NO-TIME ARTISAN BREAD
When the weather turns cold, I tend to crave a lot of hot soups and hearty dinners. I tried an amazing recipe a few years back for an artisan loaf of bread to pair with the many soups I was concocting, and it was so good. As I recall, it had only 3 or 4 ingredients and was quite simple to make. But it took 18 hours. Yup, you read that right. I pretty much never plan my life that far out, so I’ve only made it twice. But 4:00 on a blustery afternoon kept rolling around, and I would think, “this is perfect soup weather!” So I’d start to throw together a soup, only to find myself wishing I had some chewy, crusty bread to pair with it.
Cue this recipe! I did some research and found you don’t actually need 18 hours to pull off an amazing artisan loaf of bread. In fact, you really only need about an hour, start to finish. Now as a disclaimer, this recipe is going to look weird to you. You might even think I’m crazy to ask you to microwave your bread dough. But just try it! I promise you won’t be disappointed! You’ll be so happy to be a procrastinator like me once you bite into a slice of this satisfyingly crunchy, luxuriously chewy bread. (And bonus: the leftovers make the BEST toast slathered with butter and jam, or avo toast topped with a fried egg, or basically any kind of tartine you can imagine.)
No-Time Artisan Bread
serves 6
Ingredients:
- 4 1/2 tsp yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/2 c really warm water
- 3 1/2 c flour
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp balsamic vinegar (don’t skip this! It adds an “aged” flavor to the bread that it misses from not rising)
Directions:
- Put yeast, sugar, and water in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddles, and let sit.
- Heat oven to 425ยบ. Once yeast has bubbled up, add 3 c of flour as well as salt and vinegar, and beat for several minutes with paddle.
- Add last 1/2 c flour, switch to dough hook, and beat for 5-7 minutes, until dough is smooth and clears sides of bowl.
- Lightly grease a microwave-safe bowl, and transfer dough to it. Cover bowl with a very wet dish towel, then cover the whole thing with a dry dish towel.
- Microwave on high for 25 seconds, then let rest in microwave 5 minutes.
- Microwave on high another 25 seconds, then remove. Let rest another 15 minutes.
- Shape dough into a ball and drop into a lightly greased dutch oven (the kind I love is linked at the bottom!). Cover with lid and bake 25 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 8-12 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.
- Remove loaf from dutch oven and let cool on rack 10 minutes, or until cool enough to handle. Using a bread knife, slice into thick slices and enjoy warm with soup!
