The pandemic that started in the United States in March 2020 led to a shortage of many items, which then led many people to explore and embrace how to be more self sufficient and self reliant. As a result, there was a growing interest in many aspects of homesteading type activities like baking, sewing, growing food and keeping chickens for eggs and meat.
If you are new to keeping chickens or thinking about it, my friend Anne wrote “The Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens: How to Raise a Happy Backyard Flock.” This comprehensive guide will help you with just about every aspect of keeping chickens.
And as mentioned in the podcast, here is a recipe for crusty and rustic artisan bread.
Artisan Bread Recipe
You only need 4 ingredients to make this bread. It makes 3-4 medium sized loaves and you can even refrigerate the dough for a few days should you want to bake over the span of a few days.
Things you will need:
- A large mixing bowl/container
- A large mixing spatula
- Plastic wrap
- Parchment paper
- Cornmeal
- A dutch oven
- Bread lame
- Silicone oven mitts
- Cooking rack
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Kitchen thermometer
Ingredients:
3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees F)
1 ½ tablespoons active dry yeast
6 ½ cups unsifted, unbleached all purpose white flour
1 ½ tablespoons salt
Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the water and yeast and let it sit at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the flour and then the salt. Using the mixing spatula, mix while scraping the sides of the bowl until all of the flour has been incorporated and a dough ball forms.
3. Cover the bowl with some plastic wrap leaving an opening to allow the gases to escape during the first proofing. Place the bowl in a warm, draft free spot. (I like to put my bowl inside the microwave.) Let it rest for 2 hours.
4. After 2 hours, the dough should have risen and doubled in size. You will also see a lot of air pockets letting you know that the yeast is active and doing its job.
5. Remove the plastic wrap. With wet (or floured) hands, punch down the dough ball to remove all of the air pockets. You will notice that the dough will collapse and shrink back to half its size. You are now ready to prepare your first loaf for baking.
6. Prepare a work surface with a bit of flour. Tear of a chunk of dough from the main dough ball and lightly knead the dough with just a bit of flour. Only add flour if the dough ball is too tacky to work with. Form a dough ball once you see a tight stretch forming on the surface of the dough ball. Place the dough ball on a piece of parchment paper that has been sprinkled with a bit of cornmeal. Let this newly formed loaf proof on the counter for 40 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven and the dutch oven to 450 degrees F. This takes about 15-20 minutes depending on the oven.
8. Once the loaf is done proofing after 40 minutes, you should notice that the loaf got a bit bigger as the yeast continued to work. Gently dust the surface of the loaf with some flour and score the dough with the bread lame.
9. Carefully remove the dutch oven from the oven. IT IS SUPER HOT, that’s why I use silicone oven mitts made specifically for high heat. What looks like the lid of the dutch oven will be the bottom part for baking and what looks like the pot portion of the dutch oven will serve as the dome on top of the bread. Grab the parchment paper by the corners and carefully place on/in the dutch oven and cover it with the dome portion of the dutch oven.
10. Place the dutch oven back into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the dome portion of the dutch oven and continue to bake another 10-15 minutes until the crust is golden brown. **Again, BE VERY CAREFUL when you remove the dome portion after the 30 minutes cook time as steam has been building up inside the dome. Open the dome so the air escapes AWAY from your face.
11. Once the crust is golden, remove it from the oven and transfer the bread to a cooling rack. Let it cool for about 45 minutes before cutting into it.
With the leftover dough, you can repeat steps 6 through 11 until all of the dough is used up or you can place the dough into the refrigerator until you are ready to bake again. Just start with step 6 when it is time to bake. The dough can be left in the refrigerator for about 5 days.
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