Cranberry Walnut Artisian Bread
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour (can use bread flour)
1 package active yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Imperial granulated sugar
1 ½ cup very warm water
1 teaspoon flour to dust top of bread before baking
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup chopped and toasted walnuts
Instructions
Toast walnuts in microwave 30 seconds at a time; remove and stir; repeat two more times. Let cool; then chop to medium pieces.
Add flour, yeast, salt and granulated sugar to large bowl; stir with whisk. Add very warm water and mix until smooth. You can use an electric mixer. This is a wet dough. You do not need to knead the bread. Lightly oil a SS mixing bowl and transfer dough into bowl. Cover with a plate and put in a warm place to let rise for about 2 hours. Set the timer for 90 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Add heavy 6 quart Dutch oven, with lid to oven and heat for 30 minutes. (Do this the last 30 minutes the dough is rising so your hot Dutch oven will be ready).
After bread is risen, punch down; using a lightly oiled bowl scraper or large spoon, scrap down sides of bowl; add cranberries and chopped walnuts. Pour out onto a lightly oiled large sheet of parchment paper. You’ll also want to oil your hands so you can handle this light dough. While you are Shaping into a ball, make sure walnuts and cranberries are mixed in good. Put a sheet of parchment paper into Dutch oven, making sure it’s large enough to come up on all sides of Dutch oven. Place dough ball into center of parchment paper (in Dutch oven). Cut a couple slits in top of bread in shape of x, then dust the 1 teaspoon flour on top of bread. Turn oven down to 420. Put the lid on the Dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes. Carefully remove lid, turn oven to 450 and bake another 12 minutes. Remove from Dutch oven and place on rack to cool completely. Do not wrap in plastic wrap. This will soften the crusty bread. Wrap in parchment and leave on counter, or slice portions, wrap in parchment, place in freezer ziplock bag and freeze.