New Bread Recipe

2 cups of King Arthur Flour plus 1 tsp of salt in a large bowl
1cup +2 tbs of luke warm water and 1 tsp of yeast (eg Fleischmann "Active Dry") in a small bowl

Stir the yeast into the water in the small bowl until dissolved. Then pour it into the large bowl and mix until most material comes off the sides of the bowl. Dump it out on a surface to rest 5 minutes. [It is a moist dough and the moisture is redistributing evenly]. Clean the bowl.

Use a large flat knife to fold the dough once, then again at ninety degrees. Then put it back into the (clean) bowl. Cover it and let it sit for 3-4 hours at 65-70 F. It should inflate 3X or 4X.

After waiting, pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl, plopping it into the center (like Jacques Pepin) until it somewhat separates from the bowl, and you can dump it onto a flat surface. Clean the bowl. Use the flat knife to again fold the dough twice again. By now there are bubbles in the dough, so try to handle it gently, and don't squash it while folding. Put the dough back in the bowl. The main difference with Pepin, is that he seems to punch his dough down too much for my flour. I have to be gentler with it.

Let it rise for 3-4 hours again at 65-70F. Again pull it gently out of the bowl and fold it twice with a flat knife. Then put it in the fridge for 4-5 hours. (Any longer and the bread gets rubbery). After this rest, take the bread out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature and, again rise for an 2-3 hours.

Then gently take the dough out of the bowl and form it into a loaf  on a surface- either on the final baking pan (which you previously coated with corn meal, or with baking paper), or on a board from which you can transfer it to said baking pan after another hour. Then get ready to bake:

Oven at 425, spritz the bread and the oven interior with water and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 405, spritz again, and bake for another 17-18 minutes.

To cool the bread, do not put it on a horizontal surface. Instead, prop it up on something so it cools standing vertically, or on a side. That way the bubbles are less deformed during the cooling.

Alternate ending: In summer when the rising times are ~3 hrs, I can do a cooling/rest stage not in 4/5 hours but in less than 2 hrs; then form as a loaf, placed on the baking pan and rising for another hour or so. Then bake and eat the bread for dinner that you started at 7 AM. So we have:
 7-11 1st rise
11-2 2nd rise
2-4 cooling and rest
4-4:15 loaf rises on baking pan
5:15-5:45 baking