I did make bread, yes that bread

You know the one I mean, a few ingredients, mix it up, let it sit, stir it once more and then BIG HEAT to bake it. Oh and it is good. The picture is from this morning, after sitting all night in a storage bag, but even the day after it looks tasty.

I was hesitant to make it, I had mentioned that before. My concern for not having the right piece of equipment, (the covered enamel over cast iron casserole) and the high cost of buying that piece of equipment - just for bread. I also did not want to take a chance on using a pan I already own and possibly ruining it. So I did the frugal thing, I made it anyway, with a bit of makeshift equipment. My crust is not a toasty brown as some I have seen in photos around the blogging community. But guess what................

The bread tastes wonderful, and no one said; "gee this might taste better if the crust had a darker golden brown hue to it". Actually no one talks like that in my family, they did say; 'pass the butter please!".

I also do not keep bread flour at the house, I can add a tablespoon of gluten, and we are good to go. But I forgot and this bread still is great. It calls for no sugar, and I thought, well now how will that taste? And let me reassure you, it tastes great.

The dough is loose, but that makes it easy to work with. No special equipment is needed, that is if your kitchen has a mixing spoon and rubber spatula. I did make one change, I cut the liquid down to 1 1/3 cups instead of the listed 1 1/2 cups. It made the dough a bit easier to work with on the second stirring. But my dough never looked as dry as the shot on this site, and I used their blog post as my recipe.

Here is the bread you see above:

3 c flour
1 t salt
1 T yeast (or 1 package)
1 1/3 c warm water
oil

Stir together until evenly mixed. Cover with a towel and let rest, at least 2 hours but up to 8. When ready to shape, add about 1 T oil directly to the bowl. Use a rubber spatula and work the dough away from the sides of the bowl, allowing the oil to flow under the dough as you work it free. Fold the dough over about 6 times, this will work a bit of the oil throughout the dough. Let it rise again for at least 1 hour.

30 minutes before ready to bake, preheat the oven and the pan(s) you will bake the bread in/or on at 450 degrees.

When ready to bake, "pour" the dough into the baking pan. The dough is still very loose. If you want a loaf you will need to use a narrow/loaf pan, glass would work very well. If you want a free form loaf (like the one in the photo) a large flat pan will work. Cover the pan you are baking with a larger pan, this will create an oven within your oven.

That is the concept for the enamel over cast iron pan.

Bake covered 30 - 35 minutes. Remove the cover and bake an additional 10 - 15 minutes more.

Let rest 10 minutes and then move to a cutting board and announce "dinner is ready".

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by,

M