My Mother’s Peasant Bread: The Best Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make
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This is the no-knead bread recipe my mother has been baking for 45 years. Start to finish, it can be ready in three hours. It bakes in well-buttered Pyrex bowls — no need to preheat a baking vessel for this recipe — and it emerges golden and crisp with a soft, tender crumb. 🍞🍞🍞🍞🍞
When I tell you that, if forced, I had to pick one and only one recipe to share with you that this — my mother’s peasant bread — would be it, I am serious. I would almost in fact be OK ending the blog after this very post, retiring altogether from the wonderful world of food blogging, resting assured that you all had this knowledge at hand. This bread might just change your life.
The reason I say this is simple. I whole-heartedly believe that if you know how to make bread you can throw one hell of a dinner party. And the reason for this is because people go insane over homemade bread. Not once have I served this bread to company without being asked, “Did you really make this?” And questioned: “You mean with a bread machine?” But always praised: “Is there anything more special than homemade bread?”
And upon tasting homemade bread, people act as if you’re some sort of culinary magician. I would even go so far as to say that with homemade bread on the table along with a few nice cheeses and a really good salad, the main course almost becomes superfluous. If you nail it, fantastic. If you don’t, you have more than enough treats to keep people happy all night long.
The Magic of the Peasant Bread
So what, you probably are wondering, makes this bread so special when there are so many wonderful bread recipes out there? Again, the answer is simple. For one, it’s a no-knead bread. I know, I know. There are two wildly popular no-knead bread recipes out there.
But unlike the others, this is a no-knead bread that can be started at 4:00pm and turned out onto the dinner table at 7:00pm. It bakes in well-buttered Pyrex bowls — there is no pre-heating of the baking vessels in this recipe — and it emerges golden and crisp without any steam pans or water spritzes. This is not artisan bread, nor is it trying to be. It is peasant bread, spongy and moist with a most-delectable buttery crust.
Genuinely, I would be proud to serve this bread at a dinner party attended by Jim Lahey, Mark Bittman, Peter Reinhart, Chad Robertson, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. It is a bread I hope you will all give a go, too, and then proudly serve at your next dinner party to guests who might ask where you’ve stashed away your bread machine. And when this happens, I hope you will all just smile and say, “Don’t be silly. This is just a simple peasant bread. Easy as pie. I’ll show you how to make it some day.”
Peasant Bread Variations
Once you master the peasant bread, you can make any bread your heart desires — this simple no-knead bread recipe is the foundation of many of the other bread recipes on this site, namely this hugely popular overnight refrigerator focaccia and this simple homemade pizza dough. It’s even the inspiration behind this sourdough focaccia and this sourdough sandwich bread and this simple pita bread recipe.
The below post is organized as follows:
- How to Make Peasant Bread, Step by Step
- The Best Way to Store Bread
- Peasant Bread Dinner Rolls
- Peasant Bread Sandwich Bread
- How to Add Seeds and Nuts to Bread Dough
- How to Make Gluten-Free Peasant Bread
- How to Coat the Loaves in Seeds
- How to use Whole Wheat Flour
- How to Bake the Peasant Bread in a Dutch Oven
Many more variations on the peasant bread can be found in my cookbook, Bread Toast Crumbs:
Bread Toast Crumbs
Love the peasant bread? There’s now a book filled with 40 simple bread recipes plus 70 recipes to use up every crumb of every loaf you bake.
How to Make Peasant Bread, Step by Step
First: You need yeast.
This is the yeast I buy exclusively: SAF Instant Yeast. Instant yeast can be whisked into the flour directly without any blooming or proofing. If you want to stick to active-dry yeast, there are instructions in the recipe notes on how to do so. Red Star yeast is great.
Whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast. Add lukewarm water.
Mix until you have a sticky dough ball. Let it rise for 1.5 to 2 hours…
… or until it looks like this:
Punch down the dough using two forks.
Then split the dough down the middle again using the two forks.
Because this is a very wet dough, it must be baked in an oven-proof bowl. I am partial to the Pyrex 1L 322 size, but any similarly sized oven-proof bowl will work.
Butter the bowls well; then transfer half of the dough to each prepared bow.
Let the dough rise again until it crowns the rim of the bowl, about 30 minutes.
Transfer the bowls to the oven to bake:
This bread is irresistible when it’s freshly baked, but it also makes wonderful toast on subsequent mornings as well as the best grilled cheese. It’s also my favorite bread to use for these egg salad sandwiches and for this no-tuna “tuna” salad.
The Best Way to Store Bread
If you want to store the bread at room temperature for 3 to 4 days, I think the best method is in a ziplock bag. I’ve tried other eco-friendly options, but nothing seems to keep bread freshest — the crumb the softest — better than a ziplock bag. You can re-use the bags again and again.
If you intend to keep the bread for longer, I would freeze it. I often slice bread as soon as it cools completely, transfer the slices to a ziplock bag, then freeze. This way, I know the bread was frozen at its freshest.
A ziplock bag will not prevent the crust of bread from turning soft, which is why I suggest always reheating day-old bread. I use a toaster at breakfast for slices of bread, and I reheat half or quarter loaves in the oven at 350ºF for 15 to 20 minutes when serving for dinner.
Bread revives so beautifully in the oven or toaster.
No-Knead Dinner Rolls
To use the peasant bread dough to make rolls, simply divide the dough into smaller portions and place in a buttered muffin tin as in these No-Knead Thyme Dinner Rolls (pictured above). This recipe for no-knead buttermilk pull-apart rolls is also based on the peasant bread as are these brioche pull-apart rolls.
No-Knead Sandwich Bread
To make sandwich bread, multiply the recipe below by 1.5 and bake the bread in two buttered 8.5×4.5-inch loaf pans.
Made with half all-purpose flour and half King Arthur Sprouted Wheat Flour, these seed-coated sandwich loaves (pictured above) have a soft and light crumb. I really like KAF’s sprouted wheat flour, which is made from white whole wheat berries that, when sprouted, yield a creamy, sweet, milder-tasting flour. You can use 100% all-purpose or bread flour for an even lighter loaf or your favorite whole wheat flour in place of the sprouted wheat flour.
How to Add Nuts and Seeds to Bread Dough
To add seeds and nuts (or dried fruit and cheese), simply stir them into the dry ingredients. This recipe for Quinoa-and-Flax Toasting Bread will offer guidance on how much to add.
How to Make a Gluten-Free Peasant Bread
Making gluten-free peasant bread (pictured above) unfortunately isn’t as simple as swapping in gluten-free flour for the wheat flour. But the process and recipe is still super simple — in fact, because there’s only one rise, many people find the gluten-free peasant bread to be even simpler than the original. Find the recipe here: Gluten-Free Peasant Bread
How to Coat the Loaves in Seeds
To coat the peasant bread in seeds, as pictured above, simply coat the bowls with everything bagel seasoning or with dukkah or sesame seeds or whatever seed mix you wish. The seed-coated loaves look so beautiful, and it’s amazing how much the flavor of the coating permeates the loaves. Find the recipe here: Everything Bagel Seasoning Peasant Bread
How to Use Whole Wheat Flour
To use whole wheat flour in the peasant bread, simply replace as much as 50% of the all-purpose flour with your favorite whole wheat flour: I like KAF’s sprouted wheat flour, and I’ve been loving the Cairnsprings Mill Trailblazer stone-milled flour. With the Trailblazer, I can use up to 75% of it in the peasant bread, and it yields a beautiful, chewy texture as well as a lovely flavor and aroma.
When using whole wheat flour, you may have to use more or less water — there is no rule as to how much more or less, and it will take some trial and error to get right because all flours absorb water differently. When I use KAF sprouted wheat flour, for example, I don’t change the water amount at all. When I use the Trailblazer flour, on the other hand, I reduce the water by at least 50 grams.
If you’d like to learn more about whole wheat flour and stone-milled flours, read this: Easy Sourdough Bread (Whole Wheat-ish)
How to Bake the Peasant Bread in a Dutch Oven
If you’re looking for more of a crackling crusted boule (characteristic of a loaf of sourdough bread) as opposed to the buttery crispness of the peasant bread, you can bake the peasant bread dough in a preheated Dutch oven.
There are detailed instructions below the recipe in the notes section, but one thing to keep in mind before you begin is dough hydration. The peasant bread is a very high hydration dough, meaning there is a lot of water relative to flour. Because baking the peasant bread in a Dutch oven will require some handling of the dough — to shape it into a round and to create some tension — you may want to reduce the water from the start. Consider holding back 20-30 grams of water to make the process more manageable for you.
My Mother’s Peasant Bread: The Best Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make
- Total Time: 2 hours 27 minutes
- Yield: 2 loaves
Description
Notes:
The bread:
This is a sticky, no-knead dough, so, some sort of baking vessel, such as pyrex bowls (you need two 1-qt bowls) or ramekins for mini loaves is required to bake this bread. See notes below the recipe for sources. You can use a bowl that is about 2 qt or 2 L in size to bake off the whole batch of dough (versus splitting the dough in half) but do not use this size for baking half of the dough — it is too big.
Peasant Bread Fans! There is now a book: Bread Toast Crumbs, a loaf-to-crumb bread baking book, filled with tips and tricks and answers to the many questions that have been asked over the years. In the book you will find 40 variations of the master peasant bread recipe + 70 recipes for using up the many loaves you will bake. Learn more about the book here or buy it here.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (512 g) unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
- 2 teaspoons (10 g) kosher salt
- 2 cups (454 g) lukewarm water (made by mixing 1.5 cups cold water with 0.5 cup boiling water)
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) sugar
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) instant yeast, I love SAF Instant Yeast, see notes below
- room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons
Instructions
- Mixing the dough: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, sugar, and instant yeast (I love SAF Instant Yeast). Add the water. Mix until the flour is absorbed. (If you are using active dry yeast, see notes below.)
- Let it rise. Cover bowl with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for at least an hour. (In the winter or if you are letting the bread rise in a cool place, it might take as long as two hours to rise.) This is how to create a slightly warm spot for your bread to rise in: Turn the oven on at any temperature (350ºF or so) for one minute, then turn it off. Note: Do not allow the oven to get up to 300ºF, for example, and then heat at that setting for 1 minute — this will be too hot. Just let the oven preheat for a total of 1 minute — it likely won’t get above 100ºF. The goal is to just create a slightly warm environment for the bread.
- Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Grease two 1-qt or 1.5-qt oven-safe bowls (see notes below) with about a tablespoon of butter each. Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl, which it will be clinging to. As you scrape it down try to pull the dough toward the center (see video below for guidance). You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you’ve punched it down. Then, take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions — eye the center of the mass of dough, and starting from the center and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Then scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls. This part can be a little messy — the dough is very wet and will slip all over the place. Using small forks or forks with short tines makes this easier — my small salad forks work best; my dinner forks make it harder. It’s best to scoop it up fast and plop it in the bowl in one fell swoop. Some people like to use flexible, plastic dough scrapers for this step.
- Let the dough rise again for about 20 to 30 minutes on the countertop near the oven (or near a warm spot) or until it has risen to just below or above (depending on what size bowl you are using) the top of the bowls. (Note: Do not do the warm-oven trick for the second rise, and do not cover your bowls for the second rise. Simply set your bowls on top of your oven, so that they are in a warm spot. Twenty minutes in this spot usually is enough for my loaves.)
- Bake it. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375º and bake for 15 to 17 minutes longer. Remove from the 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 the loaves look a little pale and soft when you’ve turned them out onto your cooling racks, place the loaves into the oven (outside of their bowls) and let them bake for about 5 minutes longer. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.
Notes
- The bowls: The cheapest, most widely available 1-qt bowl is the Pyrex 322. Update: These bowls are becoming harder to find and more expensive. As a result, I’m suggesting this cheaper option: the Pyrex 3-piece set. You can split the dough in half as always (see recipe) and bake half in the 1-quart bowl and half in the 1.5 quart bowl. The loaves will not be the same shape, but they will be delicious nonetheless.
- Yeast: I buy SAF Instant Yeast in bulk from Amazon I store it in my fridge or freezer, and it lasts forever. If you are using the packets of yeast (the kind that come in the 3-fold packets), just go ahead and use a whole packet — It’s 2.25 teaspoons. I have made the bread with active dry, rapid rise, and instant yeast, and all varieties work. The beauty of instant yeast is that there is no need to “proof” it — you can add the yeast directly to the flour. I never use active-dry yeast anymore.
- If you have active-dry yeast on hand and want to use it, here’s how: In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the sugar into the water. Sprinkle the yeast over top. There is no need to stir it up. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy and/or bubbling just a bit — this step will ensure that the yeast is active. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. When the yeast-water-sugar mixture is foamy, stir it up, and add it to the flour bowl. Mix until the flour is absorbed.
- Troubleshooting: You can find step-by-step video instruction here.
- Several commenters have had trouble with the second rise, and this seems to be caused by the shape of the bowl they are letting the dough rise in the second time around. Two hours for the second rise is too long. If you don’t have a 1-qt bowl, bake 3/4 of the dough in a loaf pan and bake the rest off in muffin tins or a popover pan. The second rise should take no more than 30 minutes.
- Also, you can use as many as 3 cups of whole wheat flour, but the texture changes considerably. I suggest trying with all all-purpose or bread flour to start and once you get the hang of it, start trying various combinations of whole wheat flour and/or other flours.
- The single most important step you can take to make this bread truly foolproof is to invest in a digital scale. This one costs under $10. If you are not measuring by weight, do this: scoop flour into the measuring cup using a separate spoon or measuring cup; level off with a knife. The flour should be below the rim of the measuring cup.
- Here’s a printable version of this recipes that’s less wordy: Peasant Bread Recipe, Simplified
- How to Bake the Peasant Bread in a Dutch Oven: Preheat a Dutch Oven for 45 minutes at 450ºF. Dust a clean work surface with flour. After the first rise, turn the dough out onto the floured surface and shape it into a ball: I like to fold it envelope style from top to bottom, then side to side; then I flip it over and use the pinkie edges of my hands to pinch the dough underneath and create some tension. Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper. Let rest for 20 minutes. If you feel your dough is spreading too much you can lift up the sheet of parchment paper, dough and all, and place it in a bowl of a similar size. After the 20 minutes, transfer the dough, parchment paper and all to the Dutch oven. Carefully cover it. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover. Bake 15 minutes more.
- To bake the peasant bread in a loaf pan: If you are using an 8.5×4.5-inch loaf pan or a 9×5-inch loaf pan, you can bake 3/4 of the dough in it; bake off the rest of the dough in ramekins or other small vessels … the mini loaves are so cute. You can also make 1.5x the recipe, and bake the bread in 2 loaf pans. If you have a large loaf pan, such as a 10×6-inch loaf pan, you can bake off the entire batch of dough in it. For loaf pans, bake at 375ºF for 45 minutes.
- How to Bake at Hight Altitude:
- First try the original recipe as written (preferably with a scale). You may not need to make any adjustments. One commenter, who lives at 9200 ft finds the original recipe to work just fine as is.
- If the original recipe doesn’t work, try adding a little bit more water because it rises fast and it is so dry: about a quarter cup for every 512 g of flour.
- Try decreasing the yeast to 1.5 teaspoons.
- If your dough is especially gooey, try decreasing the water by 1/4 cup. But, if you aren’t using a scale, my first suggestion would be to buy a scale and weigh the flour, and make the bread once as directed with the 2 cups water and 512 grams flour, etc.
- Punch the dough down twice before transferring it to the buttered Pyrex bowls. In other words, let it rise for 1-1.5 hours, punch it down, let it rise again for about an hour, punch it down, then transfer it to the buttered bowls.
- Variations:
- #1. Cornmeal. Substitute 1 cup of the flour with 1 cup of cornmeal. Proceed with the recipe as directed.
- #2. Faux focaccia. Instead of spreading butter in two Pyrex bowls in preparation for baking, butter one 9×9-inch glass baking dish and one Pyrex bowl or just butter one large 9×13-inch Pyrex baking dish. If using two vessels, divide the dough in half and place each half in prepared baking pan. If using only one large baking dish, place all of the dough in the dish. Drizzle dough with 1 tablespoon of olive oil (if using the small square pan) and 2 tablespoons of olive oil (if using the large one). Using your fingers, gently spread the dough out so that it fits the shape of the pan. Use your fingers to create dimples in the surface of the dough. Sprinkle surface with chopped rosemary and sea salt. Let rise for 20 to 30 minutes. Bake for 15 minutes at 425ºF and 17 minutes (or longer) at 375ºF. Remove from pan and let cool on cooling rack.
- #3. Thyme Dinner Rolls
- #4 Gluten-free
- #5. Everything Bagel Seasoning Bread. Simply coat the buttered bowls with Everything Bagel Seasoning. Watch a how-to on Instagram Stories here.
- #6: Whole Wheat Peasant Bread. Use as much as 50% whole wheat flour. I like King Arthur Flour’s white whole wheat flour (see this post) or sprouted wheat flour (see this post).
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 32 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
6,394 Comments on “My Mother’s Peasant Bread: The Best Easiest Bread You Will Ever Make”
I’m making this today. I’m going to cut the recipe as suggested for 2 loaf pans, mostly because I want to use it for the kids’ sandwich bread. Really looking forward to trying this out. Thanks for the recipe.
Hope it turns out well, Amber. I have a feeling the loaves will be smallish, but loaf pans will definitely work. The best ratio/method seems to be doubling the recipe and baking it into three loaf pans, but I know that’s a lot of bread/resources to make/use up in one go.
I am not an experienced baker and so this might be a silly question. But can I use self-rising flour?
Never a silly question 🙂 Self-rising flour is not a good idea here. That’s best saved for muffins and quickbreads and cakes — really any baked good that calls for baking soda or powder vs. yeast. Hope that makes sense. I am a huge fan of King Arthur Flour.
Can i use bleached all purpose flour instead of unbleached ?
Yes, you can. I prefer unbleached flour for taste and texture reasons, but if you have had success with bleached flour in other baking experiments, go for it! Good luck!
Made this recipe today and it is by far the best bread I have made. Thank you for sharing this recipe, I posted your link again on FACEBOOK along with a photo of how my bread turned out!
wonderful to hear this! Send me the link to your FB post — would love to see the bread!
I love your husband and kids. Letting them help without getting angry, was a joy to watch. <
Thank you! I like them, too 🙂
What adjustments would you make for high altitude baking? I live at approx 6000′ above sea level.
I was wondering if you can use the metal mixing bowls to bake the bread in or does it have to be a glass Pyrex…I have made round cakes in the metal mixing bowls and it worked well…if I can’t I guess I am going shopping..thank you for the wonderful recipes. I am going to be making this and the roasted tomato and bread soup very soon.
Hi Nikki!
I have never tried baking with metal bowls, but others have with success. Just be sure to grease extra extra well. I think metal is more likely to cause sticking issues than the glass. Hope it works out for you!
I am also going to try the faux foccacia and the dinner thyme rolls
Oh, fun! These are great and easy, too.
Alexandra,
Your recipe is a good one! Thanks for sharing…baking dish size makes all the difference…a 1 quart dish bakes the bread perfectly. It is nice having a bread recipe that requires no kneading, as my counterspace is very limited…
WOnderful to hear this, Ed! That is one of the biggest bonuses of this recipe — no messy countertops. I love the 1-qt size as well. Thanks for writing in.
My first home made bread tonight, using your recipe. I made one as foccocia and one regular. Delicious!!! Can’t wait to make this for friends. I could have let it rise a bit more but it was great anyway. Thanks so much for this recipe.
Wonderful to hear this!
Hi, Great looking recipe, I can’t wait to try this!!! Could I bake this in loaf pans instead? If I cut the dough into thirds, maybe??
Definitely! Cutting the dough in half would be fine, and might even make for two sort of wimpy loaves actually. I suggest using 3/4 of the dough for one loaf pan, and then baking off the rest in muffing tins. Good luck!
You forgot to put what temp you initially are to put the bread in the oven at, it just says bake for 15 minutes and then turn the oven down to 375. But what are we turning it down from?
No she states “Preheat the oven to 425ºF.”
Thanks for noting this, Michelle!
Hey Kristine, Hope you saw Michelle’s comment or re-read the recipe — at the start of step 3, it says preheat oven to 425ºF. Good luck with it!
I bake with whole wheat pastry flour. Do you think I can make a substitution?
I don’t suggest using all whole wheat pastry flour to start. I think the loaf will be very dense and heavy. Try using half whole wheat flour to start and half white. Also, I worry there might not be enough gluten in the whole wheat pastry flour — how does it typically perform in bread?
I come from a long-line family of bakers, and make my own bread most of the time. I was curious to try your recipe and made it last night to accompany my dinner. I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy it really and truly was to make. Although I did not need the videos, I watched them anyway, and was extremely impressed with your devotion and passion to creating a site that made this recipe so easy and welcoming to those who do not bake much. I especially enjoyed seeing your “little helpers”. I really hope that everybody who discovers this site, will try this bread. It really is just as easy as portrayed and taste amazing. I wanted the traditional loaf, so made the entire recipe in a loaf pan and it came out delicious, for anybody who chooses to bake it in a loaf pan instead of the round Pyrex bowls.
The only drawback that I had, was that I find kneading bread very therapeutic, guess that comes from my baker’s background, haha. I discovered this after making the bread that I actually missed that. However, stating that, I still will continue to make this recipe, especially when I want fresh homemade bread quickly and without the extra work, when I am pressed for time or very tired. Thank you so very much for all your hard work in putting this together, and sharing your family recipe. You really and truly made this fool proof! My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed the bread, and will be looking forward to trying the other ways to make this bread/rolls. Blessings to you and yours!
Lori, Thank you so much for all of your kind words — that means so much. This definitely is a recipe dear to my heart, and I only wish everyone who attempted it had success with it. Great to know that you fit the whole batch in a loaf pan — I need to try that. What size loaf pan do you have?
And yes, why is kneading bread so therapeutic? There definitely is a time and a place for kneaded bread, but in a pinch, it’s nice to know there is another option. So glad your daughter approved, too. Thank you for writing in!
Looks like a great recipe! I’m trying it today, my only concern is I only have one 1.5qt bowl! Thinking I’ll try baking it as one whole loaf in my 2.5qt bowl…?
So sorry for the delay here — You can use the 2.5 qt bowl for the whole batch. Or you can bake 2/3 of the dough in the 1.5 qt bowl and make mini loaves using muffin tins or ramekins. Hope it turned out well!
This looks SOOO GOOD!!
I am at 5500 Ft elevation..do I need to do anything different, do you know?
Thank you..
Sandy
I just had to come and comment right away after making and devouring this bread. It was the most amazing bread I’ve ever tasted and or made. It came out perfect! It had that buttery crunch on the outside and the most amazing light,fluffy,chewy texture on the inside. My husband and kids loved it too. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe!
Yay! So happy to hear this! Thanks for writing in.
I made the bread tonight and I am so happy it came out perfert! I followed your instructions and watched your videos while I was making the bread. I wish I could send you a pic of the 2 loaves I made. Thank you Alexandra for sharing this great recipe. I saw it on Facebook and thought I would give it a try. I can’t wait to make my next batch. Again, thank you Alexandra!
Darlene
You are so welcome! So happy you had good results!
This turned out flat and very dense for me, came out of the oven way below the top of the bowl…any suggestions?
try a smaller bowl, I did two sizes, and the bigger one did the same thing for me. But the smaller bowl was perfect.
What size bowls were you using? And did the first rise go OK?
I used a 1 quart and 1.5 quart, first rise seemed okay
Thank You! This is the best bread I have made. Follow everything you said and it was wonderful. Now I am using different pans and adding different Italian herbs to see what comes out of the oven ok or not ok… I try to make all our own bread and this winter this recipe is going to be The One and Only …thank you again!!!
Wonderful to hear this, Lisa! It’s such a great recipe to know this time of year as we head into soup and stew season. So glad you had success.
I just finished making this. This bread is amazing; I had to force myself to stop eating it! My husband let me know that we no longer need to buy bread from Publix, he liked it so much. Thank you for this delicious recipe! 🙂
Yay! So happy to hear this!
Oh, WOW! That is delicious! I’ve done home-made sweet-breads before, but never had the courage to try “real” bread from scratch! Super easy, even with 2 little kids underfoot, and yummy!!
Yay!
I have made this and it is amazing!! My husband couldn’t get enough of it! And it was my very first time making bread. What would the result be if I substituted Bread Flour for AP??
Yay! And you can totally use bread flour. It might even be better! For awhile I used bread flour, and then for no particular reason, I just stuck with all-purpose.
Alexandra, many thanks to you and your Mom for this wonderful bread recipe! It is delicious and my whole family loves it. I’ve made it three times now and am still tweaking the bowl size I use to make it come out looking like yours. So far, I’ve had the best results using a 2 qt bowl for the whole recipe. It didn’t rise quite as high as I was hoping for, but it’s gone so I say no more. Today I used a 1.5 qt bowl (in the oven as we speak), but it rose up and over the side of the bowl. I opened the door & quickly slid a cookie sheet under the rack- no harm done. Top looks a little sunken on one side, but it smells wonderful & I expect it will taste that way! I am determined get a perfect loaf like yours, so will keep trying. Thanks again for sharing this fantastic bread recipe.
Wonderful to hear this, Patricia! I hope you’ve had success making the perfect loaf 🙂
Hi Alexandra,
Yes, I have indeed had success! I have used the Pyrex 1 quart bowls as well as loaf pans and they are perfect. I have shared your link with many friends & family members who’ve sampled the finished product and asked for the recipe. In fact, for Christmas I made two “bread kits” (with all the necessities your recipe calls for) as gifts for family members. We all love and enjoy the delicious bread your recipe helps create. Thanks again!
Oh that makes me so happy! Love the idea of making bread kits. So clever.
I have never successfully made a yeast bread; until this wonderful recipe! The first time I made this bread, we were on vacation with 2 other families. Both loaves were gone in about 15 minutes. It was requested everyday. By Tuesday, I was making double batches. Thank you for sharing this treasure, and the wonderful tutorials!
Wonderful to hear this!
This was a great receipt. It turned out great. I do like my knead bread a little better but it may because I use honey instead of sugar. I am going to try to adapt honey to this receipe and see how it work. I also going to try to adapt my. tomato herb recipe to this in too. I love the softness and feel of this bread. Also I used $2.50 glass bowls I bought at a discount store and they woked great had nice browning all the way around. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for this recipe. I am living and working in a remote part of India. The bread here is awful. This is a Godsend!
So I baked anthor batch today. Substituting 3 teaspoons of honey for the white sugar. Now I like it better than my knead bread. The honey is what I was missing a just a fuller flavor to me. Awsome easy recipe. Thanks again. Now to try adapting my tomato herb recipe for this recipe.
Wonderful to hear this, Don! Will definitely be trying honey this week. Did you make a tomato-herb variation? Sounds so good.
Hi,
Ive made this bread a many times always turns out great. Dumb question! Could I let this rise longer then the 2 hours for first rise? Thanks so much for posting it!
K
Hi Karen — sorry for the delay here!
You probably could, especially if the dough is in a colder spot, but I wouldn’t suggest going much longer. Because it is such a wet dough and there is a relatively high amount of yeast, the dough sort of poops out (for lack of a better word) after too much time rising. Hope that makes sense.
Best bread ever.. Third time making recipe..2 batches today both totally different flour… First batch I used spelt (3 cups) and millet (1 cup) flour and the second I used 1 cup of each whole wheat, spelt, millet, and buckwheat. In both batches I added dried minced onions (1 1/2 tsp) and sprinkled some after buttering bowls…. Recipe is so forgiving…. Bread is perfect. A little heavier but just as good as when using all white flour
Thank you for sharing your recipe
Thanks so much for sharing all of your variations, Sherly! They sound lovely. I would love to try out some of these healthier flours. And I love the idea of minced onions…yum!