Artisan Bread You Can Make In Your Sleep

My friend Cor and I taught our second cooking class with the RFWG a couple of weeks ago (you can read about our first class, featuring one of the recipes we made, here). We had about 15 participants this time so it was fun trying to involve everyone while we made artisan bread, festive baked granola, spiced nuts, and chocolate truffles…in two hours.

The theme of this class was “Edible Holiday Gifts“. The idea was to encourage people to take a break from the shopping malls, and get cozy in the kitchen. Additionally, homemade gifts have the potential to save you a butt-load of money. We spent about $30 on our ingredients which yielded 1 loaf of bread, about 9 cups of granola, 6 cups of spiced nuts, and about 34 truffles (and a partridge in a pear tree?). You have beautiful, delicious, thoughtful presents for at least 10 people by making these four things, which works out to about $3/person, not counting the love you invested, which is priceless

Are you thinking, “I don’t have time to make my gifts!”?

After you drive out in a snow storm, try to find a parking space, elbow your way through the shopping mall crowds, play tug of war for that last blue sweater in a medium, get buried under a Mount Everest of 3 for 1 pyjamas, line up for 30 minutes to pay only to realize that the mp3 player is missing the headphones inside the box, wiggle your way out of the sardine-packed mall, scrape the snow off your car, drive back home, and cross three people off your list of ten people to buy for, THEN call me and tell me you don’t have two hours to make ten gifts.

Either you are like my mum, and start shopping in February, leisurely picking up gifts as the year goes on, or you are like everybody else, and HATE shopping at this time of year.

Do yourself a favour: brew yourself a nice cup of tea, put on Nat King Cole, and bake some bread for your boss, your dinner host, your teacher, or your neighbour. Amazingly, this bread does most of the work for you while you sleep.

Sleep, or human sardines? Sleep, or 30 minute line-ups? Sleep, tea, and Nat King Cole? Hmmmmm…

Artisan Bread

3 cups flour (whole wheat, spelt, rye, kamut, etc., or a blend)

1.5 cups liquid (milk/ non-dairy milk/ water)

1 tsp active dry yeast

1.5 tsp sea salt

1/2 to 1 cup extra flour (added later)

*Optional add-ins (3-4 Tbsp mix of dry herbs; 4-5 cloves chopped garlic; 1 Tbsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup raisins; 3/4 cup chopped olives; or anything else you can think of!)

Directions:

-Mix flour, salt, and dry yeast until well combined; Add liquid and mix into a wet dough.

-Cover bowl with a cloth and let sit on counter for 12-15 hours (overnight, ie. WHILE YOU SLEEP! )

-The next day the dough will be wetter and bubbly. Add the extra flour to form a sturdier dough that can hold its shape.

-Let it rise for 30 more minutes.

-Preheat the oven to 500 degrees and grease a loaf pan or round cast iron pan.

-After the bread has risen again, put the dough in the pan and cover with tinfoil or fitted lid.

-Place covered pan in oven and bake for 20 minutes.

-Remove foil/lid and bake for another 8-15 minutes. (Time will vary on type of flour and how wet dough was going into the oven- just keep checking it every five minutes or so.

-Take out of oven and let cool.

Obviously, this bread is not gluten-free, so I can’t eat it, but everyone who tries it loves this recipe. It’s VERY hard to mess up, I promise.

Cor once baked me a loaf of (gluten-free) bread for my birthday and it was amazing. She “wrapped” it in a new tea towel and some twine and it looked beautiful, and I thought that was a great way to package bread for gifting.

I hope you try this bread and save yourself at least one trip to the chambers of death mall.

It’s easy to feel frantic and irritable at this time of year, but try to remember to not get too caught up in that drama. This is the perfect time of year to snuggle and to watch movies, to take bubble baths and enjoy family and friends (although you may want to do these things separately), and to appreciate the love you have in your life. That’s what the holiday season (and life, for that matter) is all about!

Happy Holidays, Friends!

Take care,

Alex