This post and recipe is dedicated to my mom. She recently came to visit us because my 7-year old had a whole week off of school for a “mid-winter break.” He is always so super excited to have her here, and starts counting down the days before she will arrive a week ahead of time. Once she leaves he then takes at least another week to stop saying “I wish grandma was still here” on a daily basis.
She inspired this particular bread making adventure, because while she was here she purchased these very delicious “Raisin Rosemary Crisps” from Trader Joe’s:
I ate most a good portion of them 
and then thought, “these flavors would make for an awesome loaf of bread.”
If bread making intimidates you, prepare to turn into a bread making virtuoso with this particular “almost no-knead bread” recipe. It’s so easy, and the results will make people think that you went to Italy for a year to apprentice with bread making masters. I will provide a master recipe below for “plain” bread. However, like I did, you can switch it up in a number of ways to make any kind of flavor of bread your heart desires.
The base ingredients are only all-purpose flour (though for my adaptation, I put in a cup of Massa Organics’ whole wheat flour), plain white vinegar, a light lager beer, and yeast. After you have those base ingredients, you can add any kind of herbs, spices, cheese, dried fruit, etc. Since I was trying to recreate the cracker, I added fresh rosemary, millet, sunflower seeds, raisins, a little bit of cane sugar, freshly ground pepper, and 2 tablespoons of honey.
From here on I’m going to give you step-by-step instructions for making this bread with pictures. I alternate the pictures, i.e., sometimes it’s a picture of the plain bread, and sometimes it’s a picture of the raisin rosemary bread. It’s a hard bread to mess up, so have fun with it. It also doesn’t take much active time, i.e., the first day only requires you to mix the ingredients together and then let it hang out overnight. The next day only requires you to dump it out on a floured surface, briefly knead it and then shape it into a ball, and let it rise for another two hours before you can bake it. So, here we go:
Step-by-Step Directions with Pictures
1. Whisk the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add the water, beer, and vinegar. Using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture, scraping up dry flour from the bottom of bowl until a shaggy ball forms.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and the let it sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours. It should look like this after its resting period:
4. Once the yeast has done its job, transfer the dough (I just let it slide out of the bowl) onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it 10 to 15 times. It will be super-duper sticky and will stick to your hands. But, that’s ok it’s well worth it; simply rinse it all off of your hands once you get your dough situated into a ball.
5. Shape the dough into ball by pulling the edges into the middle. Transfer the dough, seam-side down, to a parchment-lined 10″ skillet.
6. Spray the surface of the dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until the dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
(plain dough above)
(raisin rosemary dough above, after doubling in size)
7. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on the rack, and heat the oven to 500′F.
8. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slits in the form of a cross along the top of dough. This will allow the dough to expand and rise in the oven while it’s baking.
9. Carefully remove the very hot pot from the oven and remove the lid. Pick up the dough ball by lifting the parchment overhang and lower it into the pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place it in the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 425′F and bake covered for 30 minutes.
10. Remove the lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and/or an instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210′ F, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove the bread from the pot, and transfer it to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Don’t be tempted to cut into it before it has a chance to cool down. There’s still a lot of steam in there and it will smash the dough together and won’t be as good if you cut into it too soon.
This picture is especially for you mom
*Above photo by Harry Whittier Frees
Printer Friendly Recipe for Plain “Almost No-Knead Bread” and Raisin Rosemary Bread
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Makes 1 large round loaf
Notes: An enameled cast-iron Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid yields best results, but the recipe also works in a regular cast-iron Dutch
oven or heavy stockpot. A note of caution: Make sure that your dutch oven handle can hold up to 500′F heat. I have a Le Creuset dutch oven, which came with a black plastic type handle. The handle is only oven safe up to 350′ F. As such, I had to replace it with a stainless steel one that I got at Sur La Table. You can also order them on Amazon here.
For the beer use a mild-flavored lager, such as Budweiser (mild non-alcoholic lager also works).
The bread is best eaten the day it is baked but can be wrapped in aluminum foil and stored in a cool, dry place for up to 2 days. It also makes great croutons, or bread pudding once it gets stale.
Ingredients
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Directions
1. Whisk the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Add the water, beer, and vinegar. Using a rubber spatula, fold the mixture, scraping up dry flour from the bottom of bowl until a shaggy ball forms.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and the let it sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
4. Once the yeast has done its job, transfer the dough (I just let it slide out of the bowl) onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead it 10 to 15 times, it will be very sticky and will stick to your hands (it’s ok simply rinse it all off once you get your dough all finished).
5. Shape the dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to a parchment-lined 10″ skillet.
6. Spray the surface of the dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature until the dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
7. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust an oven rack to the lowest position, place a 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on
the rack, and heat the oven to 500′F.
8. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slits in the form of a cross along the top of dough. This will allow it to expand and rise while it’s baking.
9. Carefully remove the very hot pot from the oven and remove the lid. Pick up the dough ball by lifting the parchment overhang and lower it into the pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place it in the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 425′F and bake covered for 30 minutes.
10. Remove the lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and/or an instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210′ F, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove the bread from the pot, and transfer it to a wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Don’t be tempted to cut into it before it has a chance to cool down. There’s still a lot of steam in there and it will smash the dough together and won’t be as good if you cut into it too soon.
Ingredients for Raisin Rosemary Bread
Dry ingredients:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
1 cup of whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
Tsp of freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp of cane sugar
2 Tbsp of fresh rosemary
1/2 cup of sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of millet
3/4 cup of raisins (you can do 1/2 cup if you want less raisins)
Wet Ingredients:
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 Tbsp of honey
Directions:
1. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk them together.
2. Combine all of the wet ingredients and then pour them into the dry ingredients, then proceed with the rest of the master recipe.
Who knew a little box of crackers could inspire so much deliciousness?! I love it! Thanks Christyna.
Love, Mom