Hearty Peasant Bread

Bread.  Symbolically referred to as “the staff of life”, bread is a simple, basic food that has been created and consumed for centuries and is considered a staple.  A hearty, rustic food;  one that sustains life.  Bread is created in many forms. Flat bread, free form loaves, rounds of nutty bread, bread full of various ingredients and formed into loaves, depending on the regions and geographical areas where it is created.  I use the word created, because bread making, the forming of loaves;  is a highly individual form of art, of preference.

Culture and geography play a distinct role in the ingredients used in breads that are created, as does the individual hands on mixing and forming of the dough. Regional variations act as signatures for many types of bread.  Tho the ingredients may be similar, the hands that form the dough are as individual and personal as their fingerprints and leave their marks of identity in each loaf.  Slashes made with  knives also act as signatures on many loaves.

To “break bread” is to share a meal in the good company of others.  “Our daily bread” refers to the  meals eaten day to day.  “Our bread and butter” is a phrase used to indicate prosperity,  just as “bread” or “dough” are slang for wealth or cash;  a pocket full of money.

There are many biblical and spiritual references and interpretations to bread;  and ancient forms of bread have been discovered at archaeological digs.  All these facts indicate that bread, in its plain simple, or most hearty form,  has been created by human hands for centuries.

I grew up in a house that was often filled with the aroma of baking bread.  My mother made bread using a bread pail to mix the dough and spent a fair amount of time kneading the dough and forming loaves.  She baked them in loaf pans.  The scent of that bread baking was intoxicating.  I know she made several loaves at a time.   Those loaves of soul warming didn’t last long in our house.  Waiting for the loaves to cool enough to be sliced was torture.  One slice was never enough.  We typically ate those soft yet chewy slices of warm bread with layers of real butter and honey.  It became habit forming.   Addiction in its most tasteful form.

Some people swear by bread machines and will create bread no other way.  Without a doubt, bread machines are time savers for many.  Some people still use bread pails, antiques by now, and knead their bread into spectacular loaves.  There are some who have found no knead bread recipes and won’t ever go back to kneading bread dough again.   Some buy frozen loaves and bake them in their own ovens.  Some folks buy fresh made bread every day.

However you make, bake, or buy your bread…enjoy it.  It is after all…the staff of life;  described as “a thick crunchy or chewy crust, soft in the middle…”.

Hearty Peasant Bread

To mix this no knead dough you will need a large glass or ceramic mixing bowl, a whisk and a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula.

You will also need:

1 cup of bread flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)

1 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup of whole wheat flour (or white/wheat flour) unbleached

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 TB each chia seeds and flax seeds

1 1/2 cups of warm water

Place all of the dry ingredients into your mixing bowl and using a whisk, mix together well.  Once you have done that, using the wooden spoon or sturdy spatula, stir the 1 1/2 cups of warm water into the dry ingredients until all of the dry ingredients are moist.  Do not over mix…the dough should have a shaggy look.

Once mixed, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set the bowl of dough in a warm spot and let it rise for a minimum of 6 hours.  I usually let it rise for 6 to 8.

Once the dough has risen, using a spatula, scoop it into the middle of the bowl and then turn the dough (which will be very sticky) onto a well floured surface.  With floured hands, using more flour as needed, form the sticky ball of dough into a well floured round.

Then, place the ball of well floured dough into a well floured proofing basket if you have one.  Cover the basket loosely with a piece of plastic wrap.  If you don’t have a proofing basket, loosely wrap the dough ball in plastic wrap.  Let the dough sit, covered while the oven pre heats to 450 degrees.

As the oven pre heats, and the dough sits, get out a small…2 qt or a medium…3 or 4 qt covered cast iron dutch oven.  Using a smaller dutch oven will give you a taller round loaf.  A larger dutch oven will give you a flatter round loaf.  Here, I use a 2 quart dutch oven which makes a beautifully formed loaf.  I have two of these, and use them both when making 2 round loaves of bread.  This green one is 60 years old…it was a wedding gift to my parents…many moons ago.

Once the oven has heated to 450 degrees, place the empty dutch oven into the hot oven, very carefully so as not to get burned, and let it heat through for at lease 20 minutes.  Once heated through, carefully remove it from the hot oven and remove the lid, then, being very careful of the hot dutch oven, drop the ball of bread dough into the center of the dutch oven and place the hot lid on top.  Place the dutch oven back into the hot oven and let the bread bake, covered, for 30 minutes.

Here, in this photo above, I have very carefully dropped the bread dough from my proofing basket into the dutch oven.   Please, please, be very careful when handling the HOT dutch oven and its lid.  Use good pot holders and do not set the hot dutch oven or lid on an unprotected surface.  And remember the lid is very hot when you pick it up to place it back on the dutch oven.

Once baked for 30 minutes, remove the lid from the dutch oven and continue to bake the loaf, uncovered,  for another 10 to 20 minutes or until it is a deep golden brown.  Once it is browned, remove from the oven and let cool on your stove top for about 30 minutes.  Once the dutch oven is cool enough to be handled, invert the loaf onto a cooling rack and cool completely before slicing.

If you can’t wait that long, try to wait until the loaf is mostly cooled. Otherwise, slicing will prove difficult.  The inside of the bread will still be too moist.  This bread is scrumptious toasted.  Slathered with butter, honey, jam, or  nut butter, it is impossible to have just one slice.  No matter how you slice it tho…ENJOY every bite.

MANY BLESSINGS…