Cranberry Apricot Rustic Bread
 
 
This Cranberry Apricot Rustic Bread recipe was made in the oven sans bread maker.
Author:
Ingredients
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • ½ cup craisins
  • 1¼ teaspoon table salt
  • ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ cup chopped dried apricot
  • 1½ cups water
  • ½ teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
  • wheat bran, cornmeal, or additional flour for dusting
Instructions
  1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, craisins, apricot, salt, cinnamon, and yeast mixing thoroughly. Add the water and, using your hand, mix until the dough is wet and sticky, about 30 seconds. If it’s not really sticky to the touch, add another tablespoon or two of water. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until it starts to bubble and the dough more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.
  2. After the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use your floured hands to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Using lightly floured hands lift the edges of the dough in toward the center. Nudge and tuck in the edges of the dough to make a round shape. Careful not to overwork the dough.
  3. Put a tea towel on your work surface and generously dust it with cornmeal or flour. I used cornmeal. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough is tacky, dust the top lightly with cornmeal or flour. Fold the ends of the tea towel loosely over the dough to cover it and place it in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. I keep it in my oven (but set a timer!). The dough is ready when it is almost doubled in size. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.
  4. Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F, with a rack in the lower third, and place the covered 4½ – to 5½ -quart heavy pot in the center of the rack.
  5. Carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel and quickly but gently invert the dough into a large sheet of parchment paper and into the pot, seam side up. Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes. The parchment paper makes it easier to remove the bread once baked.
  6. Remove the lid and continue baking until bread is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15 to 30 minutes more.
  7. Allow to cool on a rack for about 30 minutes.
  8. Serve warm with butter, jam and a cup of tea.
Recipe by Afropolitan Mom at https://www.theafropolitanmom.com/cranberry-apricot-rustic-bread/