Easy Loaf of Bread

from Judy O’Shea’s book Water, Paper, Stone

submitted by Anne Halsted

3 cups unbleached flour

1½ cups water

1 package active dry yeast

1½ teaspoons salt

Mix everything together in a big bowl. The dough will be very sticky, but don’t worry; you aren’t going to knead it. Cover the bowl with a damp dish cloth and put it somewhere within view so you won’t completely forget about it. Then forget about it. The temperature for rising isn’t too important; room temperature is just fine. If you put the dough in a cooler place, it will take longer to rise, which improves the flavor. After an hour or two or three, push your knuckle into the dough. If the depression this makes doesn’t fill back in, you’re ready to form a loaf. If it does, wait a little longer until it doesn’t. Timing isn’t critical here.

When it is ready, punch the dough down. Get a bread pan and grease it, then form the dough into something close to the shape of the pan, and put it in, uglier side down. You can use a little flour on your hands if it’s too sticky, but better yet, dip them into water. Better that the dough be too wet than too dry.

After about 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 400° F. Check on the dough by pushing your knuckle into the dough again; if the dent fills in quickly, let it rise some more. When it doesn’t fill in, it’s ready for the oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 350° F and bake for another 45 minutes or so. The bread is ready when it easily plops out of the pan and sounds hollow when you knock on its bottom. When in doubt, put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes.

This is Judy O’Shea’s favorite bread recipe, which has only four ingredients: the ones used in classic French bread. When you make your own bread at home, just the fragrance of the baking loaf will lift your spirits. You’re really not supposed to cut it when it comes out of the oven, but of course you have to test it, cutting it with a very sharp knife and spreading a little butter on the first hot slice.