Sea Salt Bread

Disclaimer: you will need a high-heat safe dutch oven with a lid and some sturdy oven mitts for this recipe.

In about 2 hours, you can bake yourself a crusty, salty loaf of beautiful bread. Believe it. This easy to follow recipe comes via my mom, who adapted and leveled up on a recipe from Jenny Can Cook. You’ll need:

3 cups of all purpose or bread flour (haven’t tested a gluten-free alternative just yet)

1 packet active yeast (you could also sub a starter for yeast at a 1 packet to 1 cup of starter ratio, however you’ll want to let the dough proof for several hours rather than just one)

1 teaspoon salt for the bake

1 heaping tablespoon of Morton’s Sea Salt, or any larger flake sea salt, for the crust

1 & 1/2 cup hot water, about 125 degrees F (aka hot from the tap)

In a large bowl mix dry ingredients: flour, yeast and salt. Slowly fold in water until a sticky dough forms. Cover and let proof at room temp for 1 hour. 45 mins into the proofing time, place your dutch oven with lid on in a COLD oven and heat to 450 degrees F.

Meanwhile, after an hour has passed, place your dough on a floured board or surface and fold dough into itself about 15 times until dough is worked into a nice round ball. Line a bowl or proofing basket with parchment paper and place dough into paper-lined bowl to rest for another 15-20 minutes. Here is when you sprinkle large flake salt over the top and very gently press into outer surface.

Next, carefully with oven mitts on, lift the parchment paper and dough from the bowl and place gently into the hot pot. Parchment paper goes in, too. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Please use mitts here, we are talking about one hot pot!

After 30 minutes, remove lid and remove parchment paper from under loaf. Return to oven without the lid this go round and bake 10 more minutes. Let rest and cool on a rack before enjoying.