You may have noticed that I haven’t posted much on here over the last two weeks. The truth is I’ve been battling some significant personal issues during that time.
Too many sleepless nights. However, this too shall pass and I (we) will be okay.
But let’s talk about something that makes me smile – making and baking bread.
I have discovered the easiest, simplest way to make a perfect loaf of bread. Yes. That easy.
In a mixing bowl add 3 cups of unbleached white flour, a half teaspoon of yeast, and a teaspoon and a half of salt. I currently have a big (Costco size) bottle of Himalayan pink salt available so I use that.
The ingredients:
- 3 cups of flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon of yeast
- 1 1/2 cups of water
Use a fork to stir the ingredients around a bit. If you have seeds – pumpkin, sunflower, or sesame seeds, add about a quarter cup of whatever you want. Or don’t.
Then stir in a cup and a half of water.
I then use a rubber scraper (I call it a rubber spatula) to mix the water and flour mixture. I just roll the ball of dough over and few times until the water and the flour are all mixed together – no clumps of flour in the bottom of the bowl.
The mixing should only take a few turns – maybe 30 seconds, a minute of stirring.
That’s it for the “work”.
Then I leave the ball of dough in the bowl over night.
In the morning I get up, place my cast iron Dutch oven in the oven, set the temp to 450 degrees, and let the oven pre-heat.
Then I prep the dough.
I rip off a piece of parchment paper about 30 cm long, sprinkle maybe a tablespoon of flour on it, then roll the dough out onto the parchment paper.
All I do is roll the ball of dough around on the paper so that the outside of the dough has a light coating of flour and is no longer sticky to the touch – no kneading. No hassle.
I put a slash in the top of the ball of dough and then carefully lower it into the pre-heated Dutch oven, put the lid back on and put it in the oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes I remove the lid and let the bread keep cooking for another 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
Out of the oven, onto the cooling rack to let it cool off for a couple of hours – if you can wait!
That is it. No kneading. No mess. No fuss. Just a perfect loaf of bread each time.