Rustic Bread Recipe

I have been looking for a good "Rustic" bread recipe. I finally find a recipe on the Fresh Loaf website. I must admit, at first, I was very skeptical. I made the sponge the night before and set it in the cold oven with the oven light on. The next morning it had grown and was very bubbly, but very watery. Maybe I should have let it ferment on the counter instead of the oven. But, the house is so cold, I was afraid it wasn't warm enough.

I combined the necessary ingredients to make the final dough and added the sponge. The dough was very wet. So kneaded in extra flour to make it more manageable. I was very pleasantly surprised by the bread - nice firm crust, soft interior with a lot of holes - very tasty. This is definitely a keeper. The only thing I would change is baking time. The top of the bread was a little darker than I normally like. Maybe next time, I will cover them with aluminum foil.