Bread in a Pot

I love bread.  The texture of the dough, the smell of it baking in the oven, its chewy exterior.  I originally wanted to start a blog to track the different breads I had attempted to make and so thought I would post my go-to bread recipe.  This is a recipe my mom slightly adapted from Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread recipe and is the first bread I ever made.  It’s a great recipe because it’s so forgiving and really requires little to no skill to make, just a bit of patience.  Time does the work for you on the dough and using a lidded cast iron pot in the oven creates the ideal baking environment to result in a rustic and crusty loaf.  Each time I make this loaf I use a slightly different amount of water and the loaf never looks the same but it is always tasty and Colin has a hard time waiting for it to cool before he is able to cut off a slice and slather it in butter and honey.

Bread in a Pot:

2 cups of whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

¼ tsp yeast

1 ½ cups water at room temperature

The night before baking, combine all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and stir to combine.  Mix in water.  The dough should be wet and sticky with no dry bits this may require you to add more water or flour to adjust the consistency (again it’s a forgiving recipe so don’t stress about it).  Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and leave on the counter overnight (min 12hrs).

Two hours before baking remove the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface, fold over a few times to coat in flour and form the dough into a ball. Wrap dough in a clean kitchen towel and let rise for two hours.

While the dough finishes its final rise, place a lidded cast iron pot (I use a fairly inexpensive one from ikea) in the oven and preheat the oven to 450-500 F.  When the dough has finished proofing and the oven is hot, remove the pot from the oven (careful it will be very hot!) and place the dough in the pot, cover with its lid and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until the crust is brown.  Remove pot from oven and tip bread out and allow to cool on cooling rack for 20-30 minutes before slicing.