Aunt Laura's Bread
Nov 25, 2023
Summary
Nathan,
So for a time my biological mother Dawn didn’t think that Laura could cook so she always had Laura bring store bought bread/rolls for holiday events. We decided that it was bullcrap. So for our first thanksgiving in the new house I asked Laura what she wanted to do and she had a whole lot of ideas! One of those ideas was this lovely bread. It is so perfect not just for holidays but for every day. I hope that you love this as much as we do. I love you dearly.
Mom
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour, beast to use bread flour (make it pressed and slightly heaping cups)
- 1 teaspoon salt (slightly heaping)
- ½ teaspoon yeast (slightly under ½ teaspoon)
- 1-2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 ½ cups hot water (not boiling)
Preparation
- Pin the bowl combine yeast, sugar, and hot water and allow to bloom
- Add in flour and salt. Combine until dough is hydrated and fully incorporated, if the dough is too dry add a bit (small amounts) of hot water until dough is hydrated but not wet
- Cover bowl with cling wrap and a towel and set on the counter until the dough has significantly risen (approx 6 hours to overnight)
- Turn out risen dough on a well floured surface and knead to a smoother finish and shape dough into a ball (2-3 min) cut the top of the dough with a x shape to allow for ventilation
- Place dough ball into a parchment lined bowl (can use the same bowl that the dough was originally resing in it just needs to be quickly cleaned and dried
- Cover bowl with a towel
- Heat oven to 450 and place dutch oven into heating over and allow to come to temp (leave it in there for 30 min)
- Place parchment and dough in the the warmed dutch oven and with a lid on bake for 30 min allowing the dough to steam slightly and the top will become golden brown
- Remove dough and parchment from the dutch oven and return the dough to the warm pot bake again without the lid allowing the whole bread to turn golden brown 5-6 min for lightly browned and 10-15 for a deeper brown
- Set bread out for 2 hours before cutting