This easy homemade bread loaf is made with only 5 ingredients. Ditch the expensive store-bought bread, and make a fresh loaf to enjoy in sandwiches or dipped into bean dishes or soups. Watch the video and get the recipe below! Best enjoyed fresh and warm.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Rising time: 2 hours
Bake time: 40 minutes
Servings: 1 medium-large loaf
Ingredients
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 500g all-purpose flour (+10-15g when kneading)
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Dutch oven
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together yeast, maple syrup and warm water (water shouldn’t be too hot, around 100-110F degrees). Let the yeast activate for 5 minutes, until it gets foamy.
- Once the yeast has activated, add flour and salt. Mix well with a spoon then with your hands to knead into a dough ball. If needed, add 10-15g more flour. The dough shouldn’t be sticking to your fingers.
- Cover with a tea towel and let rise for 1 1/2-2 hours until it’s almost doubled in size.
- Add your dutch oven pot into the oven and preheat the oven to 450F (this step is important, the dutch oven needs to gradually be preheated with the oven).
- Place your dough ball onto parchment paper, then carefully place it into the preheated pot (remember to not touch it with your bare hands, it will be extremely hot!). If you’d like, you can add some scoring with a knife or razor blade.
- Bake for 25 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and bake for another 13-15 minutes or until nice and golden.
- Enjoy warm and fresh! Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days (though I find it does taste best on the first day!).
Notes
*You could swap the maple syrup with 1 tsp white sugar as well, the yeast just needs sugar to activate!
*To score the bread, sift a bit of flour on top of the dough ball after it has risen, and use a sharp knife or razor blade to score your pattern.
