So I decided to bake some bread from scratch for once. I usually use a bread machine that I have. mmm... Bread with honey, bread with jam, bread with olive oil and sea salt, bread with butter, bread with hummus- seriously ... bread...
Anyways I think this quite possibly could be the best loaf of bread I have ever made! I also made a whole wheat version. Mmmm.
Okay here's the recipe that I made today. I just halved the original recipe!
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1.5 cup water, or a few drops more.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl using a whisk, then add water and stir until combined. Cover tightly with plastic and let it sit for some where warm for around 15-20 hours.
After the first rise, scrape the dough out onto a heavily floured surface and flop it over onto itself once or twice, don't over-handle it. It doesn't need to look all perfect. Let it sit for about 15 minutes. Then, quickly form the dough into a ball (folding the corners into the middle works well) and set it seam-side down onto a well flowered surface and cover with a non-terrycloth towel. Let it just sit there for another 2 hours. Before the bread goes in the oven, preheat it to 450˚f with your baking pan in there. After the half hour is up, take out your pan, sprinkle the bottom with cornmeal, and dump the dough in, seam-side up. Cover and return to the oven. Bake 20 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered, give or take a few at the end depending on how brown you want your crust.
This mini-recipe will yield a small loaf of crusty white bread, suitable for dipping in homemade soups, drenching in half-melted butter, diping in tastey olive oil w/ herbs ... or whatever else you like to do with your bread. It's a nice, small amount and if you end up eating half the damn loaf (like I did), you don't have to feel like a pig about it. Rock and roll!
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