Easy Crusty Bread with Dutch Oven

 I saw this pin going around and thought, I never really wanted to make bread but if it's really this easy, I'll do it!



Original Link: source - Simply so good

Reading through the comments:

• The author states that she does not know how to make a whole wheat version: commentor suggests 1/4 cup less flour, 1/2 cup more water and 5 minutes less cooking time. 
• Bread not rising (many of these comments)
• Make sure you allow it to rise for the full 12 hours
• Add more flour so it is manageable - 1/4 cup
• Do not knead the bread after the rise
• Make sure your yeast isn't old
• Bleached flour might not work the best
• Too much cheese results in too much water in the bread which will not rise as high
• Make sure if you're not using instant yeast to allow it to bloom
• Long rise time
• Make it the night before - it can rise for over 24 hours and be fine
• Put it in the fridge to slow rising once you do your 12 hours
• Additional ingredients, when to add
• At final mixing stage before setting it aside to rise - some people were worried about the cheese going bad because of this, but the author claims she's done it and it did not rot
• Not using a Le Creuset pot
• Yes, you can use anything that can be baked at this temp with a cover
• Do you need to oil the pot before putting in the dough
• No
• Discoloring of dough during rising phase
• Normal - it'll be fine
• A bunch of variations to the recipe to make flavors
• 1/4 of beer instead of water and 1 TBS of vinegar to make a sour flavor
• Caution - some dutch ovens do not like to be preheated (check your manufacture before trying)
• Bread flour is fine
• When making a smaller loaf, keep the temp the same and adjust the time: take lid off at 20 minutes and keep watching it
• You can put the bread on parchment paper and load it into the pot as an easier way to moving the dough. 
• You can preheat the pot and the oven at the same time by going to 450 degrees (do not do an extra 30 minutes with just the pot in the oven)
• Put slits in the top to allow it to rise higher
• For some whole wheat you can do half whole wheat and half white. 

My Experience

We only have whole wheat in our home so I went out to the store and got a small bag of white flour and the yeast I needed.

Made the whole wheat with the comment's suggestion of less flour, more water. But I also put cheese in it (I mean if it's going to be whole wheat, it might as well have added fat, right??)

I also made a batch with white flour as kind of a control.

I couldn't help but peek at the rising dough during it's night of rest. I noticed that the flour one was very very wet. By midnight, I decided to add more flour to it.

The next day I started the whole oven preheat and then the pot preheat. Then I took the whole wheat dough and placed it on the parchment paper, per the other comment's suggestion. Place the whole thing in the pot and waited. It did not rise. Also, it was stuck to the paper. But I didn't realize how stuck to the paper it was until after I put the flour dough into the oven on parchment!

So this was a fail. We couldn't get the bread off and it didn't taste very good since it didn't bake properly.

I did make this recipe again (hence the pretty bread in the picture). I followed every instruction to a tee. One step I also skipped the first time was allowing the bread to sit out during the preheating time. I have no idea if this make a difference or not but the bread came out GORGEOUS. It was a little bland and needed to be buttered but it was so good!

Tips:

Remember that if you add cheese it will add more water, so you might want to use more flour.

This is a very cheap recipe, the most expensive part is time. If you're going to experiment, make many batches the same night and let them rise at the same time. Don't be like me and be forced to wait another night in order to make a proper recipe.

Original Recipe (source simplysogood.com):

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.