4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners

Elena Butuc

I'm not a beginner when it comes to bread, but I'm thinking about starting to use this quick recipe for making bread in our family on a regular basis. It's very surprising to see how you can get such fluffy and tasty bread with so little effort - my girls liked it too, they would often come and steal a piece or two.

You really don't need any special skills, my 5-year-old Maria, a beginner in the kitchen, was very actively involved in the process. To this simple recipe, you can also add different types of flour, seeds and anything else you want. But when you make it for the first time, I advise you to use white flour (I added a bit of integral flour as well), just to see it as such.

If you don't have yeast, you can cook the "No Yeast, Quick Homemade Bread" recipe.

show all description

Ingredients

Metric US

●

White flour

470 g

you can mix different types of flour and seeds

●

Salt

1 tsp

●

Active dry yeast

7 g

or 15g fresh yeast

●

Warm water

375 ml

Step by step

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 1

Put the flour, the salt and the yeast in a bowl.

If you are using fresh yeast, dissolve it in warm water.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 2

Add the warm water.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 3

And mix toghther with a spoon or a spatula - my 5-year-old little Maria helped me out.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 4

And so you get a sticky dense dough.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 5

Cover it in wrap plastic and keep it in the fridge for 2 hours to rise.

You can keep it in the fridge for 12 hours as well, this way the bread will be softer. You could prepare the dough in the evening and bake the bread in the morning.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 6

This is how it's supposed to look like after you take it out of the fridge.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 7

Transfer it on the floured table using a spoon or a spatula.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 8

Dust some more flour on it.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 9

Then, with your hands, shape it as a round or oval bread, as you like or as you can.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 10

Put the bread on a cooking pan - optionally, you can line the pan with parchment paper.

Let it rise for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 11

Use a knife to make some cuts and put the bread in the pre-heated oven to 200 degrees C for 45 minutes.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 12

When the bread is still very hot, spread some hot water on it.

The crust is pretty crunchy and thick, so the water will soften it a bit, without making it less crunchy.

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 13

Wrap it in a kitchen towel and let it cool for at least 30 minutes before you serve it.

Depending on how patient you are...

4 Ingredient Bread for Beginners - Step 14

Here I want you to notice the difference between the bread made of dough which was kept for 12 hours in the fridge - above.

And the quicker one, made of dough which was kept for 2 hours in the fridge - below.

It's not a big difference, you could try both ways, depending on your time. I'd say that the first one is more flexible and a bit more fluffly, but not much more.