Daily Bread: A Recipe

This post is actually about bread.  Daily homemade bread, I’m serious.  Do me a favor, run to the kitchen and get your package of healthy whole wheat sliced bread.  Now tell me, are there more than 4 ingredients there?  If not, I know what you have–great healthy bread that costs about $5 a loaf.  That’s fine, you are rolling in the dough, I get it.  Sorry for that.

Anyway, I want to show you how to have fresh daily bread for, I don’t know, pennies a day.  I’m not a particularly great baker, but my kids eat bread a lot and that ingredient list was starting to bother me. It’s been called 5 minute Artisan Bread and you can find many variants on Pinterest and the internet. Here you go, 4 ingredients:

6 1/2 c flour (I use half bread flour and half whole wheat)
1.5 T yeast
1.5 T salt
3 c water- lukewarm
Optional: (Add a couple tablespoons of honey or molasses if you are using mostly whole wheat flour)

Mix yeast, salt and water together.  Add flour and mix with the hook attachment if you have a stand mixer, a Danish dough whisk if you are awesome enough to have one, or a good old wooden spoon if you are all like, “I don’t need all that crazy stuff, I have a wooden spoon.”

Now let the dough rise for about 2 hours.  If you plan to refrigerate this dough and bake fresh over the next two weeks, put the dough in a lidded container that is not airtight.  I use my mixing bowl with a flour sack towel over it, but you can use anything that will allow air to escape. The dough will be pretty sticky after you let it rise, and it should fill up the bowl.

At this point, you can refrigerate the dough overnight, and in fact, it just gets better as it is refrigerated.  It is also easier to work with cold.

When you are ready to bake, take what you want out of the container, just pull it apart with floured hands.  I like to sprinkle flour on top of the dough like this.

Here is where you have options.  Choose what shape you want. I often make it in a loaf pan for sandwich bread. Or if you have a pizza peel or a stone, these are perfect to use.

Don’t kneed it, but flour your hands and kind of tuck the sides under while rotating the dough.  Once you have it where you want it, let it rest about 40 minutes or so before baking.  It’s a good time to preheat the oven to 450.

It’s a good idea to put a broiler pan of hot water on the bottom rack if you are feeling up to adding this step.  Do it fast, like have the pan in the oven, then put the bread in, then add water to the pan and shut the oven door.  This traps the steam and gives you a nice crusty crust.

Bake for about 40-50 minutes at 450 degrees.  Make sure the bread is a nice golden brown before pulling it out.

ATTENTION!!  Do not slice the bread until it has cooled off considerably.  You will get a dense gummy mess if you do.   I mean it, you will regret it for the rest of your day.  Until tomorrow when you get to try again.  Enjoy!