Easiest Artisan Bread

If you're too lazy to make this No-Knead Crusty Artisan Bread, then you don't deserve fresh baked delicious bread.

I've made this a couple times, the recipe makes four loaves, sometimes I make them all at once or spread them out over a week. I'm making all four today for the party tomorrow, but usually I make them separately so I can constantly have fresh bread.

I look up other bread recipes but I always come back to this one, its the easiest and tastiest.
The outside is perfectly crusty and the center is nice and soft.

(Recipe as published on the King Arthur Flour website.)
No-Knead Artisan Bread
3 cups lukewarm water
6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast

*The flour/liquid ratio is important in this recipe. If you measure flour by sprinkling it into your measuring cup, then gently sweeping off the excess, use 7 1/2 cups. If you measure flour by dipping your cup into the canister, then sweeping off the excess, use 6 1/2 cups. Most accurate of all, and guaranteed to give you the best results, if you measure flour by weight, use 32 ounces.

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, or a large (6-quart), food-safe plastic bucket. For first-timers, “lukewarm” means about 105°F, but don’t stress over getting the temperatures exact here. Comfortably warm is fine; “OUCH, that’s hot!” is not. Yeast is a living thing; treat it nicely.

2. Mix and stir everything together to make a very sticky, rough dough. If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed with the beater blade for 30 to 60 seconds. If you don’t have a mixer, just stir-stir-stir with a big spoon or dough whisk till everything is combined.

3. Next, you’re going to let the dough rise. If you’ve made the dough in a plastic bucket, you’re all set — just let it stay there, covering the bucket with a lid or plastic wrap; a shower cap actually works well here. If you’ve made the dough in a bowl that’s not at least 6-quart capacity, transfer it to a large bowl; it’s going to rise a lot. There’s no need to grease the bowl, though you can if you like; it makes it a bit easier to get the dough out when it’s time to bake bread.

4. Cover the bowl or bucket, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours. Then refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or for up to about 7 days. (If you’re pressed for time, skip the room-temperature rise, and stick it right into the fridge). The longer you keep it in the fridge, the tangier it’ll get; if you chill it for 7 days, it will taste like sourdough. Over the course of the first day or so, it’ll rise, then fall. That’s OK; that’s what it’s supposed to do.

5. When you’re ready to make bread, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; this will make it easier to grab a hunk. Grease your hands, and pull off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough — a 14-ounce to 19-ounce piece, if you have a scale. It’ll be about the size of a softball, or a large grapefruit.

6. Plop the sticky dough onto a floured work surface, and round it into a ball, or a longer log. Don’t fuss around trying to make it perfect; just do the best you can.

7. Place the dough on a piece of parchment (if you’re going to use a baking stone); or onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sift a light coating of flour over the top; this will help keep the dough moist as it rests before baking.

8. Let the dough rise for about 45 to 60 minutes. It won’t appear to rise upwards that much; rather, it’ll seem to settle and expand. Preheat your oven (and baking stone, if you’re using one) to 450°F while the dough rests. Place a shallow pan on the lowest oven rack, and have 1 cup of hot water ready to go.

9. When you’re ready to bake, take a sharp knife and slash the bread 2 or 3 times, making a cut about 1/2″ deep. The bread may deflate a bit; that’s OK, it’ll pick right up in the hot oven.

10. Place the bread in the oven, and carefully pour the 1 cup hot water into the shallow pan on the rack beneath. It’ll bubble and steam; close the oven door quickly.

11.Bake the bread for 25 to 35 minutes, until it’s a deep, golden brown.

12.Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack. Store leftover bread in a plastic bag at room temperature.

Puff Pastry and Chocolate Croissants

All summer I thought about making puff pastry from scratch, but I didn't want to attempt it until the weather was cold. I think the wait paid off because the puff pastry was super simple and I didn't have a problem keeping it cold at all.

The most important tip to remember about puff pastry is that you can't let it get warm. If the butter gets warm and soft you won't have a flaky layered end product.

I'm including the steps to make chocolate croissants, but the uses for puff pastry are endless. It makes great appetizers (sundried tomato pinwheels), main courses (beef wellington), and desserts of course (apple turnovers).

The process may sound complicated, but if you go through it step by step it's very simple and just requires a little upper body strength and a cold fridge.

Puff Pastry

1 lb cold unsalted butter (4 sticks)
3 3/4 cups flour
1/2-1 tbsp salt (use less if for sweet preparations, more for savory)
1 1/4 cups ice water
extra flour for rolling dough out

In a food processor or stand mixer (I used the latter) mix together the flour and salt.
Add all of the water at once and mix until the dough forms a ball on the blade/paddle.
The dough will be soft and wet, it should be squeezable and pliable.
Roll the dough into a ball and slash the top into a tic tac toe pattern with a sharp knife.
Wrap the dough in a damp paper towel and let it rest in the fridge while you start the butter.

To make it easier to roll the butter out to an inch thick, slice each stick of butter in half, arrange the pieces in between 2 sheets of plastic wrap in a rectangle. Roll it until the pieces of butter are fused together and it is about an inch thick.

**Very Important: If at this point your butter is soft and oily, chill it in the fridge/freezer until firm again. Chill the butter while you roll out the dough.

Dust your workplace with flour (I used the counter next to a window that could be opened to further cool my kitchen) and unwrap the dough.
Roll the dough out into a 10 inch square. (Doesn't have to be perfect.)
Keep the dough well floured and turn it frequently to avoid the dough sticking.

Place the chilled butter in the center and fold the edges or 'ears' over to completely encase the butter. If you need to stretch the dough to cover the butter, stretch all the dough, not just the edges.

**Crazy Important: If the butter starts to ooze out or it seems too warm, play it safe and chill the dough for awhile. I keep my window blasting me with cold air while I rolled the dough out, just to be safe.

Now it's time to start rolling. You want to do six total 'turns of the dough', with at least 30 minutes chilling time between each set of 2 turns.

The first turn: 'gently but firmly' press down on each corner with your rolling pin to help keep the dough a square.
Roll the dough out into a rectangle that is about 24 inches in height. Make sure to roll from the center to ensure that the butter moves with the dough it is encased it. You may need to roll pretty hard to achieve this.

Once the dough is 24'' fold the dough into thirds like a business letter and brush off the excess flour with a pastry brush.

The second turn:
Turn the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Roll the dough to 24'' and fold into thirds again.

At this point if the dough is still cold you could do the next two turns, but I preferred to take a break (my arms were tired). So the dough went into the fridge for 30 minutes.

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth turn:
Exactly the same as the second, with chilling breaks whenever you need them.
Once you have finished rolling the dough you should chill it for at least an hour before you use it.

Chocolate croissants are effortless and tasty after all that rolling. Perfect for breakfast or dessert (or both).

Pain au Chocolate aka Chocolate Croissants
1/2 the puff pastry recipe
6 oz quality chocolate (chocolate chips work fine)
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll out the puff pastry to about half it's thickness (you'll probably need a little flour). Cut into 6 even sized rectangles.
Arrange 1 oz of the chocolate at one end of each rectangle. Roll each rectangle up.

Place each croissant diagonally on a baking sheet and brush with egg wash (1 egg mixed up with a little water).

Bake 10-15 minutes until golden and flaky.

Drizzle with extra chocolate and serve or devour immediately.