Dutch Oven Bread - Only Four Ingredients!

Dutch Oven Bread - So Simple!

I must admit that the first time I came upon this recipe I was skeptical.  Over the years I have learned to read through a recipe and get a feel for whether or not it is worth a try; meaning can I pull it off successfully and will my family eat it?

So when I found this recipe a couple of years ago I was dubious.  I have been baking my own bread (admittedly sporadically) for several years now and, though I know I still have lots to learn, I felt I had a pretty good handle on the basics of bread making.  And this recipe did not look like it had a chance to work.  But after stumbling upon it a few more times in various places I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try. 

It worked.  Beautifully.  It actually worked beautifully the first time.  And then I tried it again and it worked beautifully the second time too.  And the third.  And so on. 

This bread is crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It makes a good serve-with-dinner bread or an even better serve-with-soup or stew bread. 

For ingredients you will need:

3 cups flour
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon yeast

For equipment you will  need:

One large bowl for the dough to rise in
One Dutch Oven
Plastic wrap for the top of the bowl
A big spoon.  One of those spoon-ulas (half spoon, half rubber bowl scraper spatula thingees) works best.

My Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Four simple ingredients!

Into the big bowl put all the ingredients in no particular order. 

Ingredients before mixing

Mix together with the big spoon.  The mixing takes less than a minute.  The mixture will be gooey and messy looking.

All Mixed Up

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave on counter overnight.  In other words, do not put this in the refrigerator. 

Ready to set on the counter all night

You want the dough to have 12 to 18 hours to just sit and rise. 

After sitting on counter about 14 hours

The next day after the dough has risen put the Dutch Oven into a cold oven and heat oven to 450 degrees.  After the oven is preheated, set the timer for 30 minutes and leave the Dutch Oven in your now heated oven.

While the Dutch Oven heats up, turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface and with heavily floured hands shape into a ball.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let set covered on the counter for 30 minutes.

Remove Dutch Oven from the oven, remove the lid and carefully put dough into Dutch Oven, recover with lid and put Dutch Oven back into the 450 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Be careful! The Dutch oven is 450 degrees and so is the lid.

Ready to Cook

After 30 minutes remove the lid, briefly admire the bread you are baking, then put the now uncovered Dutch Oven back into the 450 degree oven for another 15 minutes. Remember these last 15 minutes are without the lid.

After 30 minutes with lid on

Remember to put the lid somewhere you won't bump into it.  My cast iron lid takes a very long time to cool down.

After the 15 minutes are up, remove the Dutch Oven from the oven, remove the bread from the Dutch Oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. 

All done! Ready to cool on wire rack.

Use pot holders to get the bread out so you don't burn yourself.  Now stand there and admire your work!  I know I always do.

So after I made this awesome bread it was time to cook dinner.  What could I do with a very hot Dutch Oven?  Apparently lots of things.  Scroll down to my next post to see The Dinner After.

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The Dinner After

At the end of my post about my Dutch Oven Bread I mused about what I could make for dinner with a pre-heated Dutch Oven in my grasp.  Well on my counter.  It really was too hot to grasp.

I had a whole chicken in my refrigerator awaiting a cooking date so suddendly the light bulb went off in my head.  Why not cook the chicken in the Dutch Oven.  Duh.  I really hadn't planned this so I was feeling very clever.

To start I put some butter into the Dutch Oven.

See it really was hot in these pictures

Then I sliced up some onions and layered them on the bottom of the Dutch Oven.  This helps insure the chicken does not stick to the pan.  My Dutch Oven is well seasoned so the chicken should not stick but I like the flavor the onions bring to the meal... we ate the onions too!

I also added some chicken stock to the pot.  This will add some moisture to the cooking environment to help keep the chicken from drying out.  Again, when cooking in a lided environment, drying out is not a big problem.  And again, I like the flavor the stock adds.  My chicken stock happened to be frozen.  When I have the remains of a whole chicken left over, I boil it down for stock.  (Which will be the ultimate end for this chicken). Then when the stock is cooled and strained, I freeze the stock in ice cube trays.  The frozen stock cubes are then sealed up in ziptop bags in the freezer for future use.  This makes it much easier to use the stock in multiple recipes.  Someday I should actually measure how much stock is in one cube so I know how many cubes to the cup but that is a project for another day.

Add onions and frozen chicken stock (frozen is not required)

The chicken was carefully placed on top of the onions.  I say carefully because remember the Dutch Oven is still close to 400 degrees in these pictures.  I sprinkled the chicken with salt, thyme, sage, and basil.  A pinch or two of each.  Season to your own liking.  

Add whole chicken and season

The lid was put on the Dutch Oven and the whole thing put into a 425 degree oven for about an hour and a half.  The chicken was falling off the bones and very moist and tender.

Not the best picture but it sure was yummy!

After the chicken was cooking away I also cut up a variety grape and cherry heiloom tomatoes.  I put them into a square baking pan with some olive oil.  The tomatoes were mixed up in the oilive oil then I sprinkled them with garlic power, salt, and grated parmasan cheese. 

Tomatoes ready for the oven

The tomatoes were put into the oven next to the Dutch Oven for the last 30 minutes of cooking to roast.  They turn out so sweet and flavorful you just have to try them even if you do not like tomatoes as a rule.

Roasted Tomatoes - So Yummy!

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