Super Simple Crusty Bread

This is by far the easiest bread I've made and I don't think bread is all that hard to make. Time consuming, yes, hard, no. Other than waiting, this bread isn't even that time consuming. After reading about this bread, I've also discovered that I'm about 6-10 years late in the food blogging world. It's generally called no-knead bread and supposedly it appeared in the NY Times for the first time.  It's made its rounds over and over again and yet somehow I seemed to have missed it. Maybe that's because I wasn't baking as much bread as I do now, who knows. The point is, I'll be making this bread a whole lot more from now on.

It's perfect for dipping in olive oil and making panini or just as toast with melted butter on it. I'm starting to salivate. I'd be noshing on a piece right now if we hadn't finished it the other night with dinner. I do think this bread is best eaten the day you make it or the next. As with most homemade items without preservatives, it goes bad quickly. Plus it loses that outer crustiness. Unless you warm it up in the oven or toaster, like I did. (I put it in the toaster at 200° for about 12-15 minutes to warm it up and it turned out great.)

I don't own a cast iron pot, (the key to crusty bread) so I borrowed one from a friend, but I'm definitely going to be checking out the sales, because I must purchase one to make my life easier. I've read all different ways you can "make" your own using a pizza stone, crockpot insert, pot of water, terra cotta pot, etc. The list goes on. I honestly just don't want to bother with that. Although I do have a Pyrex that I might try. As long as what you are using can withstand 450°, you can use it. The other important thing here is that it must have a lid. The lid creates steam and therefore makes the bread crusty. Or at least that's what I read somewhere on the internet and we all know that everything we read online must be true.

It takes a whopping five minutes to put this bread together. Then let it sit. 12-18 hours. I find it's best to make it at night and then bake it the next day. The smell of freshly baked bread wafting throughout the house is fantastic. So far, I've only made it twice and both times it turned out great. I really want to add in some extras like rosemary and garlic with parmesan on top. Or cheddar and jalapenos. Maybe get a little fancy and add lemon zest, nutmeg and gruyere. I tend to go savory with a bread like this, but I guess you could also go sweet and add cinnamon, sugar and currants. Regardless what you add, I have a feeling it will be fabulous.

My boyfriend has already decided that I need to make this bread at least two days a week. He's a bit of a carb-aholic. He also said that of the tortillas, white bread and chips.

So how do you make this wonderful bread? I've read different resting times and different amounts of yeast, but this is what I did and it worked beautifully. Please let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them.

Super Simple Crusty Bread
Yield: One loaf
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 12 - 18 hours including proofing

Ingredients
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and yeast. Add water and combine until shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a dry, warm environment for 12-18 hours. Dough will be full of bubbles and very wet.

Lightly flour a work surface and turn out dough. Work into a ball and cover for thirty minutes minimum. I used plastic wrap, but some like to use a flour sack. The flour sack will help it retain it's shape better.

Heat oven to 450°. Heat pot for about 30 minutes and carefully remove it. After dough has rested, drop it into the pot and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from pot and cool on wire rack. 

Enjoy!

Sinful Cinnamon Roll Bread

If you've seen my bread post, you know I made bread on a fairly regular basis, although lately with the holidays and being busy, I have been buying it from the Amish market. I've also been craving some cinnamon rolls. I love Cinnabon, but they are loaded with tons of artificial ingredients and are a ton of calories. I've thought about making my own version and there are several online copycats that look good, but honestly I'm just too lazy to follow those recipes to a tee. So, I decided to just make a simple cinnamon bread.

I made it just like I make regular sandwich bread with a few additions. I added one more tablespoon honey in the dough and after the first rise, I rolled out the dough and spread a cinnamon sugar mixture on top, rolled it up and tadaa! Mouth watering cinnamon bread.

I guess it was pretty good because my boyfriend ate about four slices in about eight minutes. And I thought it was pretty good too.

You can get the bread recipe here. All you have to do for the cinnamon bread is add an extra tablespoon of honey in the dough. I mixed 1 cup light brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and 2 tablespoons flour then spread that on top.

So easy! So Delicious! I think this is going to be my breakfast with a hot cup of chai tomorrow.

Enjoy!

Fluffy Homemade Sandwich Bread

This recipe was pretty good, but I still wanted fluffier bread. 

For the last several years I've been eating fairly clean. Very little processed food, lots of veggies and fruits, whole grains and not a whole lot of meat. I've never been much of a meat eater, though. Mostly I use the theory that if it's not an ingredient in my cabinet or readily available, then I probably shouldn't eat it. I cut fast food out of my diet when I was in my 20's and I haven't touched a soda in almost eight years. That being said, I do like to cut loose on desserts now and again.

This is the bread I used in this recipe. So good and it makes your house smell delicious. 

Cutting out processed foods is really hard sometimes. It's really easy to pick up a pre-made item in the frozen section or just grab a loaf of bread, until you read the ingredients. I'm one o f those people that reads the list of ingredients of everything I buy. What ingredients should be in bread? Flour, salt, sugar or honey, yeast, milk or water and that's about it unless you add a few other good for you ingredients.

This is one of the earlier recipes that I tried with oats and sesame seeds on top. 

I've been on a quest to find really good sandwich bread for toast, garlic bread and of course sandwiches. I've made at least 20 loaves in the past few months with lots of different recipes. While they've all tasted good, some have been like bricks. I like the ones with milk or powered milk. I'm no bread expert by any means, but I think I've come up with the perfect recipe for what I'm looking. It's moist, fluffy, perfect for toasting or just slicing and eating.

My mom thought my bread was so good, I should give it as a thank you gift.

It takes about 5 minutes to make, an hour for proofing and 30 minutes to bake. I use rapid rise or bread machine yeast. I'm too impatient for the regular yeast. I like to make two or even three loaves in a day. It freezes really well, but never seems to last very long here.

Ingredients
3  to 3 1/4 c flour (my favorite is King Arthur)
1 -1/4 c milk warmed to about 120 degrees
3 T butter
2 -1/4 tsp yeast or 1 pkg
1 T honey
1 tsp salt
4 T ground flax seeds (optional)

Warm the milk and butter to 120 degrees. (For me I discovered this was two minutes in the microwave.) If you don't have a thermometer, it's like bath water, not to hot, but hotter than lukewarm.
Stir in the honey until dissolved, then stir in the yeast. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it work it's magic for about 5 minutes.

Put your dry ingredients in a bowl or mixer. Add the wet to the dry until combined.

Scoop out the dough and put into a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a towel and let sit for 30 minutes.

Punch down the dough form it into a loaf and put into a lightly greased loaf pan. Let rise for another 30 minutes.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 27 - 30 minutes.

Remove from oven and let sit about 10 minutes before turning it out on a cookie sheet for further cooling.

Enjoy!

Tips and Tricks
So what does it mean 3 to 3 1/4 cups flour? The humidity that day really effects the outcome of your bread. If it's really humid out, you'll need more flour, less humid, less flour. I've made two loaves in one day with different amounts of flour and they both turned out great. The wetter one was just a bit harder to get out of the mixing bowl.

Use well oiled hands and the dough won't stick to you.

Instead of using softened butter, I just put it straight out of the fridge in the milk and put it in the microwave.

Why ground flax seeds? First off you have to grind them to get the oils from the seeds. The oils contain loads of omega 3's and fiber, plus it's believed in the prevention of certain kinds cancer. Originally my eye doctor told me to use flax seed oil as a supplement to help with my dry eyes over four years ago and it helped tremendously. I like to add it to foods when I can...smoothies, granola, spaghetti sauce, etc.

If your bread seems to get too brown on top, tent a piece of foil on top. Do not undercook it! My oven is a little finicky, so 27 minutes is perfect for it.

Wash your dirty stuff right away or at least soak it. Dried bread dough is like super glue.