Sometimes life feels like layers of complications. Like taxes and traffic and cavities and getting laid off are all piled high into one smelly sandwich that you’re supposed to eat for lunch. Really…? Worst sandwich ever. Do not want.
Complicated. Yea. It happens to you. It happens to me.
Luckily there’s… bread. And thank the holy heavens for butter.
Bread and butter. Yes. A post about bread and butter. Perhaps the most beautiful and uncomplicated thing you can put into your face. Don’t fight me on this one. That would only make things more complicated. Go and eat. Bread and butter.
And yes… I burnt the bottom of my bread a bit. These things happen.
This is a pretty foolproof bread recipe. Don’t worry. If you’re intimidated by yeast and bread baking you might consider freeing yourself of that fear with this recipe. Really… all you need is time… sometimes that’s the hardest ingredient to come by. Take a lazy weekend afternoon and give this bread a try. It’s worth the effort just to make your house smell like fresh baked bread. Trust.
Two Crusty Round Loaves
I followed the recipe I found from Jaden of Steamy Kitchen
4 cups bread flour (the higher gluten content in important)
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
Measure out 1/4 cup of bread flour and reserve a the clean counter top. Place the remaining 3 3/4 cup bread flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment. Measure the salt and place on one side of the flour and add the yeast to the opposite side of the flour. Pour the warm water in the middle and mix on low speed (with the paddle attachment) until the dough just comes together.
When the dough forms a mass, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Dough should clear the sides but may stick to the bottom a bit. If you feel like the dough is too sticky or too dry, feel free to add a touch more water or flour by the tablespoonful. After 2 minutes, let the dough rest for five minutes.
After the five minute rest, mix the dough again for 3 minutes. Place the dough on the counter and, using the 1/4 cup of bread flour we reserved in the beginning, hand knead the dough. You may not need to incorporate the entire 1/4 cup. If the dough feels firm and solid enough, just knead for a few minutes and prepare it to rest. You should have a satiny, smooth compact ball.
Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and turn the dough over to coat the entire dough lightly in oil. Cover with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot to rest for 1 1/2 hours. The dough should double in size. Remove from the bowl, punch down and reform into a ball. Return to the bowl, cover and allow to rest for another 30 minutes.
After the second short rest, place the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut into 2 pieces. Form each piece into a smooth, round ball, tucking any haggard edges on the underside of the dough. Leave to rest, covered with a damp cloth, on the lightly floured surface for 45 minutes to a hour.
During the last 20 minutes of the resting period, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place a baking rack in the lower third of the oven and leave either a baking stone or an upside down baking sheet in the oven to heat as well.
Just before the boules are set to go in the oven, slash the top of the loaves with 2 to 4 slashes, using a sharp knife. This will allow the bread to expand in the oven. Remove the super hot baking sheet from the oven. Carefully transfer the dough onto the baking sheets and return to the oven.
Here’s some fun! Just after you put the bread in the oven, take 1/4 cup of water, open the oven door, quickly poor the water onto the hot oven floor and immediately close the oven door. We’re creating steam here people… it’s exciting. Wait 2 minutes and repeat the process.
Bake loaves for 20-25 minutes. They’ll be golden and gorgeous. Remove from the oven and insert a thermometer. The temperature should be between 190 to 210 degrees F.
Here’s the hard part: let the bread cool completely before slicing.
You did it! Now where’s the butter!?
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any chance of a recipe for those of us living in student poverty, sans kitchenaid mixer? please?!
I agree! Is this bread do–able without the mixer?
Totally! I make bread and bagels and stuff all the time, you pretty much follow the same recipe, except instead of a kitchenaid you mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a spoon and then your hands. First, add a bit of the flour, the warm water and the yeast to the bowl, stir and let sit for a few minutes so you can be sure the yeast is active. If it’s bubbly and seems to rise a bit, you’re good to go. I have never encountered yeast that is not active, but for some reason this is part of the ritual.
Add the rest of the ingredients and proceed to hand mix, then move on to the steps Joy has laid out sans mixer. The dough will stick to your hands like crazy, which is a sensation I really can’t stand, so I use those floury plastic disposable kitchen gloves. Do not use slick latex kitchen gloves, as it sticks to those also.
Definitely check the yeast. I have had yeast that wasn’t active from the same container as some that was active. I don’t understand, I think it was more the liquid I was adding it to but anyway, check it.
i have but-ta here for you! homemade, just for you!
I really love homemade bread with a little butter on it as well! I think I might go start some myself soon. There’s something so calming and home-y about it.
This post just made my bad day 20times better !
Hey Anne,
You should be able to follow the directions as listed but instead of using the mixer to do the mixing do this instead:
Put your dry ingredients (minus yeast) in a bowl. Make a well in that hill and pour you luke warm water into it. Sprinkle the yeast over the water and wait a minute or so. Then start to mix in the flour with the water until you get it together into a doughy gloop. Then knead the dough (see Joy’s earlier post I believe she has somewhere if you need tips) until it gets the nice smooth consistency that you see in the pictures and it stops sticking to the bowl as much–you may need to add a smidge of flour to get it to this consistency.
The rest is the same, so have fun with cheap bread! (As a college student who made and still makes her own bread, it is much cheaper to make it at home!)
Good luck Anne! Thanks for the post too!
is the steam absolutely necessary, or just for fun? cuz knowing myself, i might screw the bread up! and oh and how would i do this without a stand mixer??? please email me with answers!
I am an avid fan of your blog, Joy. It lowers my blood pressure. And I can tell when it starts: I sit down at the computer (usually with tea or coffee), check out “Joy The Baker”, and begin to chill, relax, and then proceed to ingest your words and gorgeous photos! So, thanks a million and keep on doing what ya do!
I have this one question though….do you think I could substitute whole grain flour for the regular bread flour and still get pretty much the same crumb and texture?
Thanks again.
I just got a new, wonderful stand mixer and have been itching to make bread! I can’t wait! And your beautiful pictures are just making me want to do it now – right now! Like, stay up all night and bake bread. Clearly, not going to happen, but maybe this weekend. Thanks Joy!
Ha,
I just had bread and butter for dinner. Though the bread was just rolls from Costco, the butter was fresh Hawaiian sea salt butter from the dairy with about 12 cow by my house on Oahu. Nothing beats this butter
Thanks, Castal! I’ll give that a shot this weekend. I could use the exercise anyway!
Alright…… you may have convinced me to try making bread! So much better, so much less expensive than buying it! And it looks fun :-)
Yup.there are bread and butter days…
A trick that I always use now when I make bread is to mix the packet of yeast with warm water in a small (non-metallic) bowl first, cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes or so while I get the rest of my ingredients together. You want enough water to just barely dissolve the yeast. By the time you have all your other things together if the yeast is good it will be all frothy and risen. This way you know that your yeast is good before you mix it into all your ingredients.
I always do this now because I know I hate it when I have bad yeast and I wait my hour and there’s no rise. You know you have that packet of yeast that claims by the expiration date it’s still good but really who knows how old it is, lol. So far in the last 4 or 5 years since I’ve learned that I’ve never had a loaf go flat on me.
Thanks Stan… This is good to know! In fact, I am proofing my yeast right now :o).
There’s definitely nothing better than freshly made bread smothered in butter! Simple…soothing…soft… and seriously scrumptious! :)
funny that you should post about this. i made some fresh bread last night and ate a few pieces already…of course, with butter! but also some of my tripleberry jam…heaven!
Yum! I love making bread! Its soo good staight out of the oven!!
I love this recipe – thanks for reminding me of it!It is so simply delicious!
I am making this lovely bread during the historic Washington D.C. snowstorm. Nothing better than walking back into the house from shoveling to the smell of this bread! :)
It’s Saturday afternoon and my house smells delicious…..breads in the oven. Just about an 30 + cool time away.
Joy,
My bread is on its first rest. It’s amazing how much you make me want to bake things. Can’t wait for how the house will smell in an hour or two.
I’ve always had trouble with bread (too dense, doesn’t rise, burns, etc.) but this was perfect! and so much simpler than the other recipes i’ve tried!
the funny thing is that is exactly what i just ate for dinner..sometimes nothing beats a little fresh baked bread with butter. okay maybe bread, butter and a little honey.
Hah, student poverty in my case means no stove/oven. I have raw sugar, cereal, a knife and forks… anything I could produce with those?
Seriously though, if you have something stashed away for us students Joy, I’d love to see it! :D Bread looks so good, can’t wait until spring break to try it out.
hey joy!
i empathize with you on the bread and butter days… hopefully, with such gorgeous and delicious looking bread, you’re days will look sunnier soon :)
Bread and butter with suger sprinkled on top: my childhood snack, I still love it, it’s my comfort food
I made bread last night, the dough is in the fridge and I can’t wait to take it out and bake it today. My will be complete with bread and cheese, followed by bread and chocolate. I am giving up guilt because one of the finest things in the world is the satisfaction of making then baking bread.
That is such a beautiful loaf-and there is nothing better than bread and butter.:)
Hmmmmm…… mouth watering now. Must go to store for bread flour then bread and butter, here I come!
Gorgeous loaf of bread – mine never look quite this lovely!
joy, may i just add “breaking up with your boyfriend” as another icky ingredient to that sandwich of life?
i baked bread over the weekend too.
your bread looks so deliciously wonderful though!
Can’t wait to try this recipe out! Then spread some butter on a warm piece and eat it up!
I just wanted to say thanks again to the commenters who gave me advice on how to make this bread without a mixer; I gave it a shot, and it turned out delicious (if not as pretty as yours, Joy)!
You guys are the best!
i made your bread this weekend! it was my first foray into the bread making world (other than quick-loaf breads)… it was tough. process and my bread. not that its not good. but i dont have a stand mixer, so i tired the suggestions that someone put on the comments and it sort of worked. did i over knead?
I just finished baking this recipe. Good, basic crusty bread. As a hint to non-experienced bakers: be very careful when you add the water for steam. If you are using a baking stone, the stone absorbs the moisture, and may actually break or crack. It happened to me in the past, so I no longer use a stone when I steam my breads.
Yummmy! I loooooove bread! I made this today and it was so good, awesome with nutella! I did not use a mixer and had no problems.
I just happened to find your site and i saw this post and it made me smile. bread and butter is just the best thing ever in the whole world. in fact i had that converstation with my co-worker today. two weeks ago i mentioned i was going to attempt to bake bread. today she asked me how it went, and asked if i smothered it with butter as soon as it came out of the over…
..um… yes. duh?
haha. so i just wanted to say you rock. bread and butter rocks. and i’m totally reading your blog from now on.
This bread is SO GOOD!!!
Do you know a comparably awesome baguette recipe?
I cannot even believe it, but I made this. THANK YOU. So tasty!
Hi just found out your blog and been enjoying your baking posts! Question: does this bread recipe do not need any sugar? how the yeast will be activated? Thanks!
Joy,
Could you do the first mix in a food processor on pulse & then hand knead? Would the processor make the dough too tough?
Though certainly not an expert, I don’t think this would work well. The way bread chemistry works is that you’re trying to make gluten strands by pulling and stretching the dough. I’d think that the food processor might chop through all those gluteny strands. Maybe you can recreate them when you hand knead? I’d just do the first mix with a wooden spoon.
YUM! Just popped this loaf out of the oven and… after allowing it to cool alllllmost completely, tasted it — delish! And easy! I don’t have a stand mixer, so did the initial mixing with a wooden spoon and then turned it out onto my counter and did all the kneading by hand. This was the fist time I ever made bread dough by hand, so wasn’t quite sure when the dough was ready, so I mostly just followed the time instructions and it turned out great.
I’m freezing the dough for the second loaf (I put it in the freezer after the 2nd rise). I love fresh bread, but my boyfriend and I just don’t get through it quickly enough before it gets stale. I’m thinking I’ll thaw it in the fridge the morning I want to bake it, then allow an hour or 2 to rise on the counter before baking. We’ll see how it goes, but if it works — I’m never buying bread again!
Oh Joy! You were so aptly named. Your blog brings me such happiness. Bread and butter. What a concept!!!
Delicious! It’s SO hard not to eat it right as it comes out of the oven, however! Any ideas on how to keep my boyfriend from devouring it on sight?!
no ideas…. sorry.
what if i can´t do the steaming thing in my oven?
I know this is a late comment, but if you put cornmeal on the board the bread is on before putting it in the oven, it slides so much more easily onto the baking stone. I love fresh bread!
So, I know I’m a little late on this. I know this. But, I have a question, and I really REALLY want delicious fresh bread…
When you put the bread on the baking sheet, is the baking sheet still upside down? Does it matter? Or was that just to keep the baking sheet from “popping” in the oven? (I don’t know what it’s actually called, I call it popping. Because it makes that scary twangy noise.)
Thaaanks!
Joy, you probably won’t ever read this….but here’s hoping. Seriously….Shut the front door! I just made this & I feel so unbelievably accomplished! (lol) Never made bread from scratch (or otherwise) before & I’m such a wannabe baker to the point that I actually went against my (& Suze Orman’s) better judgement & maxed out my unbelievably high-interest credit card to get my beautiful pink Kitchen Aid. So worth it! Life sucks so much right now…I just needed something amazing to happen & this bread was it!
this makes me so happy!
Dear Joy,
I love your blog and I love your recipes!
I had so much fun with this bread recipe!
Thank you so much!
-Anna
Hey! This recipe works great halved (just making one boule) and using all-purpose instead of bread flour. You can do it all by hand too. Mine turned out tall and so made a great bowl for soup. Thanks, Joy!
PS: I did not wait for it to totally cool before tearing off a hunk!
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