A boule is simply a round bread, but it elevates it dramatically when you add it to your culinary lexicon, along with some garlic or herbed compound butter for slathering.
Let the bread cool completely before slicing to truly enjoy the flavor and allow for proper slicing. Use a serrated knife, gently but deliberately “saw” back and forth in long strokes across the bread to create the pieces, rather than the “press and wiggle” technique, which will leave you with a smushed slice.
Pro tip #1: Baking by weight will produce a more consistent result. We highly recommend investing in a scale when doing any bread or pastry making.
Pro tip #2: Using metric measurements allows for much easier scaling up or down. No need to try to do math gymnastics with ounces and pounds!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (345 g) bread flour, plus more for shaping
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 1 ¼ tsp active dry yeast
- 1 ½ cups warm water
Directions
Whisk together bread flour, salt and yeast until combined. Pour in warm water and stir until you have a shaggy, sticky dough. Cover the bowl with a damp kitchen towel and set in a warm spot until dough doubles in size —2 to 6 hours.
Punch down dough. Shape into a ball, twisting the dough around on the countertop with your palms (the bottom of the dough stays in place). Place dough on a piece of parchment paper with a bit of flour on it. Cover with damp kitchen towel again.
Heat oven to 450°. Put a 6-quart Dutch oven with cover in the oven and allow it to heat up while the oven preheats.
Allow the dough to rest and rise for 30 minutes. At this point you may score the top layer of your dough using a lame or very sharp paring knife. Carefully remove hot! Dutch oven lid and place dough with parchment underneath in Dutch oven and close lid. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when you tap it with a spoon.
Remove from oven and let cool at least one hour.