CRUSTY BREAD + BUTTER CANDLE
07/17/2023Did you see the viral butter candle TikTok trend from awhile back? I finally jumped on the bandwagon and gave it a try. I have to say, it’s very simple to make and kind of fun.
Pair a butter candle with my easy homemade crusty bread recipe for a fun gourmet dinner experience in your own home.
To make the butter candle:
- Poke a hole in the bottom of a paper or plastic cup
- Stick a food-safe candle wick through the hole in the cup
- Mix softened butter with any ingredients desired. The butter can be as simple as plain sweet cream butter, add in a little flaky salt or as fancy as adding a roasted garlic and herb blend of your choice. I didn’t have any fresh garlic on hand so I sautéed chopped garlic and added it along with chopped chives from the garden.
- Add butter mixture to cup.
- Pull wick through hole until the bottom rests on the butter.
- Chill until solid.
- Cut cup to remove it from the butter mold.
Of course, any bread can be used with the butter candle. But if you’re going to go to the effort to make a butter candle from scratch, you might as well make some homemade bread to go with it. I have a favorite crusty bread recipe that is so easy to make. The only trick you need to know is to make sure the water is lukewarm, 98 to 105 degrees, so the yeast will activate. If you do that, I promise you’ll have success with this bread recipe. No kneading required.
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Kosher or flaky sea salt
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, 98-105 degrees
- Also needed:
Dutch oven or oven-safe dish with lid
Directions
- In a large bowl, stir together flour, salt and yeast.
- Stir in water using a wooden spoon just until the mixture comes together. Do not over mix.
- Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap.
- Let dough sit at room temperature for 8 to 24 hours. Dough will rise and bubble.
- After dough has risen, preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Place the dutch oven, uncovered, into the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
- While dutch oven in preheating, turn dough onto a floured surface.
- With floured hands, form the dough into a ball.
- Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let rest.
- After 30 minutes, place the dough ball on a sheet of parchment paper.
- Carefully place the parchment paper and dough into the preheated dutch oven.
- Add the lid and bake for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove lid and bake an additional 7 to 14 minutes, uncovered, until the bread begins to brown.
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