Homemade Bread
Learning to make your own loaf of bread is immensely satisfying. This recipe bakes the bread in a Dutch Oven, a method popularized by New York City baker Jim Lehey of Blue Ribbon Bakery. The steam is trapped inside the Dutch Oven and results in the beautiful, hard crust. You will be shocked at how easy and delicious bread baking can be.
Makes
Serving size
Ingredients
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
1 ¼ cups warm water
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2½ to 3½ cups unbleached flour, additional for dusting
Special Equipment:
6-quart Dutch Oven (slightly smaller or bigger is fine)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 460°F.
- Combine yeast, sugar and warm water into a bowl. Stir and let set until it becomes foamy.
- Add salt and flour to the bowl. Mix with clean hands until dough just begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Mix until no dry bits of flour remain; it will be wet, sticky and ‘shaggy.’
- Flour all sides of your dough but do not mix it in. Return to bowl and cover with a clean tea towel. Let rise on the counter for approximately 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size.
- Slide the dough gently onto a lightly floured counter or board.
- Sprinkle some additional flour over the dough and form into a square.
- Pull each corner of the dough in towards the center (like you are folding an envelope) and repeat until the dough feels tight and begins to resist your folds.
- Turn the dough over and shape it into a round loaf. Place in a bowl, seam-side down, cover with a towel and rise 30 minutes more.
- Place a large Dutch oven and lid into the oven 15 minutes before the end of the last rise.
- Remove Dutch oven from the oven after 15 minutes, very carefully, with oven mitts. For safety, slide the dough onto parchment paper and set into the Dutch oven by lifting it with the ends of the parchment.
- Replace the lid using oven mitts and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- Remove the lid using oven mitts and bake approximately 15 minutes more until the crust is a rich brown color.
- Remove from the oven and let cool. Enjoy warm with butter or preserves.
Cooking Tip
Freeze half your loaf for days when you have run out of bread and want to make a recipe requiring plain white bread or for a homemade snack.
Recipe Contributed by FamilyCook Productions
Content made possible with support from Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharmaceuticals
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