Rainy Day

I had plans to go for a long walk today (there's a Macy's less than a 15 minutewalk from our house). However, it started to get really cold around 6 am and by 8am it was breezy, dark, and rainy - and it lasted ALL DAY. I decided to clean up the house and do some baking. I found a recipe for crusty bread after my Mom, Debbie, Ashley and I visited a local's farmers market and they were selling beet bread. It looked amazing, but I knew I could never make Nathan anything to do with beets. Instead I made a white crusty bread using my new Dutch Oven pot I bought in the summer. The recipe was exact and it went perfectly with our pasta dinner.

Crusty Bread

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon yeast

1 1/2 cups water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 2-4 hours (completely risen). Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.