Try this easy recipe and enjoy warm bread at home every day!

 

Growing up in an Italian family means that I am used to having fresh bread on my table every day.

During the Coronavirus outbreak and facing stay-at-home regulations and social distancing restrictions, I knew that going out every day to buy fresh bread was not a good idea, but luckily I had the only two ingredients I needed - Flour and Yeast - and knew the perfect recipe to bake fresh bread easily at home.

This super simple recipe is by Benedetta Rossi, an Italian food blogger and YouTuber who came up with this recipe for an easy and “lazy” bread. You won’t believe how simple it is!

 

All you need to make your bread at home:

400 gr 0 flour

300 ml water

2 gr dry brewer’s yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

 

Get started the night before

The first step is to mix the flour with yeast, sugar and salt - I like to add a bit more than a teaspoon of salt but you can personalize the recipe depending on your taste. If you plan to eat your bread with Nutella chocolate cream, you could skip the salt altogether!

Once you mixed all the solid ingredients you can start to add the flour to the water a little at a time. Once you incorporated all the flour, cover the bowl and let the mix rest for about 10/15 minutes, then mix it again and let it rest for another 10 minutes. Repeat this process 3 times, then cover your bread and let it rest and rise all night in the fridge. You can leave it there for a minimum of 6 hours and a maximum of 12 hours, this is why I like to start the night before to have fresh bread ready for lunch the next day!

I love to use the Paneangeli dry active yeast “Mastro Fornaio” which is perfect also for pizza, focaccia and sweet cakes. Every bag contains 3 mono-portion of 7 gr so, with one portion, you can bake bread for 3 days. Just re-close the bag and you can store it in the fridge for 2-3 days.

 

The following day...

When you are ready, take your mix out of the fridge and dust with flour your work table, create a rectangle shape with your dough and fold it on itself 4 times. Then cover it and let it rise again for about two hours at room temperature. You will know the bread is ready to go in the oven when it will almost double in size.

Preheat the oven at 230° C and now you have two choices:

  1. To make a round-shaped bread you will need to cook your bread in a steel or ceramic pan with a lid - make sure they can go in the oven.
  2. If you don’t have a pan that can go in the oven line your baking tray with parchment paper and create an elongate shape with your bread mix: you will have a delicious rustic baguette!

Leave the bread in the oven for about 50 minutes, checking to see when it has that perfect golden crust. Then you are ready to take it out of the oven and let it cool before cutting and serving it!

 

Buon Appetito!

I love how simple this recipe is and bringing this homemade bread to the table makes me appreciate even more the food it goes with! I like to pair it with Ham, Mortadella, Salame and some delicious Italian cheeses, but it is also great for the kids’ break with some Nutella or fruit jam!