fear not the flour, yeast, water, salt.

Hey, you forgot to post yours. I would love to try out everyone's simple+foolproof recipes. I am a conniseur of simple or rustic recipes--they have a certain elegance.

My favorite is Laurie Colwin's Oatmeal bread. Anyone can make this. The only trouble I have ever had was knowing when the loaves were done. I have underbaked a tad.


Laurie Colwin's Oatmeal Bread

If I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, 'I don't have time to bake bread anymore,' I would be as rich as Donald Trump used to be. If you tell people you bake your own bread they look at you either with contempt or disbelief. If you tell them it's a snap, they say cheerlessly, 'A snap for you.' But it is a snap, and I have done it. This recipe produces two loaves, one for sandwiches, and one for the world's best toast.

1. An hour before you go to bed, fling 1 cup oatmeal in your blender and grind. Put the oatmeal, 1 cup of wheat germ, 6 cups of white flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, and ½ teaspoon of yeast into a large bowl. About 3 cups of tepid water will make up the dough. Knead it, roll it in flour and put it right back in the bowl you mixed it up in. Cover the bowl and go to sleep.

2. The next morning, make the coffee and knock down the bread. Divide it in half and put each half into a buttered bread tin (you can butter them the night before and stick them in the fridge to save time). Cover the tins with a tea towel and go to work.

3. When you come home, heat the oven to 400 degrees F., paint the top of the loaves with milk (this is a frill and need not be done, but it makes a nice-looking crust), and bake for about 40 minutes, turning once. It is hard to describe the nutty, buttery taste of this bread, and it is worth the 15 minutes of work it took you to make."

My favorite bread pudding mix, which I usually make with stale criossants:

1qt. eggs
1 qt. cream
1 qt. milk
1# sugar
Any flavoring

(For chocolate flavor, add chocolate to heated cream).

Mix everything together, and strain.

Pour over croissants, and soak in fridge for 4 hours or so. Bake until it puffs up.

So easy to remember, I've never had to write it down.