{"id":2539,"date":"2009-01-14T15:45:32","date_gmt":"2009-01-14T22:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lee.org\/blog\/?p=2539"},"modified":"2010-01-15T12:10:21","modified_gmt":"2010-01-15T20:10:21","slug":"my-new-favorite-bread-recipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/14\/my-new-favorite-bread-recipe\/","title":{"rendered":"My New Favorite Bread Recipe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bread is very simple.<\/p>\n

Here is my new favorite bread recipe. I started with the Best Recipe recipe for “Rustic Bread” and simplified it because I’m lazy. It comes out terrific.<\/p>\n

It takes less than 5 minutes work. Yes, really.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Put 6 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp salt, 3 tsp yeast \u00a0in big bowl<\/li>\n
  2. Mix<\/li>\n
  3. Add 2 3\/4 c water or so. 2.5 – 3.0 cups is fine<\/li>\n
  4. Mix with one hand until it’s gloopy, about 2 minutes. No, don’t kneed it<\/li>\n
  5. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil for 2 hrs in a warm place<\/li>\n
  6. Flour a baking sheet<\/li>\n
  7. Grab 1\/2 the dough and plop it on the pan<\/li>\n
  8. Roll it around a tiny bit so it looks more like a loaf<\/li>\n
  9. Grab the other half of the dough and do the same<\/li>\n
  10. Turn on the oven to 450<\/li>\n
  11. When the oven comes up to temperature (10-20 minutes) put the pre-bread in<\/li>\n
  12. Take out the finished bread 45 minutes later<\/li>\n
  13. Eat it!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Here is “Bread Making Level 2”. If you want a really nice thick crust do this:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Put a heavy, oven safe pan in the oven below the bread. \u00a0(cast iron is good) \u00a0<\/li>\n
    2. Just before you put the pre-bread into the oven, pour some boiling water in the pan<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The steam will give the bread a thick “meaty” crust.<\/p>\n

      See my notes about the price of yeast<\/a><\/p>\n

      That recipe comes from Cook’s Illustrated’s “Best Recipe” cookbook. It’s a rustic country bread recipe. I find it interesting that, first, one can distill their full-page recipe down to this, and second, this excellent recipe is so gosh darn simple.<\/p>\n

      Here are some comments on the recipe:<\/p>\n

      Yes, I just mix it until it’s goopy, like 3 minutes of stirring with one hand in a bowl. The dough will be very wet and it sticks to everything. There’s no point in getting any utensils all gooped up. And I didn’t “work” the dough at all.<\/p>\n

      There’s all kinds of yeast treatments, like letting it develop for days on end, sourdough starter and the like. I guess they do a little something but feh, just add yeast. And I’ve seen all kinds of yeast: instant, nearly instant, super instant, wet, slimy, goopy. I’ve never tasted or witnessed much of a difference. I used Fleishmann’s #2139 Instant Dry Yeast in a 1 lb vacuum sealed bag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Bread is very simple. Here is my new favorite bread recipe. I started with the Best Recipe recipe for “Rustic Bread” and simplified it because I’m lazy. It comes out terrific. It takes less than 5 minutes work. Yes, really. Put 6 cups all purpose flour, 2 tsp salt, 3 tsp yeast \u00a0in big bowl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bread","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2543,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2539\/revisions\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lee.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}