Bread in a Day

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you tell yourself every day that you will prep bread before you go to bed to bake in the morning and then you forget EVERY SINGLE DAY - yep that was me last week. 

I’d been promising Dan a loaf of cranberry walnut for a couple weeks but could not get my s@#$ together enough to deliver. We don’t eat a lot of bread but occasionally fresh bread is the order of the day. So after promising and not delivering I found a recipe for No Knead Bread that I decided to give a try.

I normally have coffee with some friends on Saturday morning so I decided to prep the bread before the call, let it rise and then bake it later in the day. Have you ever noticed they say you should wait until it’s fully cooled before slicing - are they serious? There is nothing better than a warm slice of fresh bread - IMHO. 

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups lukewarm water not too hot or it will kill the yeast @ 110 - 115 degrees

1 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon maple syrup

3 cups all-purpose flour plus 3 T 

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup dried cranberries

Instructions:

Whisk water, yeast, and maple syrup together in a measuring cup. Set aside until bubbles appear on the surface. In the meantime, stir flour and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add water mix to flour mix and stir until combined (it will look scraggly and that’s perfectly fine).

Cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel and leave to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until big and puffy (time will vary depending on altitude, humidity, and temperature).

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place an 8-9 inch round Dutch oven with an oven-safe lid in the oven as it preheats. Once the oven and Dutch oven are blazing hot, carefully remove the Dutch oven to a heat-proof surface. Remove the lid and carefully line with a piece of baking parchment (the Dutch oven is HOT! There will be parchment overhang, that’s fine.)

Scrape the dough into the lined Dutch oven in one piece. Cover with the lid (just place the lid over the parchment overhang). Bake for 30 minutes, then carefully remove the lid and finish baking for around 15 minutes or until golden brown, crusty, and baked through. Remove from the Dutch oven and place on a rack to cool.

Tonight we used our delicious bread to make Vegan BLAT - Vegan bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato sandwiches with a spicy sriracha mayo dressing - they were delicious!

Thanks for stopping by!