Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour (can use AP if that’s all you have)
- 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast (I HIGHLY recommend Red Star Yeast Platinum!)
- 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups warm water (it depends honestly on how humid your kitchen is)
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 2 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 teaspoon fiori di scilia or orange extract
- 3/4 cup sliced almonds (or slivers)
Instructions
- In large bowl (You need to make sure the bowl is at least 2 times the size as this will easily double in volume) add the flour, yeast, sugar, cinnamon, orange zest, cranberries, dried raisins, almonds, fiori di scilia, and warm water. Using a wooden spoon, mix until a shaggy dough forms. Add in the salt and mix again.
- Mix it until it’s combined and forms a ‘shaggy’ dough. Just make sure that all the flour is incorporated. It will not be a smooth dough – that’s how it’s supposed to be.
- Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place overnight for at least 12 hours but no more than 24.
- When you’re ready to bake, put the rack in the middle and preheat to 450F.
- When the oven reaches temp, put your dutch oven pot (cast iron or heavy ceramic {check to see that your ceramic can handle 450F temp first!}) in the oven WITH THE LID on. Let it heat up for 30 minutes.
- While that’s heating up, use a dough scraper and scrape your dough onto a heavily floured surface. Shape into a ball, tucking the sides under. It will be sticky but that’s good.
- Lightly spray parchment paper and place the shaped dough on it. Cover lightly with plastic until the 30 minutes is up.
- Remove the pot from the oven and plop the parchment paper and dough ball down in. Replace the lid and bake for 25 minutes. No peaking! Remove the lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and has a hollow sound when tapped.
- Remove from the oven and using tongs remove the bread and cool on cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.
Notes
Note 1: If you’re not comfortable with shaping the dough, when you remove the pot from the oven after 30 minutes you can carefully just pour the dough into the pot. It won’t be a perfectly round bread loaf but that’s okay – it’s just rustic. If you do pour it in, just jostle the pan around to kind of even out the dough before putting the lid on. But practice with shaping the dough. You can’t screw it up.
Note 2: Don’t have a dutch oven or clay pot? See the end of the post for tips
