Okay, so since we're talking about crafts, and cooking is a craft, and since we're Jews and are therefore going to talk about food ANYWAY... Here's my best, easiest, most delicious bread recipe.
Some of you know that I'm Mizrachi/Sephardi, and that Mizrachim won't make
hamotzi (say the blessing over bread) unless it's actually bread according to our custom. That is, the dough can contain only flour, water, salt, and yeast. Adding anything else turns it into cake, and cake takes a different blessing. Well, this bread is proper motzi according to Mizrachim, so I make four loaves of it every week: two for Friday night and two for Saturday. If we don't eat it all, I take some over to our friends, because they have a really large family and can always use more bread.
Okay, no more chitchat: onward to bread!
Divash's No-Knead Motzi (Bread)
Ingredients in order of usage:1-2 tbsp oil
3 C flour
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dry yeast (regular yeast, not instant)
1 1/2 C water (lukewarm, right out of the faucet)
Equipment:Measuring cups and spoons
Two mixing bowls
space One lid for mixing bowl, OR some cling-film (plastic wrap)
Fork, whisk, or sifter
Casserole dish or Dutch oven with lid (lid is very important!)
The First Day:Oil your first mixing bowl, preferably with olive oil, but really almost any oil will do. If one of them has a lid, use that one.
Mix dry ingredients together in the second mixing bowl until thoroughly combined. Use a fork, whisk, or sifter -- it doesn't matter.
Pour in water. Mix together with the fingers of one hand, just until all the dry ingredients are wet. Dough will be a bit soft and sticky, not dry and elastic like most bread doughs.
Dump dough into oiled bowl. Turn it over so oil is covering the top and bottom. Put the lid on with your clean hand, or wash hands and cover the bowl with cling film. Leave that bowl on the counter until the next day, 12-24 hours (longer if it's chilly in the kitchen, shorter if it's really warm in the kitchen).
The Second Day:Put the lidded casserole dish or Dutch oven into your oven, then reheat the oven to 500 Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes before doing anything else.
Flour your countertop and dump the dough onto it. The dough will be sticky and hard to handle, but that's okay. Fold it into thirds lengthwise, then into thirds the other way.
Get a pot holder or oven mitt onto one hand, and the dough in the other. Open the oven door, take the lid off your preheated pot, and dump the dough in. Quickly put the lid on, then close the oven.
Let bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Because the dough is dry from the flour, instead of wet from oiling a baking pan, it may smell a little like it's burning.
It is not burning. Just let it cook and don't mess with it.
Remove casserole from oven and set on a stove burner, pot holder, or other heat-resistant surface. If your casserole dish is glass or Pyrex,
do not set it on a cold granite countertop, or it could shatter. Let the dough cool at least 30 minutes before cutting.
Variations:Use white, whole wheat, or rye flour, or any combination thereof.
Instead of flouring your countertop on the second day, use cornmeal, for a tasty crunch on the crust. (Sephardim: Oil or cornmeal on the outside of the dough does not invalidate a hamotzi blessing, only things mixed directly
into the dough itself, so this is still fine.)
If you're Ashkenazi, or if you're not concerned with making hamotzi on this bread, toss in a handful of caraway seeds, or raisins, or any other spice or fruit that you think would be tasty.
Brush on a little egg wash (1 egg, whisked together with 1 tablespoon of water) to make the dough shiny.
Gently braid the dough or wind it into a spiral instead of folding it into a rounded lump. (I haven't tried this one myself.)
Cut the dough into little balls, flour each one on the outside, and place them in the hot casserole dish, instead of folding, to make pull-apart rolls. (I haven't tried this one myself.)
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