Super Easy Bread by Anita!

James, preparing 'Anita Bread'

Introducing a super easy bread recipe from my buddy Anita in Scotland. Anita had her own thriving business she ran with her husband, James, shown here making the bread! Together they took to the roadsides of Britain, feeding hungry festival crowds with their belly-pleasin' hot baked potatoes, soups — and sandwiches with their home-baked bread!

Now James is also very handy with woodworking and he's fabulous at making cabinets. Recently, James has changed track and works on modifying campers!

Can Be Used for Naan Bread or Pizza Dough

OK, on with the bread! Anita kindly shared her super easy bread recipe with us, coming up shortly! Don't forget, it's great for pizza dough too!

Anita's Bread Machine Discovery

For years, Anita had been baking bread using her bread-making machine (like we all do!) but decided to just use it for making the dough only – and to finish off the bread in a real oven. And you need to see the fantastic ovens that James creates! :-)

But then she made a discovery that totally changed the way she makes bread now!

She says it takes her "one trip out to the store" and for a few minutes each week she can put together enough dough to last her a week – and she stores the dough in her 'fridge!

Naan Bread Goes Great with Curry!

Anita's Naan bread goes great with curry (the Brits love their curry, passed on to them by the Pakistanis), and Anita makes all kinds of pizzas, both vegetarian and 'regular'.

Her first loaf was artisan in nature but didn't hang around the kitchen long enough to be 'appreciated' - the aroma and butter won out ...

The next day she made flat bread stuffed with peppers and olives! Pizza came next ... (heck, I'm moving to Scotland right now) and another loaf too followed by Naan bread the day after! (Maybe we can get an airline discount if we all go over at once?)

To see how my BREAD and PIZZA turned out!

Here is Anita's Bread Recipe!

You're going to be surprised at how little you need ...

Ingredients:

3 cups warm water
2 packets yeast
1-1/2 tablespoons sea salt
6-1/2 cups PLAIN flour (not bread or strong flour, just plain!)
fine oatmeal for the pizza paddle

Yes, THAT is ALL You Need!

Here Is How To Make Anita's Super Easy Bread

For this super easy bread, we will need to get a plastic box, Anita uses one this size: 8" x 16" x 6" deep.

(If this is too much bread to store in your refrigerator, simply halve the ingredients.)

In the plastic box, add the warm water, yeast, and salt and mix in the flour. Use a wet hand or wooden spoon. The mixture should be quite wet – wet enough to actually flow into the corners of the box!
Let sit out at room temperature for two hours, to rise.
Take out what you need, and refrigerate the rest.
Grab a ball of dough, grapefruit-sized, to make a loaf. Don't over handle it, just shape it into a ball by pulling the sides under leaving a nice smooth top. Dust the paddle with the oatmeal and leave the loaf to rise. After 20 minutes, put the oven on to pre-heat and place a *baking stone and a water container in the oven. For the water container, an old pie-crust tin is good.
Don't put water in the container yet but make a couple of slashes across your dough (it helps to dust the bread first with flour -- great tip Anita!)
Preheat the oven to 475°F (Anita calls for 250°C so that's pretty close). I actually use 450°F when I'm making this, use what suits you best.
After 20 minutes of pre-heating, slide the loaf onto the stone. Pour a cup of water into the container, close the oven and patiently W-A-I-T.
Check in 20 to 25 minutes. Take the bread out and tap it, it should sound hollow when done. Anita says every oven is different, so do the tapping-test for hollowness and that's it!
Allow to cool completely (yeah, right). Spread with butter. Indulge. Enjoy.

* Anita uses four terra cotta tiles on a tray as her pizza stone!