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Enjoying a warm loaf of artisan bread for breakfast is a great way to start your day, but the costs can add up if you buy bread too often.
To save money, learn how to make delicious no-knead artisan bread at home. The recipe below only takes about five minutes a day and only requires five ingredients you may already have at home.
The final product is a loaf of bread with a soft and fluffy inside with a crunchy crust. (Related: 8 Survival bread recipes for preppers.)
These tools aren’t required, but having them will make it easier to bake the bread at home.
The whole family will love this freshly baked bread, which is best used to make garlic bread, various sandwiches, or torn and dipped into a hearty soup. Fresh bread is also a great snack with a dollop of butter.
Ideally, if you want to bake bread you should already have this dough sitting in the refrigerator. This helps save time instead of gathering ingredients to bake a fresh loaf of bread or having to let your dough rise to room temperature first.
This dough works best straight from the fridge, but if this is your first time baking this bread, you will need to make the “master dough.”
You need the following ingredients to make the master dough:
Flour
You can use whole wheat or fresh ground flour, but reduce the flour to five and a half cups and increase only if the dough is too wet and won’t hold its shape.
Avoid measuring errors by spooning the flour into a measuring cup and leveling it with the edge of a dull knife.
Salt
You can use sea salt, but if you don’t have it table salt will do.
Vinegar
The recipe requires apple cider vinegar. You can also use other kinds of vinegar to help create a better texture in no-knead bread recipes.
Water
The master dough needs water that is warm enough to activate yeast, but not so hot that it kills it.
If using a thermometer, the water must be 115 F or warm to the inside of your wrist. Use water that is free from chlorine or other contaminants because this can affect baking.
Yeast
Use active dry yeast or instant yeast. Store the yeast in the fridge to help prolong its shelf life.
Follow this recipe to make artisan bread at home.
Preparation:
Try these baking tips the next time you want to bake bread:
Banneton bowl alternatives
If you don’t have a proofing bowl, use a clean bowl that is made of ceramic, glass or stainless steel instead. You can also use a small wicker basket or a colander.
Expect the dough to be very wet
Remember that the dough will be wet. Since the recipe is for a wet dough, don’t keep adding flour to make the loaf form.
This “free-form” loaf of bread is no-knead and it needs to be wet for the gluten to form properly.
Use flour for easy baking
Keep the wet dough from sticking to your hands, tools and work surface by sprinkling flour before you get started.
You don’t need to use too much dough, but a well-coated surface will make it easier to work the dough.
Use a cookie sheet if you don’t have a Dutch oven
If you don’t own a Dutch oven, use a cookie sheet for the bread. Cover the sheet with parchment paper.
Place a metal broiling pan in the oven on the lowest rack and preheat it and the cookie sheet to 450 F. Place the loaf in the oven and quickly pour a cup of hot water into the broiler pan. Shut the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
Wait before you slice
It can be tempting to slice the bread the minute you take it out of the oven, but waiting is worth it.
Wait at least 20 minutes before slicing into the loaf because slicing into a hot loaf means you will end up with a gummy center that will seem underbaked.
Use butter for a softer crust
If you don’t like bread with a crunchy crust, immediately brush the loaf with butter the second it comes out of the oven.
The butter helps soften the crust just a bit so it’s not too crunchy.
Use linens bags to keep bread fresh longer
If you have leftover artisan bread, store it in a linen bread bag.
You can also use plastic wrap or a Ziploc bag, but using a linen bread bag helps homemade bread last for up to six days before drying out. By day four, the bread will be a bit drier, but it’s still easy to slice and soft on the inside.
Linen bread bags can also be used to store dinner rolls, homemade biscuits and English muffins. Note that if you have softer, crusted bread, like sandwich bread or homemade rolls, it will dry out after one or two days.
Linen is better than cotton for bread storage because the former is stronger than cotton so it will last longer in your kitchen.
Learn how to bake no-knead artisan bread at home to save money on store-bought bread.
Watch the video below for an easy banana bread recipe.
This video is from the high impact Flix and more!!! channel on Brighteon.com.
Homemade sourdough bread a boon for preppers.
8 Survival bread recipes for preppers.
Need something to finish a recipe? Here are some alternatives to common cooking ingredients.
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