Ginormous Bread

I've never posted a photo of myself so this is a plasticann first. I was making the dough last night for the easy no knead bread when I decided to make a double loaf since I was already going through the trouble of peeling garlic. I ran out of time this morning since I was meeting Adam and his coworkers for lunch so I only let the bread rise for 45 minutes versus the usual 2 hours and I baked it in our large All Clad stockpot. The bread was denser than usual, but it did cook through and the crust was as crisp as ever. As you can see, the double loaf was really gigantic...I even panicked a little when I realized how big the bread so I took the T down to Harvard Square to deliver Wheezy a large hunk of bread at work.

Recipe: Ginormous Rosemary Garlic Bread

6 cups flour (all purpose or bread)
3.25 cups water
1/2 teaspoon active yeast
3-3.5 teaspoon salt

8 cloves sliced garlic

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

8 springs of roughly chopped fresh rosemary

pinch of kosher salt

1. Microwave on low for 30 seconds garlic and oil in small bowl

2. Mix flour, water, yeast, salt, garlic and rosemary in a very large bowl until dough is shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 12-18 hours.

3. Flour a Silpat or parchment paper. Turn dough from bowl onto Silpat. Quickly shape dough into a dough ball, seam side up. Sprinkle cornmeal on top.

4. Gently lift entire dough ball flipping it so the seam side is down. Sprinkle with more cornmeal on top. Cover with cloth and let rise for 2 hours.

5. 30 minutes before baking or 1.5 hours into the rising, place a large dutch oven or stock pot with lid into the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees.

6. After dough has risen for 2 hours, remove heated pot from oven. Lift Silpat with dough and turn the dough into the hot pot. Sprinkle top of dough with kosher salt. Cover and return to oven. Bake for 1 hour or until crust begins to brown.

7. After 1 hour, uncover pot and let crust brown for 30 minutes.

Note: To bake a not so ginormous loaf, halve the recipe and reduce the initial baking time from 1 hour to 30 minutes.