(Wo)Man Could Live by This Alone

Pinterest Picture

My mother-in-law, Donna, is a fabulous cook and is always trying new recipes. Growing up she regularly made homemade bread for the boys and they still talk about it to this day. Served with her navy beans - that homemade bread has become legendary! Oh boy, I'm suddenly hungry :)

My dad loved crusty bread. In fact he liked the crust way more than the soft, chewy inside. He liked to bite into a fresh loaf and crunch through that crust - you could actually hear it. He always talked about getting a really crusty loaf and hollowing out the middle, then stuffing it with butter and eating it just like that.

I too love a crusty loaf of good bread. And I've tried over the years to make homemade bread with varying degrees of success. I even had a breadmaker for a while, but eventually gave it away and went back to store-bought. All the kneading and mess and it never really came out great.

Well, this past week, I stumbled across a recipe on Pinterest called, "No Knead Dutch Oven Crusty Bread". It calls for a really quick mix of flour, salt, yeast and water and then a LONG resting time before baking it in a really hot cast iron dutch oven. The picture looked amazing and I thought, "Yeah right, mine won't look anything like that!" But I decided to give it a try and to amazement it came out perfectly. Crusty - oh yeah! Delicious and almost no effort! Absolutely no kneading and I got this amazingly beautiful loaf. This bread has changed my life. I can't imagine an easier and more perfect recipe. So if you haven't tried it yet - what are you waiting for?

Nailed It!

Find the recipe at: http://www.jocooks.com/bakery/breads/crusty-bread/