Easy Peasant Bread

This has got te be about the easiest yeast risen bread I’ve seen. Very few ingredients but super tasty. Makes great next day toast if you find you have leftovers.

Ingredients:

4 cups unbleached flout (See note below)
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
2 cups lukewarm water
2-3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons room temperature butter
1 packet (or 2 teaspoons), active dry yeast (see note below)

Method:

Add water and sugar to a medium size bowl and mix. Pour yeast on top of the water, let stand for 10-15 minutes. While you wait mix flour and salt in a large bowl

After 10-15 minutes pour the yeast mixture into the four mixture and combine. until you have a shaggy dough. Wet your hands and mix, with your hands, until the ingredients are all combined.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a tea town and put into a warm place (see note below). Let it rise there for at least one hour. In winter it may take longer. Your dough should double in size. While you are waiting butter the inside of a Pyrex bread container and line with parchment paper up and over the long sides of the pan. Make sure the parchment paper drapes out over the sides of the pan. This will be helpful in removing the bread later. I use this method and don’t find the crust under-colored when I do.

When your dough is ready preheat your oven to 425 degrees F (make sure your bowl is no longer in the oven before starting to preheat). Uncover the bowl and grab two forks. It is time to deflate the dough. With a stabbing motion push the forks through the dough until the dough is reduced in volume to about where it was before you let it rise. I realize this seems stupid but it is a necessary step. It will reduce the holes you would get in your bread if you didn’t take this step.

Now we need one more rise. You’re going to find this dough is quite sticky. The easiest way I have found to transfer the dough to your baking container is to first pull the edges away from the side of your bowl with a fork or spoon then wet the hands and get underneath it and lift it out. Drop the dough into your bread pan. Wet your hands again and press the dough so it sits evenly in the pan. Now cover the pan with a clean towel and let stand for 30 minutes.

When the oven is hot put the bread in. Allow the bread to cook for 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 375 and cook for 15 minutes more. Take the bread out of the oven, use a knife to separate the bread from the short sides of the pan, pull up on the parchment paper and transfer the bread to a rack to cool. I cover my bread while cooling with a towel. This allows the bread to cool without seating. Once the bread is cool you can slice it up and serve.

Notes:

– Do not use bleached flour for this recipe. I have tried with success to use 50% white flour and 50% whole wheat flour. The bread is a bit heavier but the taste is still great.
– When raising yeast you want to get your heated water to approximately 95 degrees F. We have a setting on our teapot that lets us boil water to just 100 degrees and t works perfectly. A good method of raising yeast is to boil some water. Use 1 and 1/2 cups boiling water and add 1/2 cup cold water to it.
– Here is a trick to create a warm space for you yeast to rise. Turn your oven on at 350 degrees F and, after 1 minutes turn the oven off. Place your covered bowl in the oven. Do not run the oven longer than 1 minute though. You don’t want to cook the yeast – yet.