Homemade crusty loaf, with or without a dutch oven

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As one who carves wooden spoons for cooking and eating, it's nice to see the humble wooden spoon thanked for it's bread making service. I can't recall another cooking video where a low end implement gets it's due.

An important note about hydration, I've found that relative humidity makes a significant difference in the amount of water I need to add when baking bread from a recipe. I noticed that nearly every recipe I followed didn't seem like it had enough water in it, especially when I was working from a recipe I found on a video. My dough never looked like the dough in the video, it was always too dry and thick. Then I remembered that I live in a desert, and the air here is almost always dry. This wouldn't seem like it would make much difference, but the effect is compounded by two factors: 1: Dry flour has much more capacity to absorb water so your recipe wants more water to begin with. 2: (And probably more important) Dry flour weighs less. If you're weighing your ingredients, you're using more flour in your recipe than you would if you lived in a more humid environment, but the weight of the water remains constant. I'm a woodworker, and the water that wood absorbs from the air will make up anywhere from around 8% to 20% of the total weight. That's a LOT. If flour acts at all similar (and I suspect that it does), this would make a huge difference in your recipe. Because of this, whenever actually following a recipe (instead of measuring with my heart as Adam suggests here), as a rule of thumb I put in about 15% more water than the recipe calls for just because I know my climate requires it, and my dough started turning out great right from the start. If you live in a humid climate, you may want to adjust in the other direction if your dough is always too sloppy.

An alternative non-dutch oven method I discovered when I was too broke to afford one. Bake your loaf with an aluminum foil tent over it and a cookie sheet or baking tray filled with water on a lower rack to generate steam. Remove the aluminum foil after the half hour and let it bake uncovered for the rest of the time.

When you do your stretch and fold method, try wetting your hands rather than adding more flour. The additional flour will give you a denser crumb at the end. It’s really not a big difference, but it’s easy to add too much.

For homecooking, baking bread doesnt require precise flour measurement. There are sooo many factors like type of flour, humidity, luck, ect that I just end up eyeball it anyway. I try to keep the dough sticky cause it produces a more open crumb, which I love. Using a recipe is a good jumping off point, but actually baking bread is where you learn :)

Pro (safety) tip: when taking off the 500F hot lid put the lid back into the oven instead of somewhere else in the kitchen!! Then there is no risk of anyone severely burning their hands by accidentally picking up the hot lid... 🙂

Thanks for this Adam, people think bread is far more intimidating than it is, so keeping it casual like this encourages new people.

I would mention that preheating the pot only really work on gas stovetops, that blast lots of heats to the sides (and the wooden spoons you rest on the pot, and the whole kitchen) . If you have an induction top, even if it probably heats faster than even a gas top, I would not recommand as youll burn the bottom before heating the sides

Tried the recipe, worked like a charm. Nothing beats freshly baked bread with butter, eggs, bacon, cheese and hot chocolate. Thanks Adam.

Every other bread video: "this is impossible to make without a food scale, and there needs to be exactly 0.5% salt and 69.7386% hydration" This video: "the spoon will measure for me"

The "cooking with your senses" is something I love. I hardly ever look into recipes while cooking. I use them to get an idea what proportions might be good and then do what feels right. I had 3 occasions in which it wasnt the best idea, but not the worst either and my gf never complained about taste (we are german, she would complain if there was a good reason, it is part of our culture) so I assume it works well that way.

Baking in a Dutch oven from cold (no heating whatsoever) before it goes in the oven has similar results to preheating the pot. King arthur flour had a good post on this method. Also, Brian's method of scoring with scissors (cutting slashes in the dough) is a good option if you don't have a lame

about to put it in the oven right now edit: I've made 3 loafs of bread each better than the last very nice

I love your constant recommendation to cook with your senses. Knowing techniques and using your instincts is so much more valuable than memorizing recipes. It means you can adapt dishes when you don’t have the exact right ingredients. My wife is GF and the variance between GF flours is so widespread and every recipe online is based off a different type of GF flour. We just buy whatever is on sale and I have learned to adapt. It doesn’t take long to gain the confidence to break from the recipes

For the pan and bowl method, spray the inside of the bowl with enough water to stick to it, but not so much it drips. It'll add a little extra moisture.

There is a very nice video from ChainBaker uploaded in February this year that talks specifically about the effect of salt on dough. He makes a few examples and explains what the salt does, as well as the proper amounts to achieve what you want with the bread. The video is titled, "This Is How Salt Affects Bread Dough"

I just baked my second loaf of "basic bread" tonight. Wow, I never knew simple bread could taste so good! Thank you Adam for yet again another practical recipe that focuses on results and doesn't waste time with the "right" way. You introduced bread baking to me and I am very thankful.

Wow! Just pulled mine from the oven and IT IS GORGEOUS! Thanks for this simplified "cooking with our senses" recipe - there are always variations in exact quantities and local humidity/kitchen conditions. Love your channel 💖🐝

Hey Adam, I didn't follow you 100% I actually went a little simpler, but this was the main video I used to make my own homemade bread. I just lost my mom this month and was in a real bind financially, being able to make this bread really helped me out in a big way. It came out fantastically with barely any effort - I didn't even have some of the stuff you used, I just used my convection oven, all-purpose flour, water, yeast and salt. Heck I think I even over-added the yeast but it still came out great. Really excellent way to learn how to make bread for those of us who like to cook with our senses like you say! I always enjoyed cooking but baking always turned me off because of the measurements and seemingly complicated method. I'll be making this bread more often, thank you again for sharing these home-kitchen friendly options!