Wonka! Wonka!  OK, let’s take a minute to talk about equipment for this easy bread recipe: you’ll need a large container (5 quarts/20 cups/1 gallon) with a lid to mix up and store your dough.  Since I am now officially addicted to this bread, I bought a large glass ‘cookie jar’ canister at Wally World for $7 because it’s pretty and it stands upright in my fridge to save room.  (Had to flip the lid over to get it to fit.)    This is the ONE gallon size.

When I first started making this kind of bread, I just used a bowl with plastic wrap or lid, and then switched to a non-holey plastic tub that my salad mix came in.  You can also use a big plastic storage container, just make sure not to seal the lid so the gasses can escape.

For baking your bread, it’s really nice to have a pizza peel, parchment paper and a baking stone…these are standard equipment here for pizza night.  You can’t beat this pair for baking crispy crusts, and for transferring bread dough easily in and out of the oven.

In fact, I leave my pizza stone in the oven almost all the time, and just put cookie sheets right on top of it.  It ain’t purdy, but it gives nice even heat.  You can find these at Target and kitchen stores for not much money.  If you don’t have a peel or stone, then you can use a cookie sheet turned upside down so you’ll have a flat surface to bake on.  All this will make more sense further down when we talk about baking.

And finally, you’ll need some TIME.  This easy bread recipe is broken down into two parts:

• mixing the dough
• and then baking.

The time you’ll spend in total is just a few minutes to prep the dough and form the bread.  But you’ll want to allow enough time for the dough to rise, rest, and develop good flavor.  Here is the time frame that I usually use:

• I start by making the dough the night before, or first thing in the morning if I plan on baking a loaf of bread for dinner.
• If you’re working on getting trim & healthy, then plan ahead to get at least 3 days of fermentation in, and for best results go for 5-7 days.  Friday is my day to make pizza and make fresh dough.  Picking one day a week to have a special E bread meal is a great way to keep up with your dough making.
• Rising takes a couple of hours. (I pop it in the fridge just before climbing in bed.)  Then it just sits in there doing its thing until the next pizza night rolls around.  Or until I make bean soup and foccacia bread.
• Technically, you can start baking right after the dough has risen, but it’s really soft and sticky, and it’s easier to work with if you let it chill thoroughly…at least 3 hours.
• From fridge to stove for loaves of bread, it takes about an hour and you’re in homemade bakery heaven.  For pizza or foccacia, I’m talkin’ about half an hour to dinner!

Let’s get to it!

Mix it UP!

Here are the simple ingredients you need for this super easy bread recipe:

First, pour in your three cups of water.  I live in the deep south, so there I use room temp water all year ’round.  If you’re from Alaska or the UP <Hi Yoopers!> then you may be inclined to warm your water up just a little to make your yeast happier.

There is no need to rinse your bowl out between batches if you’ve kept it refrigerated…the dough bits that are left in there will help make your next batch rise faster.  We’ll call it a ‘starter’
(Note to self…I don’t even have to wash the bowl!  Dance of joy!)

Next, add 2 packets or 1 1/2 T of yeast…

1 1/2 T salt,…

and 6 1/2 cups of  flour.  Your flour should probably look healthier than mine.

Now mix it all together with a wooden spoon.

You want a loose, wet dough with no dry spots.  Like this:

So, that takes all of about 2 minutes.

Now, let’s talk about flour.  It’s a fickle, fickle mistress.  The 3 cups of water is the minimal requirement, and that usually does the trick.  Unless it’s the third weekend of the month, and the humidity is high, and I am wearing blue.  Really…there is no accounting for when flour decides to be extra dry.  It happens.  Just add a couple of T of water in there and get the dry spots worked out.  It’ll all be OK.  Remember, this is an EASY bread recipe.  The dough doesn’t like it if you get all worried.

Now, leave it out on the counter for a couple of hours to rise.  It should at least triple in size, and the top should flatten out as it begins to collapse in on itself.  You can allow it to rise longer than two hours without hurting your dough.

Just mixed, one hour later, and two hours later.

Overnight works just fine too.

If you REALLY need a bread fix, and you don’t really care about carb counts, you can bake a loaf or four right now if you want to.  But chilling the dough will give you even better flavor, and cold dough is easier to work with.

Your dough will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks, and you can just bake what you need as you need it.  For best carb counts, go for 3-5 days.  Please note that I am not a sciency-numbers person, and have no idea of the actual carb count on each slice.  But Pearl & Serene have said that the ‘two slice’ rule applies to this version of sourdough for an E meal. Use your informed conscience as a guide for how large a ‘slice’ of pizza is.  I’ve lost 30 pounds eating this bread at least once a week with my E meals.

The batch of dough we just mixed up will make four one-pound loaves…which translates to three twelve inch baguettes and two large pizza crusts at our house.

Bake that Easy Bread Dough!

So, let’s bake up a loaf of bread.  You’ll want to get your dough out and shape it at least an hour before you’re ready to eat it.

The dough is very soft and wet.  I find that wetting my hands is really helpful when shaping it.

Cut or tear off a grapefruit sized hunk of bread dough.  The shaping isn’t an art form, so don’t get frustrated by the gooey dough.

Gently stretch it into shape, smoothing out on the top layer into a ‘gluten cloak’.  It doesn’t need to look perfect. In fact, there is no way that it will look decent at this stage…just get it into the general shape you want.  Here is a quick video about shaping the bread:

You don’t want to manhandle or overwork the dough.  It needs to stay sticky and retain all those beautiful air bubbles as much as possible.  It will rise up and become beautiful in the oven.  Promise.

When the oven is heated, and the bread is done resting (it won’t have risen much at this point), you’ll want to cut a few slits in the top to allow the gasses in the baking bread to escape.  Otherwise, your bread will get an unsightly blowout.  Use a very sharp knife or a clean razor blade, and cut a few slashes, an X or a long slit.

Now slide the parchment paper that’s holding your loaf of bread right onto the sizzling hot baking stone.