The fantastic bread

"Oh, such a humble hostess!" my friend A said when I mentioned the name for the bread I made for the blog dinner party last week. But it is true, it is called The fantastic bread and nothing I can do about it.
Well, the bread also in fact is fantastic. The recipe is from my beloved food guru Anna Bergenström and I always make it when I expect guests. It is so incredibly tasty, crusty and easy!
Sadly I have no picture of it but instead you can admire my mothers little cat Lasse, born this summer and now round as a ball and very cuddly. Just look at his face: "Are you going inside? Can I come with you and curl up on your lap? Pleeeaaase?" Isn´t he sweet! To connect with the bread: go inside, have a bowl of soup and a piece of bread and enjoy the company of a furry friend.

The fantastic bread

500 ml tepid water
100 ml milk
25 grams fresh yeast
2 teaspoons salt and 1 tbsp honey
1250 ml plain wheat flour + flour for the baking surface

Mix the water and milk. Crumble the yeast into a big bowl and add the salt and the honey. Pour over some of the milk/water mix and stir to dissolve the yeast. Then add the rest of the fluid and the flour, go a little easy so you don´t get too much of flour in! The dough should be loose, but not too sticky. Powder over some flour, cover with a clean towel and let it rise for 1-1 1/2 hours, the longer the better I think.

Put some flour, about 100 ml, on the baking table and spread it out. Warm the oven to 240-250C/480F. Tip out the dough on the floured surface, put more flour on top and very carefully flatten it to a rough rectangle about 2 cm thick, with your floured hand. Don´t knead it, whatever you do! After the long raising time the dough is full of big bubbles and you want them intact.

Use a sharp knife or similar to cut the dough in 6-7 cm stripes. Then cut each stripe in 2-3 pieces diagonally, so you get rough triangular shapes but they don´t have to be neat (mine never are!), just make sure they are about the same size. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets and bake them immediately in the middle of the oven .

Let them cool uncovered on a rack so you get as much crust as possible. This bread is best baked on the same day you eat it. The next day (if you have something left) it is a little more chewy, but still good. Then you have to put it in the toaster to enjoy it but don´t worry, it won´t last that long!