One Dough, Many Kinds of Bread

Makes about 1½ pounds of dough

Normally, when you make bread, you have to knead it a lot. But this dough is different. It’s really wet and it rises for a long time—overnight—so it doesn’t need any kneading. Even though you have to plan ahead and make the dough the night before, you’ll be amazed at the bread that comes out. And the best thing is, this dough can be made into different things, like a crispy flatbread or a baguette or even a pizza! The dough is very sticky, but don’t worry; with a little practice, you’ll get the hang of working with it.

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for working dough

¼ teaspoon yeast

2 teaspoons salt

1½ cups water

In a medium-size bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt. Add 1½ cups water and mix with your hand for about 1 minute, until a wet and sticky dough forms. Cover the bowl with a plate and let the dough rise for 12 to 18 hours at room temperature. You’ll know the dough is ready when it has doubled in volume and little bubbles are forming all over its surface.

By the way, you can use whole-wheat flour in this recipe. If you want to do that, use the same amount of flour but make half of it whole-wheat and half of it all-purpose flour.

Now you’re ready to make the dough into bread! (You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for a day or two before you form it and bake it.)

Flatbread

Makes 1 loaf

This is the easiest bread to make. It makes a round flat loaf that’s about 1 inch thick. My mom cuts squares out of it, then slices them up and makes sandwiches that are crispy on both sides. Yum!

1 dough recipe

Olive oil

Flaky sea salt

Lightly oil a sheet pan and sprinkle a little flaky sea salt on it. Then, with your hands moistened with olive oil, scrape the dough out of the bowl and plop it onto the pan in a mound. The dough will be a bit crazy and spread all over the place. Just use your hands to gently tuck under any scraggly ends. Spread a little more olive oil on top of the dough and then gently push the dough down and shape it into a disk about ½ inch thick and 1 foot across. Salt the top with more flaky sea salt. Then lightly press the surface of the bread down in different places with your fingertips to create little dimples. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Bakers call this “proofing.”

Preheat the oven to 500º F. After the bread is proofed, bake on the center rack of the oven for 12 minutes. You’ll know the bread is done when it is a light golden brown and sounds hollow when you tap it with your finger.

Remove the flatbread from the oven and let it cool on a rack. Now you’re ready to make sandwiches.

Baguettes

Makes three 12-inch-long baguettes

1 dough recipe

If you want to make baguettes, follow the flatbread recipe, but when you get to the part where you’ve plopped down your dough onto the baking sheet, instead of pressing it flat, cut the dough into 3 equal pieces. Form each of these pieces into a long loaf by rolling and stretching the dough. You should end up with 3 loaves that are about 12 inches long and about 2 inches thick. Line up the loaves next to each other on the sheet pan, but leave enough space between them so they don’t touch. Let the loaves proof for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500º F and bake the loaves the same way you do flatbread. You’ll know the baguettes are done when they’re brown on the top and on the bottom and they make a hollow sound when you knock your finger against them. Let the baguettes cool on a rack, and then—mangez!

Croûtons

Croûtons are little crusty toasts that you put in soups or salads. My mom likes to put garlic and olive oil on them because she likes to put garlic and olive oil on everything!

Baguettes, flatbread, or any other good plain bread

1 garlic clove

Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400º F. Slice the bread into L-inch-thick slices and put them on a baking sheet. Toast for 8 minutes or so, until the outsides are brown. Cut a garlic clove in half. Rub the garlic on the hot toast and drizzle with olive oil.

Bread Crumbs

If you have more bread than you can eat while it’s still fresh, when it’s a day or two old, make bread crumbs. If you have a leftover 12-inch-long baguette, for example, it will make around 1 cup of bread crumbs.

Yesterday’s bread

Preheat the oven to 300º F. Cut the crust off the bread. Then tear the bread into roughly 1-inch pieces and put them on a sheet pan. Put the pan in the oven for 25 minutes or so, until the bread dries out. You don’t want it really toasted; you want it dry and lightly colored, kind of “almost toasted.” Let the bread cool completely. Using a grater, a mortar and pestle, or a food processor, grind the bread into fine but not too tiny crumbs. The crumbs can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container until needed.