One New Thing #: 12

What: Making Bread from Scratch #quarantineedition

Where: At home (because quarantine)

Cost: $1.50

Fave thing: How cheap it is to make bread!

Okay so real talk: we’re all (and by all, I literally mean all humans on Planet Earth) under some sort of quarantine - self-or otherwise which means we have a LOT of time at home. This One New Thing series is about to get interesting….

My bread making experience has been limited to a breadmaker and enjoying other people’s loaves. Both of which I was happy with. HOWEVER - when I did the math on how much it costs to make a loaf and how actually easy this process was, I may never go back.

I’ll make a disclaimer that I am NOT into the kitchen. I don’t like cooking, I’m not good at it, and find it to be pretty annoying with all of the directions. But this bread recipe literally consists of 4 things and while there are a number of steps, it’s fairly hands off which means 10/10 I’d make this bread again.

Okay - so first off: bakers are very into precise measurements. This recipe contains grams which you essentially have to measure with a scale. A quick Google search will do the conversion for you, but it’s still important to (mostly) follow the directions.

It was super easy to mix this all up and bake it. Seeing the finished loaf at the end was super fun and in fact, I’ve made 2 more loaves since this.

Ready to get your bread making on?

The Recipe:

Using the Jim Lahey method: https://nycwff.org/personality/lahey-jim/

400 grams of flour (aka for normal people: 1 ⅔ cups)
300 grams of water (1 ⅓ cups) + 2 ice cubes to get it to temp
1 gram of yeast
14 grams of salt (or to taste)

Mix flour, yeast, salt.

Melt 2 ice cubes in water

Dump water into dry mixture, stir

Cover and let rise in a dry, cool spot for 18-24 hours

Take it out, spread it out a little, then fold in half, then fold in half again

Put it into a bread proofing basket (aka banneton aka bowl for regular people) and let sit for another 2 hours

Heat oven to 475 (my kinda heat) with the dutch oven inside

Dump the bread into the dutch oven seams side up

Let cook for 30 mins with lid on

Cool for another 15-30 mins with lid off

Eat and enjoy!

One New Thing #12: Making Bread from Scratch