yeast
12 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt
Notes
Timing. Decide at what time you’d like to eat the bread and subtract 14 hours. If you want toast at 8am in the morning, for instance, begin at 6pm the night before.
Flour. I used regular King Arthur all-purpose (AP) flour for the first dozen loaves. Then I tried King Arthur bread flour. It could be my imagination, but I think I like it better. It seemed to develop a better structure than the AP flour.
Process
Autolyse
400 g bread flour
330 g water
1 g instant yeast
12 g salt
Mix in a bowl until no dry flour remains. Cover with a towel and rest for 30 minutes. The dough may look like it’s breaking apart. That’s normal. Trust the process. It’ll come together.
Stretch & Fold 1
Leaving the dough in the bowl, pull the left side of the dough and stretch it. Fold it over on top of the dough, covering roughly 2/3rds, as if you were folding a letter. Repeat with the right side of the dough, then the side farthest from you, then the side nearest. Cover and wait 30 minutes.
Stretch & Fold 2
Repeat the same process as before. The dough should be slightly smoother and stronger. Cover and wait 30 minutes.
Stretch & Fold 3
Repeat the process again. Cover and let rest over night.
Pre-shape
Lightly flour a board or counter. Release the dough from the bowl. You can turn the bowl over and let it fall out, but since I never bother greasing my bowl, I use a bench scraper to scrape it out.
Repeat the stretch and fold process: stretch the right side up and away from the dough then fold it over, covering roughly 2/3rds of the dough. Then the left side. Then the side farthest from you, then the one nearest.
Turn it over so the seam is down and cover—I use the bowl it fermented in—and rest for 15 minutes.
Final Shape
Fold the side closest to you into the center. Then the side farthest from you.
Turn the roll over, seam side down. Using both hands, pull the roll toward you while sliding your hands underneath. It should stick to the counter as you do this, but that stickiness stretches the surface and creates tension, which will make for a better-shaped loaf. Lift the roll up, and place it farther away from you and repeat 2-3 times. USE THIS VIDEO AS AN EXAMPLE. (Note that video is for a boule.)
Pre-Heat
Place a Dutch oven, with lid, in the oven and pre-heat at 460˚F.
Proof
You should place the dough seam-side up in a floured or towel-lined bowl and let rest for 45 minutes… But I just leave it on the counter, covered with the bowl.
Load and Score
Transfer into the hot Dutch oven and score the dough, about ½ inches deep. (To score the dough simply means to make a slice in its surface. I make one slice from end to end, slightly off-center, that bows slightly outward.) Place the lid on the Dutch oven and return to the oven.
Bake
Bake covered for 15 minutes.
Remove the lid, increase the temperature to 475˚F and bake for another 15 minutes.
Cool
Cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes.
