Thought I'd let you know that this bread, in addition to being delicious, is very forgiving. I started my starter about a year ago and usually bake the Rustic bread recipe with some added sour salt. Yesterday I left my discarded starter in a bowl on my counter (I always feed the discard in case I want to use it that day). It was bubbly and aromatic by evening, so I decided to go for the Classic recipe for the first time. It was too late to give it a full 4 hours at room temp so refrigerated after 2 hours. It almost doubled in 12 hours. After adding the remaining ingredients and kneading, I had a meeting to attend so it sat on the counter for almost 4 hours and was fully doubled when I returned and shaped it. After a 2 1/4 hours rise the loaves were puffy. They did flatten somewhat when I made the slits, more than the Rustic dough does, but I could see they were making a nice oven rise. Here's where I made my big mistake. The timer was set and I went downstairs to work in my home office. I told myself to turn off the radio so I could hear the timer. Suddenly I realized I hadn't done that and ran upstairs, hearing the buzzer going. I don't know how much longer than 25 minutes they baked but when I took them out the internal temp was over 200 degrees and the crust felt very hard. I was sure I had ruined them after all of hours of babying the dough! Let me tell you, they are as close to perfect as I could imagine. Beautiful crumb, soft, moist and chewy inside with nice holes and heavenly fragrance. Thanks for such a great recipe and next time I will follow it more exactly, although I can't imagine getting better results! PS. I added an additional 2 Tbsp of flour, just enough to make it not quite so sticky to handle.

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