This is not fancy bread. There are no precisely weighed ingredients, sculpted loaf pans or sourdough starters passed down through generations here. Instead, this is a low-fuss bread with ingredients you may already have that will quietly rise on the counter while you are doing other things. It will work with your schedule and in the end you will have a loaf of bread with a crunchy crust and soft middle, and no one will be sad to see a piece of this next to a steaming bowl of soup.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups AP Flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp quick-rise yeast
• 1 1/4 cups warm (not hot) water
• 1 tsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Stir together flour (3 cups), salt (1 tsp) and yeast (1 tsp)
2. Add water slowly, stirring as you go, until the dough starts to come together – you may need to adjust the amount of water you add depending on how dry your flour is, the weather, the alignment of the stars, etc. – the dough should come together in a nice ball and be very slightly sticky
3. Pour oil (1 tsp) into a bowl and add the dough ball, turning it to coat in oil
4. Put a plate over the bowl and walk away for 1-2 hours, until the dough ball has more or less doubled in size
5. Punch the dough ball down and let it rise again for another hour or so until it has more or less doubled in size again
6. Form the dough ball into a loaf (I do this by gently pulling the top to the bottom to create a nice shape) and place on a piece of parchment covered by a towel or the bowl the dough was rising in
7. Place a dutch oven or similar pot with a lid in the oven and preheat the oven with the pot inside to 400 degrees f
8. Feeling fancy? Add a few slices to the top of the dough so that it will have a nice pattern when the bread bakes
9. Once the oven is preheated use the parchment to lift the dough ball into the pot
10. Put the lid back on (public service announcement because I always forget this: the lid is going to be HOT, use an oven mitt)
11. Bake for 18 minutes, then remove lid
12. Bake for additional 15-18 minutes, until the bread is nicely bronzed and sounds hollow when you knock on it
13. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing