Nope?
Well, today's your day!
Ok, ok, fine, I totally knew I haven't given you the recipe yet, but I'm about to remedy that.
Frugal Living NW has a super detailed post about it on their website, with some super nice detailed pictures too. However it's a bit of a long post to go through each time I want to bake the bread, so I'm giving you a little quickie write up of it.
As I said this is crazy simple. It just involves a long rise time, so I suggest making it the evening before you want to bake it, or if you're an early riser you can make it in the morning and bake it in the evening.
What you need is flour, salt, yeast, and sugar. You also need a Dutch oven or any other pot that can be in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Plastic knobs aren't recommended. I own Le Creuset, Martha Stuart, and Fiesta Ware Dutch/French Ovens. My favorite is my Le Creuset one. The Martha Stuart one is good too. I wouldn't buy the Fiesta Ware ones again, but since I have them they do the job. As it happens, the one I'm using in the pics is the Fiesta Ware brand one, I believe it's 5 quarts. The pot is crucial to making this bread. My sister and I found almost identical recipes at the same time while living on different continents. We both told our mom about it and she tested it. She loved how fabulous the crust turns out so much, that she's now baking all of her breads in Dutch Ovens.
The dough is very wet, and the confined space in the pot makes it so the bread is not only baked, but also steamed to a certain extent. This makes the crunchiest crust and super fluffy insides.
6 cups of flour
1/2 t. yeast
2 1/2 t. salt
2 2/3 cups cold water
Put your 6 cups of flour in a large bowl.
Add your 1/2 teaspoon of yeast.
Now add your 2 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. (You could reduce the salt if you need to, but it doesn't taste salty)
Blend your dry ingredients. You can also add extras. I've cut up rosemary and added it in. You can add cheese, or whatever else strikes your fancy.
Add your 2 and 2/3 cups of cold water and stir.
I use a danish dough hook, but usually end up finish mixing it with my hands. You're just mixing, not kneading. You want it all mixed together so there isn't any loose flour. The dough is quite wet.
This is pretty much what your dough should look like.
Now just cover up your dough with some plastic wrap or a towel and let it rise for 12-18 hours. Honestly I've let it rise for longer than that and it's been just fine. I just wouldn't go less, and I probably wouldn't go over around 24 hours or so.
12-18 hours go get your dough and take a look at it.
Get a towel ready (you can use parchment paper instead, but I feel like that wast stickier and less green.
Sprinkle the towel with a bunch of flour to help combat the sticky flour.
Take the dough out of the bowl, form it into a ball, and place it on the towel.
I add a whole bunch of sprinkled flour on top. Then cover it with the other half of the towel and let it rise for another 2 hours.
While the dough needs to rise another half hour, you also need to preheat your pot in the oven. So what I do is set the timer for 1.5 hours, then turn the oven to 425 and throw the pot it. Set the timer for another half hour or so.
Get your preheated pot out of the oven. Obviously be careful and use oven mitts.
Uncover your dough and use the towel to pick up the dough.
Plop the dough into the pot. It really doesn't matter if it's crooked, or whatever! Every singe loaf I've made has turned out beautifully!
Put the lid back on and bake it for 45 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake it for another 10-15 minutes to brown the crust.
Ok, look at this beauty!
Don't think you have to oil the pot or anything like that, the bread will come right out. I've never had any of them stick. I just use a metal spatula, pop it right out and let it cool on the cooling rack. That is the hardest thing for me. It smells so good, but if you don't let it cool some, it'll be kinda sticky and like glue on your knife.
Ingredients:
6 cups of flour
1/2 t. yeast
2 1/2 t. salt
2 2/3 cups cold water
Mix dry ingredients, add water, mix into a dough.
Cover and let rise for 12-18 hours.
Prepare towel with flour.
Form dough into ball, place on towel, flour, and cover.
Let rise 2 hours.
Preheat dutch oven at 425 Fahrenheit.
Plop dough into pot, replace lid, and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Remove from pot and let cool on a cooling rack.
No comments:
Post a Comment