Quarantine needed more carbs.
This recipe is the easiest thing ever, and so tasty. I’ve made it twice and each time my mom and I have finished the entire loaf within a few days. Or a day.
The first time I made this, I made a single batch and it came out very flat. Very delicious, but very flat. Then I read in the comments that the original recipe author recommends that if you have a larger dutch oven (which I do) that you should double the recipe—so I did that the second time and it looked much more like bread. Always a positive.
I’ve included the recipe below, but I also really encourage you to go to the original recipe post, since the author has a lot of great tips and troubleshooting techniques listed there! The original recipe is linked at the bottom of this post.
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¾ tsp salt
½ tsp active dry yeast (the original recipe says instant is fine too, although I haven’t tried this)
1 ½ cups water
Dutch oven or other heavy cast iron pan with a lid. The original recipe calls for a 3.5 quart dutch oven, but mine is larger, so I doubled the recipe as noted above.
Directions:
- Mix the flour, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl.
- Add the water and mix until incorporated.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the bread to rise for 12-18 hours. I usually do on the longer end of this timeframe. The recipe says you can let it rise either on your counter or inside your unheated oven — I always do my oven.
- Wait impatiently for 12-18 hours! I like mixing it up at night before going to bed and baking in the morning.
- Preheat your oven to 450°F with the dutch oven (or whatever you’re baking the bread in) inside, so it also preheats. (Don’t forget to remove it with oven mitts!)
- The original recipe says to shape the dough into a ball at this point, but for me, the dough is always WAY too soft and sticky to do this. I just line the dutch oven with parchment paper, put a little flour down, and plop the bread in there. So far, it’s worked every time. I sprinkle the top with a little bit of flour as well.
- Bake the bread for 30 minutes with the lid on. After 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for 15-20 additional minutes until golden brown.
- Remove the bread from the dutch oven, let cool, and enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Jo Cooks.
