For as long as we know, people made their own bread. In this day and age we are used to getting bread quickly and conveniently, in stores, bakeries and markets. There’s even a saying “The best thing since sliced bread”, which only puts an emphasis to the convenience we’re used to. Convenience of not only not having to bake our own bread, but also not even having to cut it. We buy it pre-cut, with slices’ thickness adjusted to our own personal taste.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Unfortunately, as I am writing this, in March, 2020, there is a virus spreading around the world exponentially infecting everybody. Governments are waking up to the facts and a lot of people are “social distancing” and may decide not to obtain bread by usual means.

Now that the stage is set and the prelude is coming to a close, our hero, you, decides to take things in to their own hands and bake bread of their own. This breadless life will be no more.

No worries, our hero is not alone, there are helpful forcing guiding them, in the form of this post, and they can make it on their own, share the recipe with friends, and enjoy freshly made bread any day of the week.

This recipe is so simple and easy, and the bread is soft and moist! Get on a video call with your friends and social distance is no more.

Tools

• Cast Iron Covered Dutch Oven a.k.a. cast iron pan makes a perfect pot to bake your bread in
• Mixing bowls. Before you can put the ingredients into the dutch oven, you need to mix them somewhere.
• Measuring spoons to, you know, measure things with them
• Kitchen scale because making bread dough is a fine art and perfection is a little bit more reachable when you quantify things
• Liquid measure cup. See previous point.
• Measuring cups. Sometimes when you buy measuring cups, measuring spoons come with them
• Kitchen mittens. Things get hot in the oven. ‘Nuff said.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups (400 g) of all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups (350 ml) of water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dry yeast

Preparation

• In a large bowl, mix all ingredients with the spoon, do not use electric mixer.
• Cover with a cloth and leave it to rise at least 4 hours, preferably over night.
• Put the dough on a flour surface and form a ball
• Heat the oven to maximum temp, my oven was at 270 °C (525 °F), and heat the Cast Iron pot in the oven, in which you are going to bake bread. The pot needs to have a lid and it must endure high temperatures.
• place the dough on a parchment paper in a hot pot and bake covered for 30 minutes
• after 30 minutes lower the temperature to 200 °C (390 °F), remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes. This makes the crust nice and crunchy.

You can play with different flours as well, corn flour, rye flour etc.

How did this adventure go?
Have you ever baked bread before?
Tell us in the comments. We’d love to hear your experience.