Me too.
A while back I finally found a recipe that delivered on its promise to make just that sort of bread, which isn't traditional french bread at all (that having a texture more similar to the artisan bread that I've posted here before). It conforms to my requirement that any bread that I'm going to make on a regular basis needs to be unfussy and not require kneading or a great amount of my time.
I've been making it for a while now (months? a year?) and it's so easy I've not bought *bread since!
*for myself or dinners. My husband has a particular sliced wheat bread he likes for toast and sandwiches so I have bought bread, but it merely exists in my kitchen and I ignore it.
If I get this started at 3pm, I can have a loaf of fresh bread on the table by 5 or 5:30p. It mades two loaves - one for now and one for later. It freezes well if you wrap in saran wrap and foil. I try to keep a loaf in the fridge so I can easily make homemade croutons or bread crumbs. I love this bread for buttered toast, dipping in oil, hot roast beef sub-type sandwiches, and garlic bread.
Other notes:
Because it can be hard to find yeast and I'm not sure how long it will be until I can buy a new container, I've been reducing my yeast in this recipe to ~2 teaspoons. It's been turning out just fine, although the initial rise to double the dough may take a little longer than 45 min.
Yes, use the sugar. It's food for the yeast and will help get a faster rise and make the texture of your loaf what you want. Not using sugar in some of your bread recipes is like making your cat vegan. Please be a little flexible for whatever food rules you have. Sugar used in this way isn't "added sugar" in your food, it's food for the yeast so the microbial and fermentation magic can happen.
Yes, just use regular flour. The place on the internet where I got this recipe (which I have lost over the months as I've been using a few lines of pen jotted on a piece of paper shoved in my recipe binder to make this bread) used a bunch of different flours and combinations of flours and concluded that all-purpose really did the best job. I have zero complaints about the texture of this bread, so I've never been tempted to try any other flours.
If your loaf isn't going to get eaten in 24-48 hours consider putting in a ziplock in the fridge. Like all homemade bread it goes stale and gets moldy quicker than store-bought bread on the counter and I find it stays soft and edible for a week in the fridge. I've stored a whole or half loaf in the freezer for a couple of weeks. Always find myself with a need for bread at that point so haven't tried longer.
I'm changing up the format of how I write my recipes. I've found I prefer the Joy of Cooking format because I don't have to keep darting between the quantities of ingredients and where to use them. I understand that some people want a list of the ingredients up front so they can decide whether they have what they need in the pantry, so this is my compromise.
Let's git 'er done:
Mix together in a small bowl:
2 1/4c. lukewarm water (slightly warm to the touch, don't kill your yeast!),
1 Tablespoons yeast, or one packet, and
2 Tablespoons sugar
Set aside for 10 min while you mix your dry ingredients.
In in a large bowl or mixer bowl, combine together:
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons oil (I like olive oil), and
1 Tablespoon salt (I use Diamond Flake. You may have to adjust quantity down if using other forms of salt).
Add the liquid ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or paddle attachment of your mixer (you won't need a dough hook for this recipe. I promise).
Add an additional 2-3 cups of flour until the dough comes away from the side of the bowl and isn't terribly sticky also holds its shape in a ball reasonably well. This is a soft dough that is less sticky than artisan bread, but softer than the bread you've been kneading and sweating over. My stand mixer doesn't have a problem mixing this dough with the paddle on a medium speed.
Add some oil to the side of the bowl and let dribble to the bottom. Make the dough round-ish and then turn, coat with oil, cover with saran wrap and let rise until doubled, about 45 min.
After the rise, punch dough down and then dump onto the counter that has either been oiled or floured. Cut into two equal pieces.
Shape each piece into a large rectangle just smaller than a half sheet baking pan (something in the range of 12'-14' by 8') and then starting on the long side, roll the dough away from you, pinching the seam and tucking the ends under. What you have is a piece of dough that resembles a familiar french loaf once it rises a bit.
Either use a bit of cornmeal on the bottom of a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Both loaves will fit on a single baking sheet. Cover with that piece of saran wrap and let rise for another 45 min. About 30 min into the rise preheat the oven to 375F with one rack on the upper third of the oven and another on the bottom. Slash with a sharp knife or use scissors to make cuts in the top of the loaves (you know, the ones you see in the supermarket bread. It's not rocket science). Whisk an egg white with a tablespoon of water and brush onto the top of the loaves. (I've also left this step out when I was low on eggs, or used cream instead. While the tops were not as shiny, the loaves cooked and tasted just fine)
When ready, put sheet on the top rack of the oven. Carefully pour boiling water into a dish on the bottom rack and quickly shut the door. This sounds way more difficult than it is. I use a throw away foil baking pan for this step, boil water in an electric kettle, put the bread sheet in, and then pour the water into the foil pan and shut the door.
Loaves will be done in 20-30 min. If the tops look golden it's worth it to peek underneath the loaf to make sure the bottoms are browned as well. I find that when I pull the loaves out of the oven, however brown I thought the top was, it reverses in color one shade during the cooling process.
Try to wait until the bread is cooled before slicing. The crumb will thank you.
Variations
Last weekend when I made two loaves, I used some cinnamon and sugar, raisins, and walnuts on the rectangle of dough before rolling it up for the second rise. It was absolutely delicious.
One last word
If you are looking for a bread recipe that requires less yeast (1/2 tsp of yeast for the whole thing!), you have more time (no kneading required but an overnight rise is) and like foccacia bread as an alternative for sliced bread, check out Samin Nosrat's focaccia bread. I haven't made it enough times to post here as a stand alone recipe, but it's the other "bread" I'm making nowadays. Go grab the recipe from The Kitchn (https://www.thekitchn.com/samin-nosrat-salt-fat-acid-heat-ligurian-focaccia-22949343), and then watch this video (yes, it's totally worth watching the whole thing and not just relying on the written recipe). One note - the recipe makes a big deal of cooking on top of a stone and then moving the pan up to the top of the oven to brown. I've found that isn't necessary in my oven depending on the sheet pan I'm using. No stone required, no moving the sheet required in my experience. Samin also skips over this step in the video so I think it's probably not needed in most circumstances. I've found that the recipe, when used with the video, is very straight forward, HOWEVER, be careful with the finishing salt you sprinkle over. Add just enough for texture and salty bursts...but it is REALLY easy to get the bread over salted in this last finishing touch 😬.
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