Easy Overnight Artisan Bread

Pt 1 of Back to Basics Homemaker Skills Chapter

Sourdough bread is fantastic. But... there's a rhythm to it and sometimes my routine changes and I can't seem to get back into the head space needed to make it happen.

There is an alternative. A way to make good homemade crusty bread without the faff of feeding a starter and figuring out timings- this recipe is very forgiving!

And it's still much healthier than supermarket bread, with only 4 ingredients (including water!).

Also, it's sooo tasty! Like it's come straight from a bakery.

And easy. Seriously, this bread recipe is as basic as it gets!

So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 cups plain flour

1 tsp salt (I like pink!)

1 tsp quick action dried yeast

1.5 cups water

Directions:

1. Mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl.

2. Add 1.5 cups water and stir using a wooden spoon until you've created a shaggy dough. There's no need to knead, just mix it up into a rough dough.

3. Leave to rise overnight. I've found anything from 8-12 hours is fine (I told you it was easy!)
   

4. The next morning, preheat your oven to 230' and pop your dutch oven cooking pot in to warm up.

5. Pop your dough onto the worktop, roughly shape to make into a round loaf and leave it for 1/2 hour.

6. Put your dough into the dutch oven and cook for 30 minutes with the lid on and then an extra 15 minutes with the lid off.

And that's it! Take it out of the oven and leave it to cool et voila!