Best bread ever

If you've seen my blog before, you'll notice that I love bread. Not only is it my favorite thing to bake, it is my favorite thing to eat! I've come across this recipe months ago but finally decided to make it today. It only consists of 4 ingredients but yields exactly what the recipe says: the best bread ever!

The best bread ever

Recipe from thesmoothielover

Cooking time (including proofing time): 19 hours

Yield: 1 large loaf

Ingredients

2 grams (1/5 T) active dry yeast

600 grams (2.4 cups) warm water (110-115 degrees F)

800 grams (6 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour

8 grams (1.4 tsp) salt

Directions

1. Activate the yeast by mixing it with the water. Let stand 10 minutes or until yeast becomes bubbly. Add the flour and salt to the yeast mixture and mix for about 30 seconds. The dough should be more on the wet side. Wrap the bowl with the dough in plastic wrap and let rise for 12-18 hours in room temperature.
2. Preheat the oven to 485 degrees F. Heat the iron cast pot with the lid in the oven as it preheats.
3. Dust your work counter with flour. Transfer the dough and fold a couple times. 
4. Remove the pot from the oven and dust with flour. Transfer the dough into the pot and bake for 30 minutes with the lid on. 
5. Remove the lid and reduce the heat to 428 degrees F. Continue to bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool the bread on a wire rack. 

Nutritional Analysis:
per serving (about 24 slices per loaf): 119 calories, .3g fat (.1g saturated, .1g polyunsaturated, 0g monounsaturated),  24.9g carbohydrates, 0.9g fiber, 3.4g protein

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

The bread really can't any easier: only 4 ingredients and no kneading involved! 

I made half the amount the recipe calls for since I'm the only one who will eat the bread. The original recipe was in grams, but since I don't have a scale, I provided the other measurements for the ingredients. Whenever you are converting items from grams to cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc, you have to consider what the item is. Some weigh more than others so you cannot apply the same conversion factor for all ingredients. 

While mixing the ingredients, my dough was actually more dry than wet. I ended up having to add an additional 1/2 cup (for half the recipe). Look at your dough when mixing. It should be very sticky and wet, almost like goop.

I let my dough rise for 18 hours. It sure took a while but the dough did double in size.

Although the dough was very wet, after folding it several times on the dusted counter, it came together quite nicely.

I did not have a cast iron pan so I just used an oven-proof pot and it came out perfectly.

The crust on the bread is insane! The outside is nice and crispy but the inside...wow! You can see the air bubbles in the dough yielding a soft airy interior. This bread really is the best bread ever. Next time, I will try replacing 1/4 of the flour with whole wheat flour. Absolutely delicious!