I don't know how many of you suffer from weird, irrational avoidances like I do. Not fears really, just things you would really rather not encounter, like hearing nails on a chalkboard, or accidentally eating a glob of really fatty meat. Usually, for me at least, it's a sensory thing. One in particular, I held for a very long time: I hated the feeling of flour on my hands. It kept me from doing any baking where I would need to actually touch the batter. Eventually, however, my love of bread and motivation to stop paying Whole Foods prices for quality loaves won out and I gave in. Since then I've embraced homemade starter-risen sourdough, all manner of wonderful ethnic flatbreads, and your everyday perfect sandwich bread. But the recipe I go back to almost weekly is the one below that I adapted from a New York Times recipe by Mark Bittman. It is, as the name suggests, incredibly simple and really great for a beginner with a little bit of time.
p.s. if you make this for someone else, be sure to keep quiet about how easy it is. Homemade bread is something most people find both mystifying and extremely impressive.
So-Easy-It's-Stupid Bread
makes one large or two small loaves, or 12 dinner rolls
INGREDIENTS
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
525g unbleached, all-purpose flour (or bread flour, or a mix)
25g honey (or other sweetener - sugar, barley syrup, etc, but it MUST be actual sugar of some kind)
375g warm water (about 100 degrees)
EQUIPMENT
Food scale
Pizza stone, baking steel, or a heavy sheet pan
Parchment paper
Rimless cookie pan or pizza peel
Non-stick 12 cup muffin tin, if making rolls
PREPARATION
In a small bowl, mix water and honey to dissolve. In a separate large bowl or plastic container, mix yeast, salt and flour. Stir in water and honey mixture (preferably with your hands), mixing until there are no dry patches. Knead in the bowl a few times, then cover loosely with a damp tea towel or non-airtight lid of some kind. Let dough rise at room temperature for at least 2 hours, and up to 5 hours, depending upon room temp. Should be about double in volume.
Get ready to bake at this point or refrigerate, covered, for up to 4 days. If baking now, place broiler pan or other heavy metal pan (I use a hotel pan) on bottom rack of the oven. Place baking stone or steel on middle rack and preheat oven to 450 degrees; heat stone at that temperature for at least 30 minutes.
When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough and turn dough in hands to lightly stretch surface, creating a rounded top and a lumpy bottom. Form into a round boule, or longer oval loaf (or loaves). Plop onto parchment set over a peel or unrimmed cookie sheet, dust with more flour (rice flour if you have it), cover with plastic wrap, and let rest 40 minutes while the oven preheats. I also sometimes do this in a large loaf pan. Dough will be roughly double in size again when it’s ready to bake. You can also make these into delightful little rolls by dividing the dough into 12 pieces and placing them in a muffin tin. If you don't have non-stick tins, you'll want to grease the cups a little.
Using a wet serrated or very sharp knife, slash dough in one long, clean cut along the top, slightly off center. Slide parchment onto stone and immediately pour one cup hot water into broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap steam. Bake until well browned, roughly 20-30 minutes (closer to 20 for rolls). Cool completely on a rack. Cover in good quality butter, and try not to eat the whole loaf in one night.
Optional add-ins and substitutions:
Walnuts, pecans, or any nut or seed of your choosing, about 75g
Raisins or dried fruits, 75g
Swap out up to 1/3 of the flour for whole wheat, rye, buckwheat, etc
Add dried herbs
Add olives, roasted garlic or caramelized onions
A bit (50-75g) of that sourdough starter an overzealous friend (me) gave you
Substitute the same amount of liquid whey for the water (leftover from when you made 2 pounds of ricotta – cut salt back to 1 tsp if you do this)
