Couronne means “crown” in French. After reading the recipe for this French loaf, I Googled images of couronne and it looked so fancy that I had to bake one.
Acknowledgement: The full and original version of this recipe can be found in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup lukewarm water
- 1/2 tablespoon granulated yeast
- 3/4 tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
You’ll also need a pizza peel, a baking stone and a broiler tray.
Mix all the ingredients in a big bowl, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 2 hours. Grease a nonstick loaf pan. When you’re ready to do some baking, dust your hands with flour and shape the dough into a ball. Press the center of the ball using your thumb. Yes, you will be making a hole right smack in the center of the dough. Make sure the hole is wide enough. You wouldn’t want the hole to close while it’s baking.
Let it rest on a pizza peel with parchment paper for 20 minutes.
Put your baking stone in the oven’s middle shelf and the broiler tray on the lowest shelf. Preheat your oven to 450°F.
Unfortunately, I forgot to dust the dough with flour before baking. Oooops! I was too excited to start baking. Good thing I remembered to create the outward slits on the top of the bread. See?
Anyway, to continue…
Put the loaf with the parchment paper on the baking stone. Pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray, and close the oven door fast. (You don’t want to get burned.) Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Here’s the final product!
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