Easy Bread with spices

Jalepeno Garlic Bread

Who does not like bread, served hot with a little salty butter. I love it and came across this really easy recipe (one of the many no-knead recipes out there).  This one is from My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey. I have made a few modifications to the recipe and it is just simply easy, delicious and the aroma in the house as the bread is baking is mouth-watering.

If you do not have bread flour, don’t panic. I tested this recipe with both All-purpose as well as Bread flour and it works. One thing I have to point out is that unless you have an oven thermometer is that it may take a little less or a little more time than my oven. You can also test to make sure that when you knock on the bread the crust has formed you do get a knocking sound (it will be really soft).

Other variation toppings are sun-dried tomatoes (the ones that have been soaked in oil).

I do hope you enjoy it.

Recipe

• 3 cups bread flour (or all-purpose)
• 3/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• topping
• 8 cloves of garlic (cleaned and sliced)
• 2 jalapenos (de-seeded and chopped into smaller chunks – more if you want it spicier)
• sea salt
• olive oil

Method

Pour warm water into a large bowl. Add the yeast and sugar and stir.  Dump the flour into the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture all comes together. The dough will be sticky and fairly wet. Put cling film over the top of the bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it sit. If you find your kitchen too cold you can always wrap a towel around the bowl.

Prepare the toppings.

After about 12 hours, if you peek you will see the dough has more than doubled in size. It also is covered with lots and lots of bubbles. At this point take your dough scraper and cut it into quarters. This will be a little difficult as the dough will want to travel with the dough scraper. A little man-handling of the dough is perfectly alright.

Dust your baking sheet with flour. Run your hands under a tap. Pick up your first piece of dough. Gently stretching it just a little and put it on your baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pieces. Dot the top of the bread with the toppings. Sprinkle with sea salt generously. Brush the tops with olive oil. Cover with saran wrap and then put a towel on top and let it sit for at least and hour till it rises again.

Pre-heat your oven to 450.  Remove the towel and saran wrap. Pop the tray into the oven for 22 mins until the tops are a light golden color. Take the tray out and let it cool down for about 5 mins before you cut into it.