So all these soup recipes and what to serve with it? Lately, there’s been a whole lot of press about no-knead breads. I’ve seen recipes in newspapers, in Mother Earth News, in Cook’s Illustrated (you need to sign up for a trial membership if you aren’t a subscriber to get the recipes) and even on morning news shows. I love to make a double batch of this and keep it in the fridge for the week. I can make rolls, pizza crust, or a fresh loaf of bread any time. The bread stays fresh for about five days. Being the crunchy organic mom that I am, I use white whole wheat flour — Bob’s Red Mill sells an organic version I use — although I think a better tasting and slightly less healthy bread and pizza crust comes with a two-thirds/one-third mix of whole wheat and white flour. What can I say, I like to torture my child.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

6 1/2 cups flour

Put all ingredients in a a really big bowl and mix with a spoon/your hands/use a stand mixer with the dough hook. Just mix it until it’s all moist. Cover and let it rise for a couple hours. Put it in the fridge for at least three hours, covered with a plastic lid or plate or something that fits nicely, but not too tightly.

When you want to use it: take what you need and add flour if you need to to shape it into a roll or stretch it out to be a pizza. For the latter, put on a pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal or on an oiled baking sheet. Let it rest for about a half hour. Bake the rolls at 450 degrees until golden — about 15 minutes. A loaf will take 30-40 minutes. You can do it freeform on a pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal, or in an oiled loaf pan. For pizza, bake until any cheese is melted and bubbly and the crust is brown. You can also make a pizza skin into a calzone: just fill it, fold it, pinch it together, and bake for about 20 minutes at 450 degrees.

Most of the recipes talk about putting in a pan of water with the bread to make a crisp crust. I don’t and my guys eat it up just fine. Hot bread, hot soup, yum.

Another favorite bread recipe comes from my five years living in Ireland, where I fell in love with Irish Brown Soda Bread. I love it toasted crisp with butter melting into it. I love it for breakfast, with a cup of tea, or with soup.

Ingredients:

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

1 cup regular rolled oats (not quick cooking or thick cut or steel cut oats)

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Stir all this together in a bowl.

In a measuring cup, mix two cups buttermilk and two tablespoons molasses. I’ve used the dried buttermilk before and it’s worked fine — just follow the instructions on the package. You can also make your own buttermilk substitute with regular milk — a little under two cups — and a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice. Let the milk sit for about a half hour, then stir well.

Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients. Mix with a spoon and then get your hands in there and mix it all well. Knead it a few times on a floured surface and form it into a round loaf. Take a knife and cut half way down the loaf in a cross shape, making clear quarters out of the loaf. Put in an oven preheated to 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting it into the quarters and slicing, toasting, buttering, and eating.

Enjoy!