Bigger Bread - 3 lb loaf

Some people paint sunflowers, I bake bread- until get good at it.  I decided that in order to really understand Pain de Campagne, I had to bake them actual size. 

This loaf is built from a hundred grams of starter, 600 grams water, 1,000 g bread flour, and 20 g salt.

The starter was put in a big bowl, and a like volume of water mixed in, then enough flour to make a very soft dough. The refreshment was left covered to rise on the counter in a cool kitchen for a few hours.  More water was mixed in, and flour added to make a very soft dough, and left covered on the counter for a few hours.  The rest of the water was added, along with the salt, and flour added by handfuls. It was a lot of dough, so stretched and folded every hour for a few hours instead of straight kneading. 

The dough was rounded up, bench rest, shaped, and allowed to rise in a salad spinner lined with a cloth. When the dough had proofed, it was turned out onto a piece of parchment paper on a peel, and gently slid into the oven. 

It was baked on a stone in a preheated oven  at 400F convection for 25 minutes, then 15 minutes at 375F convection, and a final 5 minutes at 325F convection. It is "golden brown" but looks paler because of the flour on it.  There is 600 grams of water in the dough-  that makes a lot of steam. My glasses fogged up from the steam coming out of the oven when I moved the loaf as I turned the oven down to 325F. One reason for moving the loaves when I turn the oven down is to release steam out of the oven for a crisp crust. With a good electric oven, there is no need to fuss with putting water in the oven -that extra water just cools the oven.