Bread

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I must begin by saying where the recipe originated, if in fact it originated anywhere...really. I think bread has been baked for centuries using flour, salt, water, and yeast or other form of leavening. As far as I know the recipe for "No-Knead" bread dough was printed in the New York times. I don't know what month, day, or year. The originator is Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery. That's all I know.

Crusty Bread

Since Mike and I have been together, I have been the cook. I think I can only count twice that he has made dinner. Most of the time I don’t really care (I love to be in the kitchen) but there are just some days that I wish I didn’t have to. One of those days happened and it was like a prayer had been answered.

http://naturallyella.com/2010/01/22/426/

Flour Tortillas (as made by Mike!)

I have for years made homemade bread. It's one of the most satisfying things to bake I think. And yet I have tried and tried to make bread that will have a nice crust and soft and moist inside. But that crispy outside crust is very difficult to achieve because of todays ovens.

http://themerlinmenu.blogspot.com/2010/10/dutch-oven-bread.html

The Merlin Menu: Dutch Oven Bread

And I’m not even kidding! Easiest. Recipe.

http://www.makeandtakes.com/warning-easiest-recipe-for-homemade-bread

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6287/rustic-country-bread-baked-dutch-oven

Rustic Country Bread - Baked in a Dutch oven

I was thinking about one of the main objectives of TFL (encourage, support and assist new bakers) and with that in mind I decided to attempt a " tried and true " recipe that would perhaps be appealing to bakers just getting into artisan baking. I set out to make a bread that would be easy and as fail-safe as possible for entry-level bakers to produce. I chose the Rustic Country Bread recipe from King Arthur flour. The recipe is available on line at their website. I thought it would be a good recipe to introduce bakers who haven’t used or had experience with using a pre-ferment method (poolish) when making an “artisan” bread and because of its simplicity it’s a good one for new bakers to try. I used a Dutch oven for baking the bread, which pretty much eliminates the problems of moving the fermented loaf onto a stone and running the risk of having it sink or losing it completely.