The Easy Bread Recipe: 3 Ingredient Artisan Bread • A Little Hippie-ish

I am obsessed with bread, it’s the best thing since Betty White. I love it to an unhealthy amount but only artisan bread, not sandwich bread. Since this is the year that I want to get into cooking from home and focusing on a cleaner diet I thought I would dip my hands into making bread. I’ve always wanted to try it, it looks like it is so much fun, and again who doesn’t love fresh bread? Since I’m new to the world of cooking and especially baking I needed something very simple. I found this Artisan bread recipe on Pinterest from I love naps. It’s only 3 ingredients and there’s no kneading.

What Is Artisan Bread?

So I never knew what artisan really meant and it turns out that it means more than one thing. According to Sally’s Baking Addiction, artisan bread is homemade, fresh, crusty, and deliciously rustic looking. An artisan is a skilled worker, someone works with their hands so if it’s homemade by a person skilled in the craft it’s probably artisan.

What You Need

• 3 cups (395 grams) of all-purpose flour or bread flour
• 1/2 tablespoon of kosher salt
• 1/4 ounce of instant or active dry packet or 2 1/4 teaspoon
• 1 1/2 cups of warm water, 105 F

Tools

• Large Bowl
• Dough whisk, Spatula, or Wooden spoons
• Towel
• Nonstick spray
• optional broiler pan
• optional: Bread knife
• baking stone, a pizza stone, a dutch oven, or an iron skillet

Steps

Make The Dough

1. Place flour, salt, and yeast into a large mixing bowl. Then pour the warm water over top, making sure it’s not too hot. Then use a dough whisk, spatula, wooden spoon, or your hands to mix together. The dough should still be somewhat were and sticky, but add more flour if it’s too sticky to handle.
2. Once the flour is all mixed in, cover it with a towel sprayed with nonstick spray for 2-8 hours, or you can leave it on the counter overnight. The longer you let it rise the better. You can leave it on the counter to rise for up to 12 hours.

Shape

Generously flour your hands and turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. The dough will be sticky. Do not punch it done, knead it or roll it out. Gently work the dough into your preferred shape.

Lightly dust the top with flour and then use a bread knife to add 1-4 across the top.

Bake

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, Place a baking stone, a pizza stone, a dutch oven, or an iron skillet into the oven. You’ll want the bread to cook on a hot skillet, so let it preheat for about 20 minutes. Place a piece of parchment paper onto a parchment paper onto the pizza peel, or the bottom of a skillet or pan. Lightly flour and then place the dough on top and let it rest for about 20-30 minutes.

Slide the dough with the parchment paper underneath onto the hot stone(or a dutch oven, or an iron skillet). Quickly place either 1 cup of hot water in a small broiler pan or 5 ice cubes into the bottom of the oven and shut the door to trap the steam, Then bake for 25 minutes or until browned.

Allow to cool on a cooling rack then slice and store in a paper bag so it doesn’t soften.