Easy Artisan Bread

My mom taught me how to make this bread. It’s simple and delicious. I have adapted some of her recipe, but it’s an easy, classic way to make a beautiful and unique loaf of bread. It’s customizable in terms of toppings or adding spices or herbs or dried fruit and you will have a very hard time messing it up. It’s forgiving and always delicious. The trickiest part in planning ahead 12 hours. You can also split the dough recipe in half and make two small loaves (which my husband calls dinner loaves because we can eat them in one dinner!) I recommend reading through the recipe once before you begin baking. Can’t wait for you to try this!

What you need:

Covered Dutch Oven (I use a Le Creuset cast iron 4.5 qt)

3 1/2 Cups All-purpose flour, divided (feel free to experiment with bread flour, whole wheat or other blends you find!)
1 5/8 Cups warm water
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp raw honey
2 tsp kosher salt
More salt for topping — I love using a larger, flakey salt (In the photo below the bread has black crunchy salt)
About 2 Tablespoons cornmeal for bottom of bread when baking

Plan ahead 12 hours!

In a mixing bowl, add the water, stir in the honey and then sprinkle on the yeast. Wait about five minutes for the yeast to activate. The water should just be warm (not at all hot) to help the yeast come alive. It will begin to look foamy and sometimes you will see some bubbles forming. Next, in a large mixing bowl, add 3 cups flour and the salt. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour and stir to combine. It takes a few minutes of mixing to fully combine everything. It will look shaggy and sticky and not smooth at this point. Loosely cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel and let rest for 12 hours. I place the bowl in my oven (with the oven off!) overnight and finish the bread in the morning. After 12 hours, the dough will have doubled and have some bubbles present. Sprinkle the extra 1/2 cup flour all over the top of the dough in the bowl and put a little bit more on your hands. Gradually kneed the flour into the dough and then remove the dough ball from the bowl onto a clean kitchen counter. Continue to kneed the bread for about five minutes until it looks smoother. Place the dough back into the bowl for about 20 minutes while you get the dutch oven pan ready.

Preheat oven to 450. While the oven is preheating, place the dutch oven pan in the oven to heat up. Once preheated, carefully remove pan and sprinkle the cornmeal on the bottom of the pan. Place the dough inside on top of the cornmeal. This step helps the bread form a nice crust on the bottom of the loaf and avoid sticking to the pan. I have modified this step by putting a little bit of neutral cooking oil in the pan when I didn’t have cornmeal. Sprinkle the dough with the flakey salt and cover with the lid. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, carefully remove the lid and cook for another 15 minutes uncovered. The bread will look golden brown.

Just out of the oven with butter and jam

This is a loaf made from half the recipe because I made two

Row loves to help