My family loves bread. I mean really loves it. But we’re kind of snotty breadlovers. Geoff served a mission for the LDS church for two years in Southern France which is where it all started. I always loved bread myself, but when we went to France together, that love took on a new level. I was never able to recreate that same crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside deliciousness that we love, until recently. I discovered this recipe a while ago and I feel it is my duty to share its life changing goodness with you. For the sake of all things holy, go make this bread now. It’s beyond easy to make. I make the dough before I go to bed at night and do the rest when I get up. It takes a lot of raising time but very little effort and the results are incredible.
This particular loaf I got fancy and put fresh basil and chunks of asiago cheese in the second raise.
Baking the Perfect Loaf of Bread at Home
Formula and Process created by Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan St Bakery
3 cups (430g) flour
1½ cups (345g or 12oz) water
¼ teaspoon (1g) yeast
a little less than 1 tablespoon salt
olive oil (for coating)
extra flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal (for dusting)
Equipment:
Two medium mixing bowls
6 to 8 quart pot with lid (Pyrex glass, Le Creuset cast iron, or ceramic) *I use a dutch oven
Wooden Spoon or spatula (optional)
Plastic wrap
Two or three cotton dish towels (not terrycloth)
Process:
Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add water and incorporate by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Lightly coat the inside of a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 65-72°F).
Remove the dough from the bowl and fold once or twice. Let the dough rest 15 minutes in the bowl or on the work surface. Next, shape the dough into ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal; place the dough seam side down on the towel and dust with flour. Cover the dough with a cotton towel and let rise 1-2 hours at room temperature, until more than doubled in size.
Preheat oven to 450-500°F. Place the pot in the oven at least 30 minutes prior to baking to preheat. Once the dough has more than doubled in volume, remove the pot from the oven and place the dough in the pot seam side up. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes Then remove the lid and bake 15-30 minutes uncovered, until the loaf is nicely browned.
Leah! I have this recipe! I should have given it to you. They did a skit with it in the New York Times. Nick loves to make it too and I’m fine with the man making home made bread 🙂
For the love of all things holy, just make me a loaf. 🙂
Only if you promise not to write “loaf” on my blog again.
Oh my looks heavenly. My husband served in Italy and I know he would go nuts for this. Thanks for sharing I will have to give it a try.
Looks amazing!! I’ve got to try this!!
Very similar to the one I sent you. So yummy! I like your basil idea. I put rosemary and garlic in mine.
This is what we missed out on that night at your house? Instead we sat in traffic for 1 1/2 hours. Lame.
This does look delish, especially with the extra goodies inside.
I love you for two reasons now.
1)you took our family pictures
2)for this recipe.
Thank-you.
But no thank-you for the extra weight I will put on for making and eating this bread for the rest of my life. haha.
I love bread too. That loaf looks deeeeeeeeee-licious!
I am so in love with this bread – I just made it today and am deeply in love with that crusty outside and chewy delicious inside. I hope you don’t mind I am going to link it to my blog tomorrow!!
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This looks absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to try it. I found your blog and recipe from Kate at Yes I Want Cake.
Looks fabulous!! ahh, if only I had access to an oven right now. Nothing better than fresh bread. I would stir in some sun dried tomatoes and basil, maybe some garlic and cheese too. yum!
I popped over here from Yes I Want Cake’s mention of this recipe – I am such a sucker for home-made bread, my mom used to make it for us growing up and I could just eat the whole loaf plain, warm and fresh! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hi! Also coming from “yes I want cake.” I just made it and oh my it is amazing! So delicious, warmed up with roasted garlic and butter. Thanks for sharing
Oh my goodness, crusty bread is my favorite! Bookmarking!
Looks great. Love to make bread, I make almost all the bread my family eats. Will have to try this one. Have you tried allowing it to rise longer the first time? I would love to be able to make this at one night and finish the next evening after work.
i was wondering this as well!!!
You can always pop dough in the fridge. It slows down the raising process, so you could make it the night before and in the morning get it ready for the second rise and put it in the fridge so all you have to do is heat up your oven and bake it, or just stick it right in the fridge and do the second rise when you get home.
ok so i made this bread and wow was it delicious! my dilemma with perfect bread was that is was awfully inconvenient 🙁 but….i decided to put the whole rise thing to the test and it still turned out for me just PERFECT 🙂 i made the dough in the evening (around 6pm), then between noon and 1pm the next day (i.e. you could come home for lunch!) proceeded with step two and wrapped it up in a cloth towel. later that day (now 5pm or so), i came back home and did the final bake. so all and all, ALL of my rise times lasted longer than suggested but it didn’t seem to do any harm. so there you have it, it can actually fit into a work schedule!!
Should the water be any specific temperature? I’m used to adding warm water in my bread recipes, so thought I’d check. I will try this–very intriguing and looks delicious! I will report back on how it turns out (I always wish there were more comments on food blogs from people who actually have MADE the recipes, but maybe that’s just me ;).
Hi, I was wondering what type of flour you used? It looks great, but I’m trying to limit my diet (or at least what I make at home) to whole grains. Do you think it would be possible to make this with wheat, or maybe a combination of wheat and white flour?
I used 2/3 unbleached bread flour and 1/3 King Arthur White Whole Wheat and it turned out fine!
I have made it with whole wheat King Aurthur flour before and it was delic.
I’m about to bake this right now but was noticing it didn’t rise as much as I thought it would. Turns out the original recipe states that it needs to be instant yeast and not active dry yeast. I’m hoping it still turns out the same, but wanted to mention it incase you want to specify in the recipe ingredients.
Never mind my comment above! Once baked the bread was perfect! I was clearly doubting that it could be this easy to make such beautiful bread. Thank you for sharing!
The texture was awesome but it was soooo salty! I used table salt, does the recipe mean something else? or maybe a teaspoon instead of tablespoon?
Molly, the original recipe does call for less salt, but I felt like it needed more and read comments from several other people that added more as well. Sorry it was too salty for your taste. Adjust accordingly next time.
[…] is the recipe for baking the perfect loaf of bread at home. I really want to try this, but I don’t have a 6-8 quart dish to bake it in!! My life […]
[…] yeast cultures (not yet anyway!) until I came across this recipe on Yes I want cake (original recipe here). It promises all the amazingness of fancy schmancy bread with ZERO of the effort and no special […]
[…] propriétaire de la Sullivan Street Bakery, à New York), que vous pouvez aussi consulter sur ce site (en anglais) […]
How do you mix in, say cheese, in the second rise? Just fold it in? Will stirring herbs or cheese do any harm during the second rise?
just finished my loaf! this recipe works incredibly well…
it’s true that being liberal with the amount of hours it is allowed to rise the first time won’t affect anything. all in all, mine probably rose for 15 hours.
crusty and chewy! exactly what a great loaf of bread should be!
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Help! I mixed this bread up last night and put it in the bedroom with us (this is the warmest room in the house right now!) and after 12hours it was super wet and sticky and impossible to fold. I poured it out on the floured surface of the counter and it just stuck and spread out super thin. Anyone know why it would do this? Could my house still be too cold?
I have been making the bread, including different add-ins/flavors. My favorite right now is to substitute 1 cup of dark brown rye flour for the white. Then add finely diced fresh onion and fennel seeds to the batter. Right before I put the dough into the pot to cook I sprinkle on some more diced onion. This makes a delicious onion rye.
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