Category Archives: Dutchoven

No Knead Homemade Dutch-Oven Bread


We are currently in the process of relocating to the Raleigh, North Carolina region. Which means I am not in my kitchen, and I don’t have all my standard kitchen appliances and utensils. My husband was visiting this past weekend from the burgh, and I wanted to make him a home cooked meal. 

What goes better with a home cooked meal then fresh homemade bread? I realized after I bought all the ingredients, I didn’t have my stand mixer. Oh geez, no worries, I’ll make a No Knead bread. 

This recipe turned out really well without having my stand mixer. After all, that is how our great-grandmothers used to make it. 

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose Unbleached flour, plus more for dusting

 1/4 teaspoon yeast (active dry or instant)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups warm water, not boiling (like bath water)

1 1/2 teaspoon Honey 

Directions: 

1. Combine flour, and salt in a large bowl and wisk together. Set aside. In a small bowl place water, yeast, & honey, allow to rest for 5 minutes or until yeast proofs. After water-yeast liquid proofs (aka bubbles), using a wooden spoon stir in the water mixture into the flour blend until it is well combined.

2. In same bowl, cover the dough with clean towel and let rise at room temperature for at least 3 hours.

3. After 3 hours, the dough will appear as to doubled in size, wet with air bubbles. Transfer the dough to a heavily floured surface and sprinkle dough with 1-2 additional Tablespoons of flour. Fold the dough over about 10 times and shape into ball. 

4. At this time, Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with the Dutch-oven & lid in center of the rack.  In the same bowl, where the dough rised initially, line with parchment paper up the sides (there maybe some residual dough in the bowl, but don’t bother dirtying another pan. Place the dough on the parchment paper-lined bowl. Cut a line or two on top of the dough with a sharp knife to give a stream escape vent for the bread. Cover the dough again with towel to allow the dough to rise for a second time. Place the bowl on top of the preheating oven for about 35 minutes (the warmth from the oven will help the dough rise faster). 

5. After the 35 minutes has elapsed for the dough to rise and giving at least 35-60 minutes for the Dutch-oven to warm up in the oven. Wearing oven-gloves, carefully remove the lid from the dutch-oven and take the parchment paper on both sides of the dough and lift to place the dough and parchment paper in the hot Dutch-oven.  With oven-gloves remaining on, cover the dough with the hot lid. Decrease temperature of oven to 400 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. No peeking! 

6. Remove the Dutch-oven from the oven (always wearing oven-gloves). Remove the lid and place the dough on a wire rack to cool. Allow the bread to cool for 15-20 minutes, even though tempting to cut right away. 

Enjoy with dinner! I made a crockpot beef roast! There will be plenty of juicy beef sauce left for dipping your bread into to soak up the remaining goods. 

Pumpkin Ale Bread

Tomorrow is Halloween and I have pumpkins on my mind. It is really rainy in the burgh so I thought I’d bake some beer bread to go with supper. I checked out the refrigerator and low and behold we had pumpkin hard cider on hand. 

I think this will make for a tasty fall bread. The bonus with this bread is you don’t have to let it rise. It is a quick bread. The only waiting period is allowing the Dutch-oven to heat up. 

This bread pairs well with butternut squash soup.

Prep Time:5 minutes 

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

4 cups of Bread Flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 

12 of pumpkin hard cider (Ace is what I used)

3 tablespoons of honey

4 Tablespoons puréed pumpkin
Pre-work: Preheat oven to 500 degrees with large dutch-oven in oven. Allow to heat for 1 hour. 

Directions:

1. In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, & baking powder l. Set aside.

2. Pour the hard cider, honey and pumpkin into the dry ingredients. Mix with wooden spoon just until all ingredients are moist. Knead on lightly floured surface for one or two times just enough to form a ball. If you sill have time for the oven to heat up, spray the bowl with cooking spray and wrap with saran wrap. 

3. Once an hour has elapsed carefully (with oven mitts) remove the Dutch-oven from oven. Continuing to use oven mitts remove lid and carefully place the dough in the center of the Dutch-oven. Scoring the dough with a knife make a “X”. Using the oven mitts place the lid back on the Dutch-oven and return the vessel back into the oven. Decrease the temperature to 400 degrees and allow the bread to bake for 45 minutes.

Dutch Oven Homemade Bread

This time of year is my favorite time to bake in the kitchen. The air is crisp and I often spend most my weekend mornings trying new recipes and baking. As the weather starts to get cooler outside that means I can bake more to heat up the house. I love the smell of fresh homemade bread permeating throughout the house. I do believe Yankee Candle even makes a candle with this fragrance but nothing compares to the actual process of baking.

Fresh homemade bread seems to complete a Sunday dinner at our house. I always remember my mom having an Italian loaf with every Sunday family dinner.  My husband’s mom also always had Italian bread from a local bread bakery with all her supper meals she prepared which makes it all more nostalgic for my husband and I.

I made this Dutch-oven bread the other day with pork tenderloin in the slow cooker. It paired really well with parsley potatoes.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water (bath water temp; 80° F–90° F)

1 teaspoon honey

1 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast

3 ½-4 cups bread flour

1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon olive oil for coating

Prework: Preheat oven to 500 degrees with large Dutch-oven in the oven.

Directions:

  1. Place warm water, honey, salt, & yeast in a glass measuring vessel. Let the yeast proof (becomes foamy) for 5 minutes (if the yeast does not grow, throw it out).
  2. In the meantime portion out the flour in a large electric mixer mixing bowl.  Start with the 3.5 cups and add more (1/4 cup at time), continue to add if dough is too sticky. Once the yeast has proofed add the yeast water mixture to the flour and on low speed with dough hook attachment knead the dough until the dough forms a ball. This should only take a few minutes.
  3. Remove dough from hook and knead with hands on a lightly floured surface to form into ball.
  4. Place evenly one tablespoon of olive oil on the outside of the dough. Place dough ball back in the mixing bowl and cover with a clean cloth towel on top of the preheating oven. You may be tempted to use plastic wrap however trust me use a cloth towel this will allow the dough to breath.
  5. Allow to dough to double in size this should take 45 to 60 minutes. Which works out perfectly because you want your Dutch-oven hot. The Dutch oven should be in the oven at 500 degrees for at least an hour. Don’t skip this step. 
  6. Once the dough is ready place on parchment paper and cut a few slits on the top surface of the loaf with sharp knife. This method will allow the steam to escape.
  7. With oven mitts remove the lid from Dutch oven and place bread in center of the baking vessel. Using oven mitts cover with the lid. Decrease the oven temperature 400 degrees and bake the bread for 45 minutes. Do not peek, trust the Dutch oven.
  8. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack before slicing into.