Sunday was a perfect day to bake a loaf of "Everyday Bread"

The kids and I were heading down to visit my parent's house on Sunday for dinner and ...well just visiting.  It was bitter cold...and snowy and we were again stuck in the house until the afternoon without a car.  A perfect day to make "Everyday Bread" to take with us for dinner.  (and a perfect day to test out our new digital camera!! woohoo!!! I have yet to teach the camera that i'm the boss so bear with it until it learns)  

I realize I have said this about each of the recipes I've posted so far but this is really really good and so easy to make.  It's also a fun recipe to make with kids since it involves weighing ingredients (and other random kitchen utensils)

and yes I realize my kids are dressed like it's the middle of july.  they do not feel the cold and dress completely inapprorpiatly for the temperature that the house is at despite my pleading to "put some clothes on!!!"


as well as reading the temperature of the water

And ooohhhh....does it smell absolutely fabulous when it's baking...now that I'm typing this out I'm thinking today just might be a perfect day to make another loaf...turns out you can bake Everyday Bread...EVERYDAY!!

Everyday Bread

Ingredients: 

400 g all purpose flour (roughly 2 1/4c)
1 tsp salt
240 g water at 115F (roughly 1c)
1 tsp active yeast
1 tablespoon honey

For topping (Optional, and can be modified based on what you would like)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon dried Italian herb mix

Directions: 


Whisk flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.  

Heat water to 115F (I used hot hot tap water) and add yeast and honey, swirl to combine.

Pour the water mixture into the flour and knead with the dough hook for 5-10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. It shouldn't be very sticky - if it is, knead in a bit more flour until the dough is still soft and only very slightly sticky.

Drizzle a large bowl with olive oil and place the dough inside.  Turn the dough to make sure the entire surface is coated with the olive oil.  Cover and let rise in a warm, draft free place (in our house the only place that fits those criteria is the oven on 'warm' setting) until doubles in size, for about an hour.

Before:

 
During the hour we battled beyblades....

and watched "princess on ice" shows

After that fascinating hour the bread looked like this:

Preheat the oven to 450F.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and shape the dough into a loaf.  I made ours round and sliced a cross through the middle.


Combine olive oil, crushed garlic and herbs. (I can imagine a slew of different combinations, asiago, chopped sun dried tomatoes, etc...I'm looking forward to coming up with different varieties)

Place the loaf in a cast iron, a dutch oven or a baking sheet (I used a 9" round cake pan w/ a layer of parchment on the bottom) Brush the bread with about 3/4 of the mixture. 

Bake for about 25-30 minutes. The crust should be a deep golden color and the bread should sound hollow when tapped from the side. 

Immediately upon taking the bread out of the oven, brush again with the olive oil/garlic mixture and let cool to room temperature. 

YUM!

Source: Confessions of a Tart


Enjoy!
xoxo
Andrea