Using kitchen staples to make good food has become something of a trend in the past few weeks, and we are here to add our recipe to that mix. If you have flour, salt, yeast and water, you can make a beautiful loaf of artisan bread that is almost totally hands off! Give it a try, I'm sure you will love it.

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. instant yeast

1 1/2 cups water

Whisk the flour, salt and yeast together until well mixed. Add the water and stir until a shaggy, rough dough forms. If it looks too dry, you can add more water 1 tbsp at a time. The dough won't look smooth at this point, but don't stress! Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave it on your counter overnight for 12-18 hours. The dough will be ready when it is big, puffy, and dotted with bubbles. 

Preheat the oven to 450º and place a large, heavy duty pot with its lid, inside to heat up (I use an enameled dutch oven) for 30 minutes. In the last few minutes before the pot is done heating, scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface and gently shape it into a ball and place on a piece of parchment paper. Pull the pot out of the oven, remove the lid and place the dough ball on its piece of parchment paper into the hot pot (the parchment paper keeps the bread from sticking to the pan). Put the lid back on and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for another 10 minutes. the bread should have a crispy, golden brown crust.