My family bakes A LOT! My dad is actually a certified baker (he went to college for baking). He’s worked and managed a Sprouted Grain bread bakery and owned a coffee shop/bakery. My mother is a fabulous cook. I picked up several of my mom’s habits in the kitchen and am the most likely of my sisters to make something from scratch. Only my brother surpasses me in adventuring in the kitchen. So, it is very strange that I never tried my hand at making bread until a couple of years ago. I admit I am still not terribly adventurous in the area of bread making. Although I have made my own sourdough starter, and kept it going throughout a summer and beyond. However, my first foray into bread making was a HUGE success and has turned out to be my favorite recipe, possibly of all time! I know “man cannot live on bread alone”, but if I had to, this is the bread I’d do it with!

It is called a Crusty Artisan Bread and I did not make up the recipe, I just looked it up and tried it. It is so simple and I’ve made it so often that I don’t even have to look it up anymore (unless I’m super tired or stressed and then I like to double check my memory)! The two “catches” of the recipe is that it has to rise 8-24 hours, typically overnight in our house, and it bakes in a Dutch Oven. I have used this recipe in it’s original form, made it into a loaf of bread, made cinnamon raisin bread, and used it for my homemade Stromboli. Below is the original recipe and baking directions. This makes a thick crust with a soft, chewy inside.

Crusty Artisan Bread

Recipe:

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp yeast

2 tsp salt (coarse salt, not iodized table salt is recommended by the original recipe, but I’ve used both successfully)

1 1/2 cups warm water

Mixing Directions:

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl or a large measuring bowl (if the bowl has it’s own lid that is ideal). Whisk the dry ingredients together to mix the yeast and salt into the flour well. Pour the warm water (I just use very warm tap water) into the dry ingredients. Use your hand or a greased wooden spoon to mix the water and dry ingredients together into a soft, sticky dough. I generally just use my hand, but I have used a greased spoon once to save on time from washing up. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or the bowl’s lid and leave the dough out to rise for 8-24 hours. I admit to having left mine over 24 hours before and it still worked well. 12 hours is generally the least I’ve ever left it to rise.

Baking Directions:

When you are ready to bake the bread, turn your oven on to 450 degrees and place your dutch oven in the oven WITH the lid on while it preheats. While the oven heats up dust your counter with flour. Dump the dough onto the flour. Roll it around just enough to make it into a large ball. Cover with the plastic wrap, if you used it, or just leave it if you used a bowl lid to cover the dough. Once the oven and Dutch Oven reach 450 degrees, pull the Dutch Oven out, remove the lid, drop your bread into the pot. Cut two slits in the top with a sharp knife (just do the best you can, this isn’t a super sensitive recipe). Replace the lid. Place the closed Dutch Oven back into the oven. Bake at 450 WITH the lid on for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 5 minutes WITHOUT the lid to brown the crust and finish the inside! Once the bread is completely done, I generally just leave it in the open Dutch Oven to cool, unless I’ve baked it before school for a teacher gift and then I just wrap it warm in a towel to keep it from sweating and deliver it warm!