You're gonna bake bread. Old fashioned, full of gluten, honest to goodness WHITE bread. You rebel.
And in fact today I'm going to make more bread in it. Partly because the bread is really good and partly because it's just fun. Also I'm out of bread, and like any good mini-Martha instead of going to the store to buy bread, well of course I'm going to bake some myself in the cob oven I built.
I'm not sure when this happened to me but I have a hunch it's only going to get worse, culminating with me growing my own heart valve when I'm 80.
Table of Contents
Baking Bread in a Cob oven
Baking bread in a cob oven is FUN.
This was just a basic, white bread recipe that you can use in any oven, not just a cob oven.
It's originally from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking.
I'm back. Book has been ordered.
update: I've since ordered the book and use it every week. Always. I am never not making bread.
It's a no knead bread, but not the kind that's been making the rounds on the Internet over the past few years. That no knead bread is a very, very wet dough that has to be baked in some sort of pot or crock. I love that bread by the way and make a lot of it ... this just isn't that sort of no knead recipe. It's a wet dough, but manageable unlike the other no knead recipes.
No Knead White Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups water luke warm
- 1 tablespoon yeast 1 packet
- 1.5 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
- 6.5 cups white flour unbleached, all-purpose white flour
- Cornmeal for pizza peel
Instructions
- Add 1 Tbsp. yeast to bowl along with 1-2 Tbsps kosher salt.. Add 3 cups warm water. Stir.
- Gradually add 6 1⁄2 cups flour.
- Stir the mixture until it's thickened and well combined. I use this Danish Whisk which is GREAT. Cover bowl with tea towel. Allow to rise for 2 hours.
- Once the dough has risen divide it into 3. Form each section into a ball and pull the 4 sides of the dough to the underneath. This is stretching out the gluten and aligning it. It gives you a nice tight top to the bread.
- Preheat oven to 450 f. You want it to heat for an hour prior to baking your bread.
- Leave the dough for its final proof on a very well floured proofing cloth (the floured, linen mat you see in my video) or tea towel for 45 minutes.
- After it's proofed, gently transfer to your peel or baking tray/stone. Cut several slashes across the top. This allows the bread to move upwards as opposed to sideways when it bakes.
- Bake until the interior temperature of the bread is 210 f. (around 25 minutes).
Notes
*You can also just use ⅓rd of the dough, and put the remaining dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
*For an extra nice crust, bake the bread in a preheated dutch oven. Leave the lid on for the first 15 minutes of the bake and then remove it.
*Try removing 1 cup of the white flour and replacing it with Red Fife, Rye or another flour for a different flavour.
Nutrition
Consider this next fact a warning. If you make 3 loaves of bread, you will eat 3 loaves of bread. I did. No joke. I ate 3 loaves of bread in 3 days. By myself. I now have back fat. This is a serious warning and not even a joke. YOU WILL GET FAT if you make homemade bread. There's no way around it.
If you can deal with that, then bake away. If you can't you'd best stick to other baking. Like baked broccoli. Which taste especially good with a nice cheese sauce and a big ... slice ... of bread.
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I tried your basic white bread loaf. I cooked the first two loaves after the second rising and they turned out great! I refrigerated the third loaf for three days. I wrapped it in plastic wrap while in the fridge. It still formed a bit of a crust. I folded the dough over a few times before forming it into a round loaf and slashed the top after rising again. I cooked as usual at 400F for about 30 minutes. It looked like a volleyball! What is the proper way to store the dough in the fridge and what do you think happened to my third loaf?
Hi Jen! I store my extra dough either in a large bowl with plastic wrap across the top or more recently I've been using a tupperware type of container that's meant for storing dry goods. It works really great. It has a snap on lid and the bread is always in good condition even after a couple of weeks! ~ karen
I'm used to making bread with lard and ur recipe doesn't ask for lard, is that ok?
Hi,
I love Rough Linen and now because of you I have to buy some proving cloths even though I've never been successful the few times I've attempted to make bread. I'm also going to try your recipe as it looks soooooo good in your photos.
P.S. I'll be checking out more of your site-you had me at bread, back fat, and that you're holding a chicken in your photo :-)
Try the bread book I recommend Carol! It's really great. Try my recipe first (which is theirs) then get it. You're bread ruining days will be over! ~ karen
Hi Karen,
My husband and I were watching your videos on building a cob oven, which are terrific, and I recognized your gorgeous loaf of bread. I was thrilled to see that you are using the recipe from ABin5.
I will be building an oven to bake bread and pizza, thanks for the inspiration.
Cheers, Zoë (co-author Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day)
Did ... Did I not notice this comment before??!! I can't believe I somehow missed this comment! I recommend your book every minute of every day, lol. At least it feels like it. If you run through my posts you'd be hard pressed to find one on bread that doesn't link to your book! I'm so excited you posted here! In fact, so excited that I appear to be using only exclamation marks as punctuation. Honestly. Great book. As a matter of fact I just baked two loaves in my cob oven tonight after I made some pizza. Which leads me to my question for you ... did you make the oven? ~ karen!
Discovered your blog 3 days ago, been reading almost every single post and very much enjoyed it! Love your humor!! Did not only read but made your bread recipe tonight, it looks beautiful! 3 loves... Now I'll be fat by tomorrow but that's totally worthed!
Hi Delphine. STOP. STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP. Stop making bread immediately, lol. Seriously. I've gained 5 lbs since I built my pizza oven. It has all congregated to my back. Two lumps. ~ karen!
Bread lumps are ok... or pizza lumps, as long as it's from deliciousness! Now excuse me, i need to get the bread out of the freezer that i put in there last night to save for later!
Artisan Bread in Five is probably my most-used book! There's a new edition out called The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's cheaper and has quite a bit more info than the original book, so I recommend getting that instead if it's not too late.
The authors of the book also run a great website (artisanbreadinfive.com) with extra recipes and advice. It's very useful, even if you don't have the book yet.
In addition to baguettes, I've made pita bread, pizza, naan, and cinnamon rolls with their recipes! I can't recommend them enough!
They have a book for healthy bread, too. I haven't tried it, but it might be good for those who grind their own wheat.
lovely~ but Karen, how do you store your bread? Do you use those bags from Rough Linen or plastic?
Hi Karen! If I make a lot of loaves, I freeze all but one loaf in freezer bags. Then if I know I'm going to go through the loaf in a day or two I keep them in the Rough Linen bags so the crust stays nice. If I think it's going to be around for more than a couple of days I put it in a plastic bag (but don't close it) and then put that bag in the Rough Linen bag, and close *that* bag. Lol. Now that I think of it, I have quite a bread storage system. :) ~ karen
I gained five pounds by simply watching your video....and, slathering it with a ton of whipped artisan creamery butter!
I'd eat those three loaves in one day. With lots and lots of butter. Easy.
I found your extraordinary site when I tore a fingernail -- and spent a most enjoyable few weeks starting with the first post and "caching up." Thanks for all the great information and the FUN! I've been a lurker, but just had to come out to say -- you really don't have to make all three loaves at once! You leave the rest in the fridge (with saran wrap right on top) for up to two weeks and bake as needed. The longer it sits, the more flavorful the bread. Here is a link from the wonderful folks at King Arthur Flour. If you aren't aware of these folks, you are in for a treat -- they even have a Baker's Hotline (which is on my speed-dial.) http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2009/12/01/the-crunchiest-crackliest-chewiest-lightest-easiest-bread-youll-ever-bake/
Hi Missey D! Thanks for coming out of hiding. :) The reason I make 3 loaves at once is because firing up the bread oven is a bit of a thing and you don't want to do it for just one loaf of bread. :) Plus how can I eat 3 loaves all at once and then complain about it if I don't bake them, lol?
OMG. Delish. That is all.
Wait. Did I mention that I'm drooling?
You do have a way of reading your readers minds, don't you? I was just thinking yesterday that I should occasionally start making my own bread, but the kneading part sort of put me off. I don't have a cob oven, but I'm ridiculously excited to just have an oven at all again after years of not, (ovens are rare in Japan), so it will have to do!
I just finished baking 3 loaves. DELICIOUS! An even easier recipe than the one I found on Pinterest. Thanks SO much for sending it. My husband and kids say a big thank you as well.
Please keep sending amazing food recipes.
LOL. You're welcome! Don't eat too much! ~ karen
I love this recipe! We eat this bread probably a little too often and we never seem to get tired of it!
p.s., love the music!
Homemade bread, cheese and wine - best dinner ever! Broccoli - not so much. Funny story about broccoli - a friend's kid loves broccoli, so one day at his first soccer practice, the kids aren't doing their sprints so the coach threatens them with having to eat broccoli. My friend's kid jumps up and yells, "yay broccoli!!!!!" It was at that moment when all the other kids were staring at him like he had 3 heads that he realized it wasn't that cool to love broccoli:)
Thanks for the warning. And now I want to polish off the rest of the olive loaf I picked up the other day. The butter is sitting right there on the counter. Sigh...
I'm convinced! I must make cob oven just for bread making alone.
I had a breadmaker and almost ate myself right into a new pants size. I can't imagine the damage that I could do with three loaves fresh from the oven.... especially in summer which is the time of loose dresses and sandals.
You bread looks wonderful. There's nothing like a fresh from the oven, hot loaf of fresh bread, served with soft, creamy butter. I used to make a brioche in my breadmaker until I realized I was eating too much bread. Sigh.... I think that your "back fat" Karen, could be caused by eating too much bread at one sitting. Either that, or, you're starting to grow " wings". It sonetimes happens to gals who spend a lot of time communing with chickens. lol
THIS IS SO COOL and I am so jealous. I would literally make pizza all the time as well as bread. If only I had the room for one. Can you make a cast iron skillet breakfast in there?