THE EASIEST, TASTIEST CRUSTY BREAD RECIPE

Look no further if you are searching for the easiest, tastiest crusty bread recipe. I have to admit that I don’t like and don’t eat prepackaged grocery store bread. It has just never appealed to me. However, I absolutely love bakery bread, particularly crusty French style bread. Give me a French loaf, some good cheese, and some olives or tapenade, and I’m a happy girl. In fact, this is what we happily ate for lunch most days when we travelled to Paris.

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The search for the Holy Grail of breads

I have strived to find the easiest, tastiest crusty bread recipe for years. We even purchased a bread maker, which actually does make quite good bread (not to mention loaves, cakes, and pizza dough), but we discovered that it could not produce the elusive crusty French bread we desired. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it must be impossible to make such a loaf at home. Then, one day our family was having dinner with our good friends and my friend had made a loaf of bread that was exactly what I had been searching for. The entire loaf was devoured in minutes. I couldn’t believe how easy the recipe sounded either! The only catch was that it required a Dutch oven, which I didn’t own at the time.

Time for a Dutch oven

Fast forward a year or so, and we had a very disturbing incident with a loaf of pre-packaged bread. It contained glass which my son nearly swallowed. After that, I vowed to bake all our bread myself. I made the investment and purchased a 5.5-quart Dutch oven. The one I purchased was a white Le Creuset beauty, but there are more affordable options out there. I experimented with a few recipes and came up with one I used several times per week.

The full recipe for the eastiest, tastiest crusty bread is below, but here are a few photos taken during the bread-making process.

The Easiest, Tastiest Crusty Bread Recipe

This bakery style crusty bread will be the envy of your friends.  This recipe requires a Dutch oven- I use a 5.5 quart one. The bread also needs to rise for 12-24 hours, so I start the dough the day before I plan to bake the bread.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Rising Time 12 hours hrs

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Course Appetizer

Cuisine French

Servings 1 round loaf

Ingredients

  

• 3 cups white bread flour
• 1 tsp traditional dry yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.5 cups water, warm

Instructions

 

• In a large bowl, mix flour, yeast and salt. Add the water and mix with a wooden spoon for about 2 minutes until you have a rough, sticky dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm area to rise for 12-24 hours.
• After the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 440 degrees. Place a 5.5-quart Dutch oven with lid in the oven. You could use a slightly smaller or larger Dutch oven, round or oval. Use the highest rack possible without having the Dutch oven lid come in contact with the roof of the oven. Next, use a spatula to turn the risen dough onto a floured surface.  Allow the dough to sit for 30 minutes.
• Using oven mitts, remove the Dutch oven from the oven and take off the lid. Transfer the dough to the Dutch oven and cover with the lid. Place the Dutch oven back in the oven and cook for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Monitor the bread to ensure that it is a golden brown colour and not a darker brown colour indicating that it is overcooked.
• Remove the bread from the oven and place on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!
• If you want to make olive bread, stir 1/2 cup of sliced black olives into the risen dough and allow to sit 30 minutes before cooking as described above.

Keyword Bakery Bread, Crusty Bread, French Bread

The crusty bread experience

You’ll know what I mean by “The crusty bread experience” if you try this recipe or if you frequent artisan bakeries. It begins with the smell of delicious, hearty bread baking in the oven. Once a piece is cut and a generous dollop of salted butter added to the still slightly warm bread, it’s almost impossible to not take a bite immediately. But don’t. Just savour the sight and smell for a moment longer. Then you will be rewarded with a bread that has a slightly crusty exterior and a soft tender interior that has just the right amount of chew to it.

Then feel free to create a sandwich with cheese and vegetables or deli meats. We love ours with a little olive tapenade or dipped in a mixture of olive oil and aged basalmic vinegar. I hope you agree that this is the easiest, tastiest crusty bread recipe.