I start making this bread in the evening before I go to bed. Place 2 cups of all-purpose flour, 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 tsp. of yeast into a large bowl. Stir it with a hand whisker to combine the flour and yeast together. Add 3 cups of room temperature water. Stir it with whisker until all well combined. Dough should have a stretchy rubbery look/feeling when is dripping down the whisker. Cover the bowl with lid and let it sit on the counter top overnight.
Day 2
Pour 2 cups of very warm water to a small bowl. Add salt and honey. Stir with whisker until all dissolves about 2 minutes.
Then add 2 cups of organic dark rye flour. Stir with whisker until well combined with no lumps about 2 more minutes.
Pour the rye flour mixture into the wheat mixture (that is was proofing all night). Stir it well with whisker. Sift 4 cups of all-purpose flour into the rye/wheat flour mixture. Stir in the all-purpose flour (it doesn’t have to be well combined, because the bread machine will do the rest of the job for you).
Add 1 cup of all-purpose flour into a bread machine pan and then add half of the bread dough into the bread machine pan. Set the bread machine onto a dough cycle. Let the machine mix the dough for 30 (or until it’s done mixing, depends on the bread machine you have) into the dough cycle.
Remove the dough from the bread machine into large bowl dusted with flour or greased with olive oil (no matter) and let the dough proof in the warm place for about an hour or until triples in size (I usually preheat oven to 105, turn the oven off, place the towel onto an rack in the oven and then place bowl with dough covered with plastic food wrap or bowl lid (do not cover with towel it will dry the top of the dough) in it.
Repeat the same step with the second half of the dough, except let the bread machine dough cycle finish it’s mixing and proofing cycle (don’t remove the dough from the machine into a bowl for proofing like you did with the first half of the dough, the bread machine dough cycle will do the job for you).
The dough in the oven will proof faster, because it was prepared first, so start working with the first haft of the dough. Remove the dough from the bowl into a greased with olive oil work surface. Split the dough in half (if you are going to make long baguettes – batons or into three if you are making round bread).
Roll each half of the dough into long batons and place them onto a baking pan well-greased with olive oil. Spread some corn starch on tops of each baton and then cut lines on top of each one. Set the pan onto the top of the stove and let it proof again.
Repeat the same steps with a second half if you are making long baguettes – batons (which what I always do). If you wish to make round bread, you need to remove the bread onto a greased with olive oil working surface. Split the dough in three pieces.
Shape each piece into round shapes (do not knead the dough). Place each round bread onto a well-greased baking pan.
Spread some corn starch, cut little lines on top of the bread anyhow you like it. Place it onto a counter top to proof again.
Baking Instructions:
Place couple of pans onto the lowest oven rack. Pour boiled water into a pan until it’s almost full. Close the bottom pan with a top pan. Close the oven door and set the oven temperature to 450 F.
By the time the oven temperature riches 450 F (it takes about 20-30 min) the first pan with bread will be ready to bake. Place first bread pan into an oven onto a second rack (be very careful when you open the oven door to place or remove the cooked bread from the oven. First open a little crack to let the steam out or else you will burn you face if you open the oven door wide open right away). Bake the bread for 25 minutes or until dark golden brown.
I use big 16 X 21 baking pan. Make all the bread baton shape and bake it all at one. This saves me a lot of time than baking bread in round and baton shapes. Round shaped bread takes more space and needs to be baked in two separate pans.
After removing a pan with baton bread place the pan into the oven with round bread right away. Bake about 25 min or until dark golden brown. Remove the bread from the oven carefully; let the bread cool for 10 min on the baking pan. Remove the bread onto cooling rack and cover the bread with clean towel. The bread is ready to be served as soon as it cools (I love the bread warm). When the bread is completely cooled, place the bread into the plastic bag (or cut batons in half and place it into a Ziploc bags) and freeze the bread for up to 4 weeks.