Did anyone else’s moms bake bread when they were growing up? As I’ve mentioned…over and over, my mom is not much of a cook, but she has always loved to bake. Most of the time her baking was limited to chocolate chip cookies and pecan pies, but during the fall and winter months my mom would bake up a fresh loaf of bread for Sunday night dinner. The woman loves bread like no other. Give her fresh, homemade bread and there’s a good chance she’ll end up eating the entire loaf within a day…the warmth, the carbs…the butter! Anyway, mom baking bread on Sunday night is always such a relaxing and comforting memory for me. The house smelled incredible, the kitchen was warm from the oven, and often times there was also a roaring fire. So basically the perfect fall night. Recently, I’ve been seriously craving those comforting smells of homemade bread. A lot of this is due to my anxiety being kicked into high gear lately, but it’s also the extremely chilly nights and much cooler days we’ve been experiencing here that totally have me wanting to bake. Also, it snowed up in the mountains while I was hiking on Saturday morning, so yeah, there’s that too. Warm, baked things are clearly what needs to happen over here. One of my favorite loaves of bread is a really good loaf of crusty sourdough. For years now I have been wanting to develop a sourdough bread recipe for the blog, but the involvement of making homemade sourdough always scared me off. It can take weeks to make a really great loaf of sourdough and let’s just be honest, that’s kind of way too much time for most of us. I mean, right? I make my homemade naan with plain greek yogurt, and it’s probably the most popular recipe here on the site…and with good reason. It’s incredible and I’m not sure I can really top that naan, but the use of yogurt in the recipe got me thinking. Greek yogurt has some of the same cultures as a sourdough starter, so I thought I might try adding some to a no-knead bread recipe and see how it turned out. The results? Sourdough bread perfection. YES. Like any other no-knead bread recipe, this cheater’s sourdough is EASY. The dough is made with a total of six ingredients, including the water, and it all goes into one bowl, gets mixed up, and is then left to sit and rise. You can literally be done with the actual mixing of the bread in five to ten minutes. The rest of the time involved is rising and baking time. Meaning hands-on work is so minimal. Mix. Let Sit. Bake. EAT. Simple as that. As the title of this recipe states, you need a good dutch oven for baking the bread. It’s a must for getting a bread that’s crusty on the outside, but extra soft on the inside. I love my Staub 5 1/2 Quart Cocotte for this bread, it’s the perfect size. Any heavy cast iron pot that’s 4 quarts or larger will be great though! Another key to success? A super hot oven and keeping the lid tight on the pot for the first half of baking. This traps the heat inside the pot, which in turn creates the extra hard crust, but extra soft interior. Again, perfection and so easy! I’ve made this multiple times now in the last few weeks, most of the time on Sunday, because I just love the smells and memories it brings. Plus, serving it up with a bowl of chili is pretty much the best Sunday night dinner. And of course, any leftovers are delicious when toasted the next day for breakfast, or used as a base for your favorite lunchtime sandwich. I’ve been spreading my homemade apple butter over toasted pieces of this bread, and it’s quickly becoming my go-to breakfast and/or afternoon snack…and yes, the apple butter recipe is coming soon. I’ll be sending out the recipe exclusively to all the HBH email subscribers, so if you aren’t signed up yet, I’d do so soon! Honestly though…it’s doesn’t get better than this bread…with a little salted butter. YUM.
