1. In a large bowl, add the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast.
2. Give it a good mix to make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed in the flour.
3. Add some lukewarm water and mix everything together to form a shaggy mass of dough.
4. Cover the dough with a plastic film and let it sit and rise in a warm environment for about 2 hours.
5. After 2 hours, transfer the proofed dough onto a floured work surface. As the dough is very sticky, dust the dough with some flour whenever needed. With the help of a bench scraper or with hands, pull and stretch the dough and fold it onto itself to form a tensive dough ball.
6. Transfer this onto a parchment-lined bowl.
7. Cover the bowl with a greased plastic film. Let the dough sit and rise for 35 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.
8. Transfer the dough into a preheated Dutch oven.
9. Bake at 450°F for 30 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F and bake for another 8-12 minutes. At this point, the more you bake, the crispier the crust of the bread will be.
10. You will be rewarded with a bread which is golden brown with a crunchy crust on top and a soft and tender delicious crumb inside. Enjoy!
Note: If you are making bread on a regular baking tray, STEAM is the key factor for making crusty bread. You need to create a steamy environment while baking. Place a pan with hot water in the lowest rack of the oven while baking and spray with water inside the oven during the initial five minutes of baking to help create this steamy environment inside the oven.
