- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making an easy, amazing artisan bread.
So let's get started.
First off, grab a big bowl,
and we're gonna use some bread flour.
Has a higher protein content and it gives us a better chew.
I want 3 3/4 cups, or 450 grams, of bread flour.
And if you're wondering, yes,
you could make this with all-purpose flour.
It'll just be like a little bit softer
and have less of that artisanal characteristic
that you might want from artisan bread.
I'm also gonna use some instant yeast here,
one packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons
if you're measuring it out from a big container.
I'm also adding in 1 3/4 teaspoons of kosher salt.
This salt has a little bit bigger of a grain size.
Grab a wooden spoon.
And I'm just gonna stir this together
and tell you one important thing.
You can make this bread in two different ways.
I'm making it as an overnight bread.
'cause I love to just like give this a mix
at the end of the day,
pop that into the fridge,
and come back to it in the morning.
And you can have like fresh baked bread
for breakfast, brunch, or lunch.
But you can also make this in one day.
It's really easy, too.
I'll tell you how they're different later on.
This is all stirred up.
Now, I'm adding 1 1/2 cups of warm water.
It's about 120 degrees.
And I'm gonna pour this in as I stir.
This is one of the easiest breads ever.
And I know a lot of you might be intimidated by breadmaking,
especially the cult of sourdough, which is a big thing.
Like, sourdough, I'm not gonna lie to you,
is a little bit more difficult.
You definitely have to get the hang of it.
And you can let me know
if you want a sourdough video in the comments.
This artisan bread has like a wonderful chew.
It's like great on the inside, crusty on the outside.
It's like a win, win, win, but it's just so easy.
It also makes a great sandwich bread.
So right now, I'm gonna stir the dough in
and also like kind of smush it around,
because that water takes a little bit of time
to seep out and hydrate the flour.
So don't think, oh, it's dry.
Like, it looks kind of dry on the outside.
It'll work out, don't worry.
If you want, you could definitely add
some extra flavorings to this.
This is just like a nice white bread.
But if you wanna add some herbs, some rosemary,
you have so many options here.
And you can let me know in the comments what you would add.
I might go crazy and add some delicious Kalamata olives.
Hmm, and some caramelized onion.
(bell dings)
I basically just stirred this for a few minutes.
It really did come together.
I just wanna tell you, don't panic,
'cause you take a look and you're like,
gosh, there's a lot of flour.
Is this not mixing in?
Just be a little bit patient, keep moving it around,
and eventually, you get like a big bluh of dough.
That's what this is called, bluh.
Plop that in.
We're gonna cover this up.
You could either let this rise up and double in size
1 1/2 to two hours.
Just put it in a nice, cozy place.
Covering that with paper.
There we go.
So the paper makes it airtight,
and the bonnet just keeps it sealed down.
This is gonna go into the fridge eight hours,
but up to 24 if you want to, basically overnight.
I got up this morning,
the kids had breakfast.
My dough has been in that fridge overnight,
and I preheated my oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
So hot.
The key to getting a wonderful crust for the bread
is to have the hottest vessel possible.
So I'm taking my Dutch oven cast iron pot
and popping this into the oven for half an hour.
But there is a catch that's so important,
and I would have to share this with you.
This is dark on the inside.
It's dark on the outside.
It's actually one of my favorite pots.
But if you're using like a lavender Dutch oven
that's white on the inside,
it's like, oh my God, all the feelings,
I love this pot so much,
maybe don't use it for this recipe,
because it will get scorched.
And it's permanently gonna have some marks on it.
Use one that you don't care about
that you got at a garage sale,
or use one that's dark on the inside, like this,
'cause that heat will do some damage.
This guy goes into the oven half an hour.
So my pot's been in the oven for almost 20 minutes.
It's time to get our dough out of the fridge.
If you're making this just straight through
and you're not doing the overnight method,
you can skip this.
But if it was in the fridge,
just let it come to room temperature a bit.
So give it like 10 to 15 minutes on the counter
to warm up before you shape it.
And so important for you to grab a trivet,
because you do not wanna put
a 450 degree pot on your counter.
That's a recipe for cracks and disaster.
Pot's still in the oven,
but this has been on the counter for like 10 to 15 minutes.
So take a look, and you're like, ooh, it's so disappointing,
I don't like it.
But it's gonna get fixed.
It smells delicious, though.
First off, I'm just going to kind of use a little spatula
and make sure this dough is nice and free.
Now, here's the deal,
we're gonna do almost all the work in the bowl,
and it's so easy.
You take one end
and you flip it over to the other.
Rotate the bowl 90 degrees.
Repeat the process.
Rotate the bowl, flip three.
So as you continue to do this, you're shaping the dough,
and it's gonna take on a nicer, smoother finish.
It'll look more appropriate, you'll see.
90 degrees, four,
90 degrees, five,
90 degrees, six,
90 degrees, seven.
Oh, come take a look.
See, it's already looking so much smoother.
So, see how it looks so much smoother already?
So 90 degrees, eight,
90 degrees, nine.
I'm at nine rotations, nine flips.
So I'm gonna put this onto a lightly floured surface
and lightly flour my hands, too.
And finish the job up.
I wanted it to release gently,
'cause it's looking so much nicer now.
Here, I'm just gonna gather this up
like one giant dinner roll.
Your dough should be holding its shape into a little loaf.
And you can just shape it so it's nice and round.
Transferring this onto a sheet of parchment paper.
I'm gonna let this just sit covered for about 10 minutes.
I told the dough to relax a bit
so that it can really open up and have a nice structure.
This pot can stay in the oven for longer than 30 minutes,
so don't worry if you're running behind
and think you have to rush.
It can get really nice and hot.
It's only gonna make things better.
So my dough's been resting for about 10 minutes.
It can rest up to 30 if you're busy,
so don't worry if you think it needs to be totally exact.
You're just letting the gluten relax a bit,
because we're gonna cut a beautiful slit in there
to control the baking.
I don't have the special bread knife
that you use to cut dough.
It's called a bread lame.
I should buy one, though.
But I do have these utility knives
for my various home improvement projects,
and they work just fine.
You could also use any super sharp knife you have at home.
So we're gonna cut a 1/4 inch deep slit over the top.
And it doesn't have to look beautiful.
It's just there to let the bread
expand nicely during the bake.
The only nerve-racking part of the recipe is this.
So that is very hot.
Do not burn yourself.
Get your oven mitts out or whatever you have.
Oh, okay.
So we're gonna carefully plop this right into our pot.
Ooh, it's hot in there.
(giggles)
This is hot, don't forget.
Okay, this is going into the oven
450 degrees Fahrenheit for half an hour.
Then we're gonna remove the lid,
bake it up until it is golden brown,
around 15 minutes, maybe 13, maybe 17, really depends.
Right now, this is gonna cool down for a few minutes.
Then we'll carefully remove it and give it a cut.
Once your bread is cool, transfer it over.
Look how beautiful that is.
And this was so easy, too.
The test is in cutting it open and seeing what's inside.
Look at this.
You heard how crispy that was on the outside.
So soft.
It smells amazing.
And we made it ourselves.
The boys are gonna tear into this, but I get the first bite.
Mm, that is just delicious bread.
It's freshly baked, no preservatives, made with love.
So soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe.
And if you like this video, check out my bread playlist.