There’s nothing like a warm, soft, chewy piece of deliciously flavored, homemade bread.
I could eat this bread for days on end and be complete (well, so long as I had some chocolate peanut butter ice cream or swiss merengue buttercream….not together of course, in addition….). It has a light chewy center as all good bread should and a flakey crust.
It goes scrumptiously with soup.
But don’t try making pizza crust out of it. Ya, I tried and while it tasted good, the texture was all wrong. Oh well, you live, you learn.
As a loaf of bread, though, it’s amazing.
And if you are not a bread baker, this is the loaf to try. It’s very simple and relatively quick, I mean it is bread after all. You don’t rush bread if you want it to be good.
Now, I don’t typically bake with white flour but the day I made this the first time, I knew my husband had a hard day at work and I was making a yummy dinner (what it was I have no idea) and I thought he would enjoy a special treat.
Aren’t I nice?
He appreciated it.
But now we’re hooked on the white flour.
Wretched, addicting stuff.
It’s so good though! I’ll try it half whole grain next time for sure….
All, right lets get baking.
Yield: 1 loaf of amazing bread
Ingredients
1 cup luke-warm water
1 packet (8g) instant dry yeast
4 cups white bread flour
2 tsp salt
A combination of melted butter and oil adding up to 120g (I used 60g butter, 60g oil – some of which was from the sundried tomato jar – but you can change it to taste).
A few good shakes of your favorite dried herbs (I used italian seasoning – delish!)
Preparation Instructions
1. Place the warm water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Mix the oil and herbs together (and butter if using), set aside.
3. Add the flour and salt to the yeast/water mixture and turn the mixer on low speed.
4. Add the oil mixture and knead on medium speed for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is soft and stretchy.
5. Lightly grease a large bowl and plop the dough into it. Cover with a clean tea towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours unless you are at high altitude like myself, then an hour should be sufficient.
6. Once the dough has risen, lightly punch it down and re-cover, preheat your oven to 410˚, and here’s the trick to amazing, crusty bread…while the oven is preheating, place a dutch oven with the lid on in the oven to heat up as well. This is where all yummy bread comes from!
7. Once everything is preheated, shape the dough into a loaf, round or oblong, your choice and score across the top with a sharp knife. Then carefully place the loaf in the dutch oven and put the lid on and place the whole thing in the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake another 30 minutes or until golden and crusty and the whole house smells of bread baking and you can’t stand having it in the oven a minute longer.
8. Allow to cool until you can pick it up without hot pads and it will be the perfect temperature for eating. Serve with soup or your favorite olive oil.
Enjoy!
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