Crusty Bread

It's been a few months since I posted this delicious bread to my own blog. So when Susan proposed the bread challenge, I just knew I had to share this bread! It's the easiest bread ever! Make it plain, make it with additions of your choice. I've added jalapenos and cheddar and we loved it. Try it! My friend Linda did! It inspired her to write poetry! (See below!)


Crusty Bread
by Sandra Simmons
adapted from the Simply So Good Blog

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups water

Add the first three ingredients to a mixing bowl. Add the water and stir with a large spoon til all ingredients are incorporated. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and that's that for the next 12-18 hours! I've made this twice now, once right before I went to bed and then baked it for dinner the next day and once at around noon and baked it in the morning.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and then, with the lid on, put a cast iron Dutch oven in the oven for 30 minutes. While the pot is heating up, put your dough on a floured surface (I use a large silpat) and shape it into a ball. No kneading required! Take the pot out of the oven and drop the dough in. With the pot lid on, bake for 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake 15 minutes more. Take the bread out of the pot and place it on a wire rack to cool completely. That's it! 

From my friend, Linda:

Twas the week before Christmas and in my little house, no cooking was happening, imagine that!

I was snug all nice and warm in my bed
with visions of homemade bread dancing about in my head

On brioche
On challah
On Naan Naan Naan

Why are these yeast breads swimming around in my head...

Well I’m not a poet, but I have been dreaming a lot about bread lately, thanks to my fellow friends in 37 Cooks. I have watched them make some amazing breads over the last few weeks.
I have to confess that the last time I tried to use yeast was probably 20 years ago and the results were really bad. I pretty much had developed a fear of yeast and didn't want to try again. However, that's not how we do things in 37 Cooks. We accept challenges and we try new things.

What I will provide you is a beautiful picture of my bread. I actually enjoyed playing with the dough and shaping it into a ball. It definitely helped in getting my feet wet, so I will try other yeast breads in the future.

If you have never made homemade bread, I’m going to have to DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU TO DO IT and try the Crusty Bread recipe. Have fun and enjoy it.

P.S. I use a Le Creuset 5 1/2 quart in Dune that we bought at a Williams Sonoma Outlet store several years ago. I love it, it was worth every penny and more! Watch for sales, they do exist.

P.P.S. You can use any heavy metal pan with a lid that can take the heat to make this bread! It doesn't have to be Le Creuset!

P.P.S. My friend Carol  bakes the bread with the lid on the entire 45 minutes. She likes it better this way because it's not as crusty! I tried it and I like it too!