Crusty Artisan Bread

Don Baer

Moderator
Staff member
LOML has started making various type of bread and she came came upon this recipe and it makes the best bread from a few simple ingredients. It is really easy and the bread is great.

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3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon Instant or Rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 cups water





In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours. Overnight works great. Heat oven to 450 degrees. When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating. Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

She uses a porcelain pan and it work great.

enjoy




 
And you are on a diet!?! That bread looks great but how does that work out for losing weight? BTW, I found a local source of cast iron cookware last week. Hmmmmm.......Serendipitous that you would post this? :whistling:
 
Ok so ya caught me cheating but hey a little bit is OK. I did the numbers and a cup of flour is about 455 calories and since there really is nothing else in it then the whole loaf is about 1365 calories. The loaf is 7 inches round and I had a piece about 1/2 inch thick and it was not from the center so maybe 100 calories (1365 Cal/14 slices) but I'll double it in my calorie counter to be safe :rolleyes:. Go ahead and try it you will love it.
 
I make this same recipe and second the motion that it is the best and simplest bread ever. You can jazz it up by adding both shredded and coarsely chopped sharp cheddar cheese for a nice cheesy loaf, or add pitted calamata olives for an olive loaf, or add some chopped herbs like rosemary or thyme. It's a fun one to experiment with. We have often given a Dutch Oven and the makings for a loaf of bread along with the recipe as a Christmas gift. Great recipe.
 
You can jazz it up by adding both shredded and coarsely chopped sharp cheddar cheese for a nice cheesy loaf, or add pitted calamata olives for an olive loaf, or add some chopped herbs like rosemary or thyme.

Chunks of dark chocolate and dried cherries. Pieces of blue cheese and snippets of bacon. Add 3/4 - 1 cup or so of spent grains from your (friends) homebrew batch (dark beer grains are best) (this is my favorite add for a rustic loaf mix may need a smidge more flour or less water depending on how moist the grains are - don't add to much spent grain or it'll break the gluten to much).

I usually add a smidge of oil (olive, grape) to it (maybe a tbsp). Also don't be to hung up on the exact moisture amount... its all by feeeeeeelll!! Some flower is drier than others. The "shaggy ball" description is pretty good.

If you split the batch in half and put the salt in one half and the yeast in the other - yeasted half goes in the fridge, salted half on the counter and then knead together the next day even moaaar flavor. But requires kneading so there's that which is a big downside (still flavor!).

Can also be cooked on the BBQ with sufficient amounts of quarry tiles stacked in there (I put a double layer on the swinging overhead rack and a double layer on the grill part - using quarry tiles because cheap and available). Add tiles when cold (less cracking) and let heat for 20 minutes or so to get nice and hot. Nice when its hot out and you don't want to heat up the kitchen.

I knead to make some bread! Dang it!
 
I don't cook, but you've piqued my curiosity. Do the "added" ingredients have to be dried? If so why, if not, how would bits of pineapple, or honey dew melon, nuts, etc. work? I may just give it a shot & surprise the LOML. :thumb: Then again, she mar barr me from the kitchen forever! ;)
 
Actual unretouched photo of a crusty artisan:

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Looks like he's hungry for some bread, lol.
 
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