I’ve been experimenting with bread for a few months now, making a loaf or two each week. Generally speaking, we haven’t bought store bread in a while now. I’ve tried different recipes and have used different types of flours. I’ve used bread flour, unbleached all-purpose flour, whole wheat, dark rye, semolina, and the list goes on. I’ve used instant yeast and the more traditional active dry yeast. I’ve tried growing my own sourdough yeast (and have failed…twice). However, I feel like I’m finally getting the hang and feel for the art of bread making. I’m not completely there yet. The more I do, the more I realize that I don’t know lots of stuff, but I do feel like I’m making progress.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I plan to try the sourdough starter again soon and will blog about my progress. Fingers crossed, it will work better now that we are in the warmer months. Who knows? At any rate, the only bread books I own come from Tartine Bakery, possibly the best bakery in the country and certainly the best bread I’ve ever had, came from Tartine. I hope to get into the ‘Tartine’ method of bread making and that all begins with the sourdough starter. So, more on that to follow in the coming weeks. However, one thing I have adopted from the Tartine books stems from the cooking vessel for the bread: the use of a cast iron dutch oven. If you are going to get into bread baking, I highly suggest investing in one. They are inexpensive, last forever, and they can be used in a myriad of ways beyond simple bread baking. In other words, cast iron is your friend in the kitchen!

So, as the title of this post suggests, I have a recipe for a great loaf of bread. It’s not original from me. I am simply not a strong enough baker to come up with an original bread recipe yet…and I may never get there. This recipe comes from a French show on the food network: French Food at Home. You can find the original recipe and other interesting French inspired recipes if you google the show or just go to foodtv.com and look at recipes from there. Anyway, after trying to make a great loaf of French country bread (and I have tried a good number and there are other great ones out there), I came across this super simple and simply great bread recipe last week.

I tried it and then tried it again. I may never look for another French bread recipe again. It’s that easy and THAT GOOD. Like most great breads, it contains very few ingredients. This one, like most classic French bread recipes, has four ingredients: AP flour, water, yeast, and salt. There’s no kneading. There’s no need for a Kitchenaid (though I never use one anyway). The only thing you really need beyond the ingredients is the cast iron Dutch oven for baking the bread. I included a picture of mine so that you can know what to look for if you choose to make the investment. I bought mine from amazon and it cost just south of twenty-five dollars…not bad for essentially two pans that can be used separately or together.  Recipe follows after the jump!

Ingredients:

375 grams All-Purpose Flour (I used unbleached)

375 grams warm water

½ Teaspoon active dry yeast (or ¼ instant yeast)

Salt to taste (I just eyeball it and do a pinch or two)

Instructions:

• Measure the ingredients with a kitchen scale.  You don’t need to be exact with the measurements, but get as close as you can without worrying too much about a gram or two.
• Mix the water and the yeast and let sit around five minutes
• In the meantime, mix the salt and flour.
• Place water/yeast mixture into the flour mixture and gently toss ingredients together until all the ingredients are incorporated.  I use a pastry scraper for the mixing.  Using a wooden spoon would work just fine too.
• Once all the ingredients are incorporated, you will have a very, very wet dough that sort of looks like a total mess.  That’s OK…it’s what you are shooting for.  Simply cover the bowl with the dough with a clean kitchen towel and set aside.  Let it sit for 12 hours (on a very short end) to 24 hours (highly preferred).  That’s a long time, but you don’t do anything to it…it just sits there for that long, doing its thing.
• After 24 hours, the dough will be littered with air bubbles and holes.  It’s perfect and done at that point.  Pour the dough onto a floured surface and fold just a little flour into the mixture.  Do this once or twice.  Once done, leave it on the counter, cover it loosely with a towel and let it rest for 15 minutes or so.
• Take two clean kitchen towels and flour them liberally.  Set aside.
• After the resting period, flour your hands and pick dough up and form it into a ball.  Place dough seam side down on one of the floured towels.  Add a bit of flour over the top of the dough ball.  Carefully place the other floured towel over the top of the dough.
• Let the dough rise for around two hours, until approximately doubled in size.
• Place your Dutch oven in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Getting your oven that hot will typically take around 30 minutes or so (maybe longer depending on the oven).
• Once the oven has reached 450 degrees, remove the Dutch oven, place the dough in Dutch oven, with the seam side facing up.  NOTE:  It will be a pain to get the dough in into the pan.  The dough is flimsy and has grown quite a bit.  Just do the best you can.  If it doesn’t land in the pan correctly, that’s ok.  Simply shake the pan to move the bread into place the best you can.  It will be fine.
• Place the other pan over the top of the other, so that the two pans are sealed and then place in oven.  Bake bread for 30 minutes.  Remove the top pan and bake for another 15-30 minutes, until the bread is browned.  I find I take mine out at the 15 minute point, with a total cooking time of 45 minutes.  Take the bread out when the bread looks brown and sounds very hollow when tapped.
• When done, remove from oven and place bread on wire rack to cool.  Cool completely before serving (if you want warm bread, simply allow it to completely cool, then place back in a very low temperature oven for 5-10 minutes).