Easy No-Knead Bread

[Granny Smith]

Easy No-Knead Bread

This is a simple, basic recipe It makes 1 loaf, a dozen dinner rolls, or 8 hamburger buns.

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (it should feel just barely warm)
1 T. dry yeast
1 T. sugar
1/3 cup oil (I use olive oil, but most any cooking oil will do)
1 t. salt
About 3 or 4 cups of flour

Put 1/2 cup warm water into a mixing bowl. Mix in yeast and sugar and let sit until it's foamy.

Add remaining water, oil, and about 2 cups of flour. Mix well. Stir in salt and enough additional flour to make a dough that isn't sticky to the touch. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Stir down dough and shape, with floured hands, into whatever you want to make. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees until brown and it sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pan immediately and either eat or place on a clean towel, and cover with towel until it cools a bit. (I let it cool completely)

That's it - easy peasy.

[Granny Smith]

I made this today, but used 1/2 cup of buttermilk (warmed) in place of 1/2 cup of water. I also added 2 T. honey, instead of the sugar. I made it into 12 balls and put them in a 9"x13" pan. When they rose (they got nearly 3 times their size!) and were done baking, I brushed the tops with melted butter. Those were the best rolls I've ever made!

[Granny Smith]

I've been taking 2" balls of this dough, flattening it out, putting a dollop of cooked meat and a small cube of cheese in the center, then pinching it shut, into a ball. I let them rise (takes about 15 minutes) then bake until they're lightly brown. I've been calling them 'meat bombs', for lack of a better term.

I've used several combinations of meat (BBQ pork, chicken, butter beef) and cheese (so far, mostly cheddar). They use up little bits of leftover meat and have become very popular here.