The most delicious, crunchy bread made right at home with little
to no ingredients and you're going to absolutely love it!
Let me show you how I make this bread. It has been on weekly rotation in this household,
actually it has been on daily rotation because I've gotten into the habit of
making the dough in the morning and then I will literally let It rise all day.
Sometimes I'll even pop it into the fridge if it's too risen,
and I'm not ready to bake it yet and then I bake it right before
dinner and we have a fresh loaf every night and it's been really wonderful.
There's no sourdough involved because I have tried the sourdough, it's a whole sourdough
thing and it just didn't work for me it takes too much, you know, attention. I don't have
that kind of patience I gotta feed it I gotta discard it I gotta.. I'm not doing any of that.
So this is the answer for me when I want that kind of bread, but I want to make it
like literally the easiest way possible and you're going to absolutely love it!
So, all you need is all-purpose flour you don't need any fancy flours. I have shared
a version of this years and years ago so this is sort of the updated version of that.
You don't need to do it overnight you can do it a couple hours before you need to eat it,
really. So you need all-purpose flour. To it you're going to add a little bit of sugar
and then you need your yeast.
I get questions asked about what kind of yeast I use all the time. I will link everything
down below for you that you see in this video including the yeast because to me good yeast
is a game changer but you need to store it properly so make sure that you discard it out
of the package into a container I just use this glass jar and I store it in the fridge
and I get new yeast every six months. Every six months I replace my leavening agents,
yeast, baking powder, baking soda to ensure that my bread is gonna rise.
So, you're gonna add some yeast to the sugar, give it a stir I just use a wooden spoon
and then you're going to add some warm water. I'm gonna do this in my standing mixer just for ease
but you can also do this by hand and just knead it until it comes together it does not need to be
smooth you don't need to knead it for a super long time you just need the dough to come together so.
Let that go, I'll show you what it looks like but before it's there I almost forgot
a crucial part. Once it starts getting the flour incorporated, which you can see,
my Nonna taught me to add my salt
as the flour begins to get Incorporated and then just let that go until all the flour is absorbed.
That looks great it's a little bit tacky, let me get my bench scraper onto a very lightly floured
surface very lightly because it's not it's not like sticky like a batter but it's just
a little tacky and I just like to - oh my hands got stuck - I like to pull it together into,
like that, like a little ball I don't want to over flour, I just want it to be like that.
Perfect. See that? That's beautiful.
Into an oiled bowl until it rises. I like to let It rise a couple hours, I want it to be
like tripled in volume, tripled in size I have one already ready because I'm telling you I like to do
one a day, but I wanted to tell you that about half hour before you are ready to bake it you're
gonna preheat your oven to 500 degrees and you're going to take a cast iron, like a dutch oven,
an oven safe Dutch oven, this is my old one this is primarily for bread it's very well loved very
well used and it is a champ I've had it for 12 years and I baked bread in it every single time.
You're gonna pop this into the oven as well and you're going to want to let the
oven and the Dutch oven preheat together for 30 minutes and then I'll show you the next step.
Alright, dough is ready to go my oven's preheated my Dutch oven was in the oven remember for a good
half an hour, I took it out the Dutch oven is right here it's very very hot so please be very
very careful when you are working with this you want to take a piece of parchment paper
just dump it on your flat surface, on your work surface your counter or whatever, this is the
dough see what it looks like? It's fluffy it's yum it's delicious it's risen it's done great things
I'm going to pour this on here I don't even really do anything special to it.
You don't need to knead it you don't need to do anything to it I just use some flour to kind of
pull it up into some sort of a disc shape.
Dust it.
Taking a sharp knife, I'm just gonna score
the top like so it doesn't have to be perfect because trust me it'll be great. I'm gonna
have to work a little bit quick this is well used and well loved so don't worry.
Pop it in there like so, put the lid on and pop this into the oven. The second you put
this into the oven turn the oven down to 450 and put your timer on for 30 minutes,
after 30 minutes you're going to take the lid off and you're going to let it
continue to bake for another like seven to ten minutes or until it's really beautiful golden
brown and like crunchy and then you're gonna let it cool completely before you serve it.
My bread is done, now remember it baked for 30 minutes covered in the
pot. I took the lid off and I left it in there another 10 minutes and then I
removed it from the pot immediately and just let it cool completely.
It is sheer perfection it is like a bakery bread, it's got all of the
elements of bread that I love. Shake off the excess flour that flour just gives you that
lovely crust. Let it cool before you slice it, which I know, before you slice it,
which listen I know that's the hardest part I know that but if you don't let it
cool completely you'll get that gumminess but this is perfection look at that! Look at this.
She's beautiful, she's, listen she's beautimess, okay if I am the
queen - in all things in life, okay, with all things, exercise, cooking, parenting..
If I can get it done the easiest way that's like gives me the maximum,
that makes it feel like I put in the maximum amount of effort, like this
looks like it took a lot of effort because it's a beautiful like crusty loaf it's easy okay.
Exercise, I want to do it the easiest way possible by still getting results okay?
That's how I am so if you want delicious beautiful food that you know you can do
you found the right place. Because I'm not gonna give you something that's annoying for
me to make because I don't want you to make it you know what I mean? This is perfect.
This is the kind of bread that you can make,
like I said I've been making it every single day and for good reason because honestly
it's doable. Look at that crust, look at it, it's just magnificent it's bouncy, it's not dense it
is the kind of bread that you're gonna have to eat the day of or stick it in the freezer,
um, there's never any leftovers and if there is you just make little bruschetta you know?
Anyway.
Mmm
You know?
The best, my local ShopRite one's 5.99 for a little loaf this big, okay?
I don't think so.
I ain't the one.
Laurainthekitchen.com for the written recipe, this will be your go-to bread and I'm thrilled.
You haven't told me that yet, but I know I will be and I'm thrilled about it.
The recipe's over there I will see you in the next one.
Bye.