ARTISAN BREAD...EASIEST EVER! (no lie)

I had a really hard time trying to decide what to title this post.  It could have been "I Didn't Sleep At All Last Night" or "The Best Blueberry Jam...Ever!" or "Two Truths and One Lie" (did you ever play that game..so fun!).  But, I went with "Artisan Bread...Easiest Ever" and THAT is the first truth.  It is the easiest bread I've ever made.

I was inspired to make this bread because Karen over at The Feral Turtle made some really good-looking blueberry jam.  Check it out.

Blue Blooded Diva Blueberry Jam

Now I love blueberry jam.  It's my favorite and I told Karen so and that hers looked delicious in the comments on her post.  She emailed me and told me she would send me some.  Was I polite and said, "Oh no! You don't have to do that!" ?  NO.  I replied with my home address immediately because the idea of homemade blueberry jam supersedes all pretense of politeness for me.  (I did thank her profusely.)  
Karen emailed me back about a week later and told me the jam was en route. I told her that I was going to make some of the "No Knead Bread" she had posted on her blog later in the week so that I could try it with her jam when it arrived.  And THAT my friends is the lie.  Now I didn't mean to lie.  My intentions were great.  But I got busy and the jam arrived and I had not made the bread.  
Now let me just say, that Karen didn't just send me a small jar of jam like you see in her picture above.  Oh no.  She sent me a BIG jar of it as well as some very wonderful hand cream AND a bar of foot rub, all homemade and all blueberry scented!  I didn't waste a second.  I opened up that blueberry jam and stuck a large spoon in it and shoved it in my mouth.  Heaven!  Best blueberry jam EVER!  And THAT is the second truth!  Thank you so much Karen!
So...back to that awesomely easy bread and my lie.  So that jam arrived, I needed homemade bread and I needed it STAT!  I did not have the wheat bran nor the cornmeal called for in her recipe.  Damn.  I jumped on the computer and googled some bread recipes and found this recipe called "How to Make Easy, Fast, Foolproof Bread From Scratch".  I was intrigued.  This was a make-it-all-in-one-plastic-Rubbermaid-style-container, no-knead, store-it-in-the-fridge, pull-out-whatever-you-want-and throw-it-in-the-pan, artisan-style bread that goes together in 20 minutes and bakes in 30 minutes and looked too good to be true.  Which meant I had to try it.  I made it last night and put it in the fridge to do it's thing.  Then I couldn't sleep.  So, at 2 o'clock in the morning, I made a loaf of bread.

Uh-huh!  Everything this recipe claimed was true. Everything.  It was the easiest bread I've ever made and there was a time when I made bread every week, because I'm not a fan of calcium propianate and you shouldn't be either.  But......

yep, there was no way I was putting that precious blueberry jam on store-bought bread.  Oh, and I use real butter too!

Did you notice my funky-looking butter container?  Want to have soft, room temperature butter year-round?  Get yourself a French Butter Bell.

It's an amazing little 2 piece glass container that keeps butter on your counter fresh.  

It's so simple and yet so genius!  The top half is filled with butter.  The bottom has water in it.  Put the top half into the bottom half and you have an instant water seal that protects your butter from air, which is what causes it to spoil.  I've used one for years and have never had butter spoil.  Google "Butter Bell" and you'll find them in all shapes and colors, running from $12.95 to over $40.00.  
Oh, and finally, if you are still with me after this long post...I used 1/3 of the bread dough from that container in my fridge to make that loaf, which means I'll have 2 more loaves ready to bake over the next couple of weeks.  The recipe says it keeps for several weeks in the fridge!  Yumm.  If anyone else wants to send me jam, I'm ready!
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