Artisan Bread 101

Artisan bread is both simple and fancy. It conjures images of small European towns and rustic restaurants as well as the unadorned homestead table. The crusty and chewy texture of this bread pairs perfectly with winter soups and summer sandwiches. It's a welcome addition any time of the year.

The best part? Without too much fuss, you can enjoy this cottage core at home--weekly if desired. I often mix a batch or batch and a half on Sunday, enjoy a couple loaves that day, and still have dough for a loaf or two during the week. The ingredients are simple and follow an easy ratio that can be memorized and duplicated anywhere with yeast, salt, flour, and water: 1:1:2:4. To make three ample loaves and not overwhelm your mixer, use:

• 1-1/2 TBL of yeast

• 1-1/2 TBL of salt

• 3 cups of warm water

• 6-1/2 cups flour

I don't use my Kitchen Aid for much, but for yeast bread, it's a must, and it brings this bread dough together in a jiffy. Add the warm water into the bowl of the Kitchen Aid and sprinkle in the yeast and salt. It doesn't hurt to mix it around. Let it sit for a bit so both yeast and salt will dissolve. Add in 6-1/2 cups of flour using a "scoop and sweep" method. Essentially, scoop up some flour and let it drop back into the container, stirring it around before you scoop it back up and level it off. This ensures you won't be getting compacted flour in your measuring and have too heavy of a dough.

Let the Kitchen Aid do its magic. I use the kneading attachment for this entire process and add about half the flour, turn it on, then add the rest as it's mixing. Once the flour is incorporated, and the dough has pulled away from the sides of the mixer, unhook the bowl and attachment (don't knead the dough). Next, spray the top of the dough with non-stick cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap or a cloth, and let it rise for two hours.

After two hours, the dough will have both risen and fallen. It can then go into the fridge until you're ready to use it. Remove from the refrigerator about 1-1/2 hours before you want to eat; the dough will take 40 minutes to rise and 30 minutes to cook.

A key element of this bread is partially steaming it while it bakes. Preheat the oven 20 minutes ahead of cooking time (or once your dough has already been rising for 20 minutes). As you preheat the oven, stick a pan on the bottom oven rack, below the rack you'll use to bake the bread. When you put the dough in, you'll pour water into the heated pan, causing the bread to both bake and steam at the same time.

Finally, don't forget to dust your loaf with flour and slash it once it's risen but before baking. Any number of slashed designs can be both beautiful and control the dough's expansion in the oven (help it expand more uniformly).

Variations

Once you've mastered the basic recipe, any number of variations are possible. Try adding cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, or any number of elements like nuts or dried fruit. Pretend you're an amateur chef on The Great British Baking Show! The main thing to keep in mind with additional elements is that you don't want to change the general constitution of the dough by making it too wet or too dry. Enjoy your masterpiece!