Learning to Make
Bread Is Not Difficult

I believe that learning to make your own bread is a necessary survival skill.

There are plenty of recipes out there for using stored wheat, but nothing is as delicious and wholesome as whole wheat homemade bread.

I learned how to bake bread as a young mother with small children for three main reasons:

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It was less expensive to cook from scratch;
we loved fresh bread hot out of the oven, and;
my mother baked bread when I was a child and I learned to love it then.

I prefer whole wheat bread, but I mostly made white and French bread for my family.

Now that there's just my husband and I, we prefer whole wheat. Using hard white whole wheat (not the white flour at the grocery store) looks just like regular white bread and is soft, fluffy, and just as nutritious as hard red whole wheat. Hard white wheat flour is nearly impossible if find anywhere, so I buy the kernals and grind it into flour.

But just recently, I stumbled across the, now ubiquitous, recipe for No Knead Bread. It first appeared (I read) in the New York Times but since has been posted in many places. The most complete recipe I have found, along with many helpful comments by those who have tried it and experimented with adding seeds, cheese, and various flours, is on the website, Breadtopia.com. It's an awesome site with videos to show you how to make several kinds of bread. (I have no monetary connection with this site - I just love it and wanted to share it with you.)

This No Knead Bread is like a wonderful artisan bread but is so simple to make. The secret to its crispy crust and chewy insides with big holes is the Romertopf clay baker (found on Breadtopia - also available on Amazon). This is a very wet dough and the clay baker steams the bread which gives such delicious results.

You can also use a Dutch oven or any ceramic baking dish with a lid, as long as it can stand a temperature of 500 degrees.

No-Knead Bread

So here's the recipe for this awesome bread:

3 cups bread flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups white bread flour)
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups purified or spring water

Mix together the dry ingredients.
Mix in water until the water is incorporated.
Cover with plastic and let sit 12-18 hours.
Follow video instruction for folding.
Cover loosely with plastic and rest for 15 minutes.
Transfer to well floured towel or proofing basket. Cover with towel and let rise about 1 1/2 hours.
Bake in covered clay baker or Dutch oven preheated to 500 degrees for 30 minutes.
Remove cover; reduce heat to 450 degrees and bake an additional 15 minutes.
Let cool completely on rack.

Download Recipes

If you would like a PDF file to print the recipes for your own use, download and print the No Knead Bread here and two Whole Wheat Bread recipes here that we also love (pdf files).

Mixing Bread

I have to tell you about the Danish Dough Whisk (pictured right). It is the coolest (but weird looking) mixing tool I have ever used. I don't know why it works so well, but it mixes even gooey, soft dough so quickly . . . well, it's a little hard to believe unless you try it.

I watched the videos on Breadtopia and he uses it for all his bread making. After watching him use it, I just had to have one. They are not expensive and are worth every penny in my opinion. They are available on Amazon and Breadtopia.

Try one - you'll probably love it like I do.

I hope all of you will take the time to learn how to bake bread and maybe even learn how to grind your own wheat. I'm sure your family will love the results. The No Knead Bread is almost impossible to mess up. Seriously!