Favorite Friday Recipe: Peasant bread

This is a super easy and very tasty bread--it took about 2 hours from start to finish which is really quick for fresh bread.  The recipe and lots of tips can be found here.  I especially love the idea of baking them in pyrex bowls so you get these round loaves of bread.  We've had it this week with marinated tomatoes, as grilled cheese and prosciutto sandwiches and will use the last of it for french toast this weekend!

Peasant bread

Ingredients:

• 4 cups (1 lb. 2 oz) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons active-dry yeast
• room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons

Directions:

• Whisk the flour and the salt in a bowl
• In a small bowl or measuring cup, dissolve the sugar into the lukewarm water. Sprinkle the yeast over top and let stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy 
• Then add the yeast/water mix to flour and begin to mix the dough.  It will be pretty wet
• Cover bowl with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour
• Grease two oven-safe bowls or loaf pans with about a tablespoon of butter each
• Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl which will loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl
• Take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions, then scoop up each half and place into your greased bowls/pans
• Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes while you preheat oven to 425 degrees
• Bake for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 375 degrees and bake for 22 to 25 minutes longer 
• Once golden brown, remove from oven and turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If you’ve greased the bowls well, the loaves should fall right out onto the cooling racks. If you're like me, it'll take a knife, fork, and finally a spoon to get these little suckers to budge :)
• ENJOY!

Favorite Friday Recipe: Classic White Bread (in a crockpot)

There's nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread, and in this case, freshly baked bread that is super easy to make and baked in a crockpot. A what? Yup, a crockpot!

One of the girls on fashionism posted this recipe and I knew immediately that I had to test it out. I followed the instructions, marveling at how simple it all was, and then I plopped the dough into the crockpot and went about my merry way. Three hours later, I returned to a nice rustic looking loaf of bread to serve with dinner!

Here it is after baking in the crockpot
Cooling on a wire rack: (note I have a larger crockpot so my bread turned out more wide than tall)
The bread turned out heavy and tasty, definitely homemade and perfect with fresh butter (and sugar)


The recipe is below--enjoy!

Classic White Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 envelope (2 ¼ tsp) of active dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¼ cup warm water
• 1 egg
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup sugar
• 3 ½ - 4 cups of flour

Directions:

In a bowl, combine yeast, 1 teaspoon sugar and ¼ cup warm water. Allow yeast to foam (5 min). Add egg, oil, lukewarm water, salt, ¼ cup sugar and 2 cups of flour. Beat with electric mixer 2 minutes on low. With a wooden spoon, stir in remaining flour. Place dough in greased 4-5 quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on high heat 2-3 hours. Remove stoneware from slow cooker and let stand for 5 min before slicing.