Lazy Sunday Morning Bread
Written By: Anneke Toliver
I come from a family who firmly believes in the life-giving power of freshly baked things, especially bread.
My mother was the kind of person who made just about everything we ate in her own kitchen—partly because it was cheaper that way, but mostly just because real food tastes good. And the kitchen was her happy place. I was raised to eat that way, and, in turn, raised to cook that way.
I remember baking “bread” as a little girl—a recipe I had devised, made up mostly of flour, sugar, and vanilla, baked in a bread pan until it was dry as dust on the outside and still gummy on the inside (yeast hadn’t yet found its way into my ingredients list). Mmm. But my younger brother always enjoyed eating it for toast, so I kept making it.
These days, I've learned a little more about the art of bread and have had plenty of practice, thanks to four constantly hungry kids, a husband who works out nearly incessantly, and lots of people who filter through our lives and stop for meals at our table.
Quite a few years ago, I stumbled upon a recipe online called Dutch Oven Bread. That post is no longer anywhere to be found on the interwebs, but this recipe has become my own from a combination of many I’ve tried over the years. It’s bread for people who don’t bake, and it’s a great way to impress your friends—it looks like it requires quite a bit of skill, but it’s super easy—promise. Perfect for a lazy Sunday morning.
You don’t knead it; just mix it up and let it sit. When it’s time to bake, form it into a ball and throw it into the oven to bake in one of my favorite kitchen tools, the dutch oven. Mix it up on Saturday night, throw it in the oven Sunday morning, and have a fresh, warm slice of bread with your coffee and save the rest of the loaf for Sunday dinner.
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
(All purpose, bread, white, wheat—you choose. If you use whole wheat, use a mixture of white flour and whole wheat, otherwise the bread will be very heavy.)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups water
Directions:
Mix flour, salt, and yeast. Add water and, using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir together until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside for up to 12 hours.
Put dutch oven in a cold oven and turn on to 450 degrees. Allow pot to preheat for 10 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, turn dough out onto a floured counter. Shape into a ball and allow to rest while the oven preheats.
Place dough ball into hot pot and cover with the lid. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake 5 to 10 minutes more, until nicely browned.
Cool on wire rack at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Tips:
If you don’t have a dutch oven, no worries; just bake in any oven proof pot that is safe to 450 degrees.
This bread can be mixed and left to sit while the oven and pot preheat, then thrown right in to bake. It won’t rise quite as high or have as deep a flavor, but it can be done if you need bread in a hurry. If you’re not in a big hurry, allow it to sit and rise anywhere from 1 to 12 hours. It works great to mix up at night and bake in the morning, or mix in the morning or at lunchtime and bake for dinner.
I like to put my ball of dough on a piece of parchment paper. It makes clean up and transferring to the oven a piece of cake. The parchment paper is safe to bake.
Try add-ins! Cinnamon and raisins, shredded parmesan and rosemary, dried cranberries and walnuts, anything is possible! Mix them in at the beginning and make the rise time no more than 3 hours.
Kitchen Essentials: Dutch Oven Bread Edition
Here are a few of my favorites for bread baking.
I often use my Pampered Chef Batter Bowl, but this one on Amazon is basically the same. It’s easy to track your rise.
My favorite spatula for stirring and scraping is the red one from this set. Solid silicone so it’s really easy to clean.
A Dutch Oven is essential to any kitchen, whether you bake bread or not. This will bake delicious bread and add more flavor to any soup or stew or sauce you choose to throw at it.
While I’m a total sucker for warm, sunny skies, I do love curling up by the fire with a hot cup of something and a good book, and I’ll take advantage of any excuse to spend my day in leggings and a hoodie. (Notice the constant presence of some sort of heat source?) But I have to say, winter’s biggest saving grace is the food. Soups, stews, fresh baked bread. Ultimate comfort food—which is pretty important when we’re freezing our tushies off.