In a large mixing bowl, pour in the flour, then add the salt (I’m using pink salt here) and yeast at separate ends of the bowl. Yeast is a living thing, so you don’t want to dehydrate and kill it by putting salt directly on it.

Use your hands or rubber spatula to carefully combine the dry ingredients. You can also use a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment if you have one. Add your water, and olive oil and mix. Below are four visual stages to look for before your dough is ready to rise:

Line a separate medium bowl with extra virgin olive oil and rub additional oil on your hands. Place the dough ball in the bowl. Spray or rub the top of the dough with a small amount of additional olive oil or pan spray and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Set the bowl in the refrigerator to ferment overnight or at least for 8 hours.

The next morning, take out the dough and let it sit at room temperature until it triples in size. The prepped dough should appear much smoother. Oil your hands with a small amount of olive oil and punch the dough down. At this point, there is no more kneading. If this is your first bread, it is tempting to play with it, but you’d just be wasting time and energy and possibly squishing out all of the air inside needed for rising.

Gather the dough in your hands and pull it gently to create a smooth surface, keeping an oblong shape as you do so. Notice how it is shining, but don’t pull your bread to the point that this shining surface shreds or has too many dimples.

Place a small pot with 3 cups of water on the bottom shelf of your oven and preheat your oven to 425ºF (220ºC). This pot of water will create steam to make your bread rise better and crust flakier. Keep the oblong shape by gathering the stretched bottom of the dough and curling it into itself. Place the dough into a pound cake tin greased with olive oil or cooking spray. Spray the top of the dough with a small amount of cooking spray and cover with plastic wrap to rise until double the size, which will take approximately 1 to 2 hours. Go by the actual size of the dough versus the length of time.

Once the dough has risen, it is ready to go in the oven. *Notice how mine has a few cracks; this is an unintentional result of me removing the plastic wrap to check the dough’s rise and forgetting to place the plastic wrap back on the bread. As a result, the top layer dried out a bit as it continued to rise, but it will still bake okay.

Being careful not to burn yourself with the steamy oven (had some nostril opening surprises myself), bake the bread in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until you have a golden brown crust. Upon taking out the bread, tap it and listen and feel for hollowness; this means that the bread has developed holes and is evenly baked inside. If the bread feels solid, it needs a few more minutes. A solid bread indicates the bread is still raw on the inside or didn’t bake thoroughly. Evenly brush a tablespoon of olive oil or butter over the surface of the bread. Let the bread rest in the cake tin for at least 15 minutes before releasing it from the mold to continue cooling on a counter top.