Bread

How to make bread if you find breadmaking intimidating.

Breadmaking doesn’t have to be a million steps or require any special techniques. Sourdough can be intimidating, fiddling with starter, kneading and folding etc. This is the easiest and tastiest bread recipe I have found. The only “special equipment” you will need is a Dutch oven.  The Dutch oven can be a simple Lodge cast iron one, you don’t need an expensive one to make good bread.

6 cups of bread flour

2 packets of rapid-rise yeast

1 tablespoon salt

3 cups warm water (I prefer spring or distilled NOT TAP) the water should be around 100 degrees

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a spoon until it forms a ball and stir no further. NO KNEADING. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let it rise for a minimum of 3 hours (it needs to double in size) or up to 2 days. The longer you let it sit, the more it will ferment, and the flavor will deepen.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees place Dutch oven with lid in place in over when ready to bake. Heat the empty Dutch oven for 30 min. Turn dough onto floured surface and just form into a ball (NO KNEADING) place on parchment and score dough with a knife to vent it. Place parchment with dough into the hot Dutch oven and place the lid on it.

Bake for an hour at 400 degrees, after an hour remove lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes to brown the crust. Remove from oven and let the bread rest.

You can half the recipe, just use half of all the ingredients and half the baking time as well.

You can also make 2 loaves from this recipe instead of one large one. You can add various combinations of herbs, dried fruit, nuts, olives, cheese, green chiles etc. to jazz up your bread if you’d like too as well.

This bread will have a dense crumb, moist chewy texture with a crusty exterior. Like I said the longer you let it rise and ferment the deeper the flavor.