When I baked bread in the past, it was never the way I imagined it would be. Either the crust was too soft and thin, or the bread was too compact inside - I was never really happy with the result.
And yes, of course, I have now found a basic recipe that actually always works, tastes delicious and looks exactly the same. And again it's from the wonderful Tieghan Gerard from HALF BAKED HARVEST with the recipe from her cookbook "super simple" (unauthorized advertising). Modified just a little, it is my favorite recipe so far for a crispy baked beer dough bread that doesn't even need to be kneaded in preparation.
This bread has a wonderful crust. How come? There is a very simple trick. ;-)
This is what you need - the quantities are in cups, where 1 cup corresponds to approx. 125 g of flour:
3 cups flour – I usually use semi-white flour
2.5 tsp salt
2 tsp dry yeast
1 warm(!) beer (33.3 cl)
1 tbsp olive oil
To taste: e.g. B. 4 tbsp coarsely chopped tree nuts (walnuts)
1 cast iron pot with lid
The beer should be warm so that the bread dough rises better afterwards. The yeast likes a warm environment.
This is what you have to do:
Using a wooden spoon, mix the flour, salt and dry yeast in a bowl
Pour in the warm beer and the olive oil and stir everything vigorously with a wooden spoon until a dough forms
If the dough is too wet, add a little more flour
Theoretically, you don't have to knead the bread because the beer contributes to the airy dough. However, I knead the bread dough a little so that I can better estimate whether it still needs flour.
Now let the dough rise, covered, in a warm place for about 1.5-2 hours - the dough will double in volume
After the dough has rested for 1 hour, preheat the oven to 250 degrees
When it has reached this temperature, place the cast iron pot with lid in it for approx. 15 minutes so that it heats up
Now take the bread dough out of the bowl after the resting time
If you have prepared the tree nuts (walnuts): You can now knead them into the dough so that they are well distributed at the end
Roll the bread dough in a little flour and cut the top with a sharp knife as you like - I cut a cross in it
Take the cast iron pot out of the oven, put the lid in a suitable place - be careful, this is also hot -, place the dough on baking paper and lift it up the sides into the cast iron pot - put the lid on with baking gloves and Put everything in the oven
Bake the bread for 30 minutes
Now remove the lid, put the bread and the cast iron pot back into the oven and bake the bread for 7 minutes - without the lid
When you take the bread out, give it a quick tap on the bottom: if it sounds hollow, the bread is baked through. If not, put it back in the oven and put the lid on again - take it out again after about 5 minutes
Let the baked bread cool on a baking rack for at least 20 minutes - done!
When you cut the bread, you hear the crispy crust breaking, the moist interior of the bread steams towards you and your nose is hit by the unmistakable smell of freshly baked bread. It doesn't get any better. :-)