As bread supply started to deplete...

... it is time to bake our own bread.

For the past 2 weeks, we decided not to go out. We bought enough essentials that could fit our storage and freezer. Bread was one of our breakfast options and we could only get 2 loaves to freeze.

As the situation gets scarier outside, we didn't want to risk going out. That was when we decided that we should try baking bread. I scrolled through video tutorials for "easy bread recipes" and found a couple of no-knead recipes.

I tried once many years ago and the result was quite bad. As easy as the tutorials looked with some even said it was failure proof, my first no-knead bread many years ago turned out to be a rock. I mean rock hard! I thought maybe it was just the outside skin that was hard but sadly, the inside too. After that, I have not tried baking bread again.

This time, I figured there is no better time than now to try again. I could try a normal knead version but I was afraid. And the other problem was that we do not have bread flour and so, I searched for a recipe that does not specify bread flour.

After half a day of browsing through the videos, I found one:
https://merryboosters.com/no-knead-bread/

The recipe looked simple enough, should be do-able I reckon?

First step was mixing 3 cups of flour with some salt, sugar and yeast.


After the dry ingredients were thoroughly mixed:


we add warm water and continue mixing until it becomes a sticky, wet dough:


First proofing was 2 hours, covered with a kitchen towel and I placed in an oven to simulate a warm environment:


After 2 hours, the dough was shaped into an oval shape and left for another 30 minutes for its second proofing:


Just before baking, we scored the bread and sprinkled white sesame seeds:


and placed the bread in a preheated oven with a hot water bath to create the steam for baking:


This was the step using a baking tray because we didn't have a dutch oven (well, not yet ;) The steam from the hot bath tray helped to create a crust outside and after baking, this was how it looked like:


The moment of truth as I sliced into the bread:

Yay! Fluffy in the inside! Not rock hard!! I was so worried.

Although the bread was quite dense, I loved the chewy inside and crusty outside. We just ate it with butter and it was yum!


I am definitely going to bake bread again, maybe try an actual kneading one :)