Friday FUNdamentals: THE Bread

Every once in a while a recipe comes along that's so magical... so delicious... it immediately becomes part of your weekly rotation. Folks, I'd like to introduce you to THE bread.

A few summers ago, we were spending $5.00 on a loaf of crusty, artisanal bread every time we'd go to the farmers market. $5.00 for flour, water and yeast. That's a rip off. So we strived to make it ourselves, and we were pretty darn successful. It helped that we found a recipe on Pinterest that was almost fool proof.

So why do we call it THE bread? Every time the Wisconsin Test Kitchen offered to bring bread to a family meal; people would ask if it was THE bread... "You know, that really good bread that's soft on the inside and really crunchy on the outside?"

That's the beautiful thing about this bread- it's deceptively easy to make; and the end result is really, really delicious. We've given out this recipe more times than we can count. And now we'll share it with you. Make a loaf of it and impress your family at dinner time tonight.

THE bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon Instant or Rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 cups water

 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast. 

 

 

Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms. 

 

 

 Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great. 

 

 

Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. 

 

 

Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool. 

 

 

Recipe courtesy of www.simplysogood.com

 

It doesn't get any easier than that. And the results speak for themselves. THE bread is delicious with soup or chili; or even as part of a Panini (cough, cough, spoiler! Paninis are the next FUNdamental we're going to teach you to make).

 

We hope you start making bread as much as we do!

 

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew