Hi!  I took a long break from this site as things got busy with work, I got married, went on our honeymoon, and I am currently 21-weeks pregnant!  Whew – but, I hope everyone is staying safe and well during this COVID-19 situation the whole world is in right now.

Speaking of COVID-19, with empty grocery stores and lots of time at home, I thought I’d include a recipe of my favorite bread recipe as my first blog post back 🙂  With few ingredients, little prep, and a DELICIOUS outcome, what could be better?  (**Note: this recipe does call for a dutch oven – however, if you don’t have one, and you use just a regular pan and aluminum foil to cover it, please let me know how it goes!)

This bread is hearty, crusty on the outside yet fluffy on the inside, and is great for dipping in soups or eating as-is.

Now, for this post, I don’t have step-by-step pictures (sorry! I made this last week and forgot to take individual pics).

But, I got this delicious recipe from The Comfort of Cooking’s Blog.  You can skip to the recipe by clicking here. (And bonus* the site provides great step-by-step pictures)

However, if you want to just view the recipe here, see below:

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (however, I just used regular table salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon dry yeast (I used active dry yeast)
• 1 and 1/2 cups luke warm water

DIRECTIONS

• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and yeast.
• Stir in luke warm water while mixing the mixture with a wooden spoon.
• Don’t overwork the dough!  It will look kind of “shaggy” and not like a finished perfect round ball of dough (if that makes sense)
• Put plastic wrap or a towel over the top of the towel and let sit at room temperature for 8-24 hours.  (Regardless if I left it out for 8 or 12 hours, the finished product was still delicious and I did not notice a difference)
• After the dough has risen for however long you let it rise, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and put your dutch oven (uncovered) in the oven while it’s preheating.  Leave in the oven for 30 minutes.
• Put your risen dough onto a floured surface and form the dough into a ball.  Cover again and let rest until the 30 minutes of the dutch oven setting in the oven is up.
• Carefully remove the dutch oven from the oven, and place ball of dough into it.  (**Here, I like to simply score the ball of dough by cutting a shallow diagonal slice into it.  If you want, you can also brush some egg whites on the top as well).  Place dutch oven (COVERED) into oven.
• Cook for 30 minutes.
• Once 30 minutes is up, carefully take cover off and cook UNCOVERED for an additional 7-10 minutes (this makes the top nice and crusty with a golden color).

And that’s it!  Seriously, the simplest bread ever.  Once out of the oven, allow it to cool a bit before cutting into it, and slathering some butter on it 😀

*DISCLAIMER: Foodie at Law posts in no way provide any warranty (express or implied) in regards to the recipes provided or the outcome of said recipes, and I am not a chef or professional cook.  These recipes are intended solely for informational purposes and readers are advised to use their own discretion when it comes to food, health, allergy and cooking safety.  While original recipes will occasionally be posted, recipes obtained from other sources are appropriately cited.