Awesome Bread - Recipe and Video Demonstration

One of our New Year's resolutions for 2012 is to cook more at home.  Cooking at home allows us to spend time together, learn some new culinary skills and recipes, save some money, and know what's in our food.  One item we have committed to making at home this year is bread.  Below is a recipe that was shared with us, as well as a video demonstration.  Thanks to Danny for sharing this easy, quick, delicious recipe!

To keep us motivated we have a tally on our dining room wall of the bread bought vs. bread made this year.  As of today the tally stands at:

• Bread made: 20
• Bread bought: 2

(Lame excuse: the 2 breads we bought were baguettes when we had company in town.)

Making our own bread also saves us money.  It costs us sixty-two cents a loaf (cost calculation link) for delicious, fresh bread compared to three or four dollars for a loaf at the store.

Below is my first YouTube video.  It's a demonstration of making the bread to show how simple and easy it is.  (It's also a good opportunity to laugh at me for a low-quality, but highly informative, how-to video.)

Awesome Bread Recipe
Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• .25 tsp yeast
• 1.25 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups water

Hardware:

• Dutch oven (cast iron or glass)
• Large Bowl (ceramic or glass)
• 1 cup measure
• 1/4 tsp measure

Directions:
Combine dry ingredients in bowl. Mix by hand (approx. 10 seconds). Add water and mix by hand until a sticky, uniform consistency is reached (approx. 2 minutes). Stir in any additional ingredients desired (chocolate, herbs, nuts, dried fruits, etc.).

Cover with tea towel or cloth for 12 - 18 hours.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees with dutch oven inside during preheating. Mix risen dough by hand in bowl. Spread a small amount of flour on bottom of dutch oven, just enough to cover bottom.  Place dough in dutch oven.

Bake covered at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove lid and cook for additional 5 - 15 minutes to brown.  Remove from oven and enjoy with butter, jam, avocado, or plain.

Happy baking!  We love this recipe and hope you do too.