Easiest Homemade Bread Ever

Crusty Homemade Bread

By Lucy Olschan March 23, 2015

Prep Time : 5 minutes. Cook Time : 45 minutes Yield : 1 loaf Allergens : gluten

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour - 3 cups
Salt - 1 tea spoon
Caraway Seed - 1 tea spoon
Dry Yeast - 1 packet
Water - 1 1/2 cups

Instructions

Add the flour, yeast, salt and caraway seed into a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the water and mix well. The dough will be very sticky and shaggy-looking. Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel and set aside at room temperature for 8-10 hours. I like to do this at night before I go to bed and bake fresh bread in the morning.

Flour your work surface and transfer the dough to the work surface. Pull with your hands to stretch the dough in a rectangle about 1/2 in thick. Let rest 10-15 mins. Fold the dough in thirds from left to right and again from top to bottom.

Let the dough rest and rise for another 1/2 to full hour. Towards the end of this time, place a lidded dutch oven or a heavy-duty casserole dish into the oven a pre-heat to 450 degrees F.

Carefully remove the hot baking dish from the oven. Remove the lid and gently place the dough ball into the ungreased baking dish. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake until the crust is golden brown, for about another 15 minutes. Remove the loaf from the baking dish and let it cool on a rack before slicing.

Yields a loaf of very crusty artisanal bread.

So, as you read in my earlier post, I decided to make a Manhattan clam chowder this weekend. I was so excited about this idea until I realized I had no crusty bread for dipping. OK, I did come up with the chowder idea on Friday and was cooking it on Saturday, so I had time to go to the bakery and buy bread, but why spend $4 dollars on artisanal bread when it’s just flour, yeast and water? Oh yes, because it’s a ton of work you say. Now the recipe my mom shared with me enters my mind (I said I get cooking from my mom and grandma and this is what we do when we talk, spend half hour trying to top each others accomplishments in the kitchen, LOL). I know what you are thinking right now, I am not reading any further, because Lucy will try to convince me how spending hours measuring and proofing bread dough is no biggie. PLEASE READ FURTHER. What if I told you that instead of buying bakery bread for four or five dollars a loaf, you could make delicious handmade bread whenever you wanted, at a fraction of the cost and it is so easy a kid could do it?

No-knead Bread

Well, read on because this method of making artisan homemade bread will change your life. This is a very easy bread to make without any kneading or proofing of the dough. I am not gonna lie to you, it needs to rise for about 8-10 hours, so you can’t make it when you simply forgot to buy bread and need it right on the spot, but the active prep time takes about 5 minutes. I usually mix the ingredients at night before I go to bed (takes about a minute of my time) and let it rise overnight. I bake fresh bread in the morning. The bread comes out very crusty and with huge holes throughout, just like at the bakery.

I remember making it in the past, but I guess my husband wasn’t in the mood because I don’t think he even tried it being the skeptic he usually is. This time he did and he went so crazy for it, he finished the entire loaf and made me prep another one for Sunday!

This bread is also very versatile. You can make whole wheat bread with whole wheat flour, you can mix in seeds and herbs of your liking, make cheese breads and on and on. This recipe can be used to make your artisanal bakery favorite for about 60¢ a loaf! That’s OK, bake now, thank me later. LOL enjoy 🙂

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