Flower Pot Bread, Perfect for Spring Dinner

Hey everyone! I am joining Leslie from Once Upon a Time and some other sweet blogger friends for my first ever Tasty Tuesday. We are sharing easy to whip up Spring recipes that will put a smile on your face while we’re finishing off (hopefully!) the last of this sheltering in place. Today I’m sharing a recipe for Flower Pot Bread, which gives you six pots of bread to enjoy at dinner, for a snack or to leave as gifts for neighbors or friends (just tie some bakers twine on them and wrap them up in cellophane!). I do a light egg wash on top to give them a golden glow with a dusting of sea salt. These flower pot loaves are wonderful to cut up into wedges with big slabs of melted butter on top.

Flower Pot Bread

So, what gave me the idea of flower pot bread? When I was a teen, there was a mall in North County in St. Louis called Northwest Plaza. Sadly, the mall as since been torn down and all the childhood memories I had of their Tilt game area below the theater and stores are gone. I remember there being a restaurant in the mall called Spinnakers and they would bring flower pot bread in terra-cotta pots to your table. I remember this vividly from my childhood and wish this restaurant was still around. So, alas… I made my own!

Ingredients:

• 4 Cups of Flour
• 2 Teaspoons of Kosher Salt
• 2 Cups Lukewarm Water
• 2 Teaspoons Sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
• 1 Egg (For the Egg Wash)
• Sea Salt (Sprinkle on Top of Tops of Bread when Done)
• 2 Tablespoons of Melted Butter (For Buttering the Pots before Placing Dough Balls in Them)
• 6 Terracotta Pots (or 3 pots, if you want to store the remaining dough in the fridge and prepare later in the week). I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby, they were 4″ in diameter at the top opening and a little over 3″ tall.

First, you’ll need to put 2 cups of lukewarm water in a bowl, dissolve the 2 teaspoons of sugar in the water. Sprinkle your packet of active dry yeast on top (no need to stir). Let mixture stand for 15 minutes while the active years makes it foamy/bubbly.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together the 4 cups of flour and 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. Once the yeast mixture is finished, stir it up and add it to the flour bowl. Mix until the flour is absorbed into the yeast mixture.

Cover the bowl with the dough in it with a tea towel and set aside in a warm spot. Let it rise for an hour.

Position an oven rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat the oven to 425 ºF.

Grease your 3-6 terracotta pots generously with butter. Then, go back to the bowl with your dough in it and remove the tea towel. Using two forks, punch down on your dough. Roll the dough into a bowl and then split evenly into two separate balls. Then, split these two balls into 3 balls. You should have 6 balls total. 

Plop each ball of dough into a buttered terracotta pot. If you plan to save half of the dough for later, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge (use it within a week). Place the pots on a metal baking sheet.

Let the dough in the pots rise for 30-60 minutes in a warm spot. The dough will rise just below the rim of the pot. This make take awhile, but should be fuller risen within an hour. Create an egg wash by cracking an egg open and mixing it in a small bowl. Brush on top of the dough in the pots.

Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 375 ºF and bake for 15 minutes longer.

Remove baking sheet with pots on it from oven. Brush the loaves with melted butter and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on each one. Let them cool for 20 minutes or longer. Run a dull knife around the edge of each flowerpot to loosen the bread from the sides and turn pot over to release the loaf.

Cut your flowerpot bread into wedges and enjoy it with big slices of butter or sweet jam. If you plan to gift these, return the bread to the pot and wrap with bakers twice and tuck into a basket with other goodies, such as butter, jam, flowers, etc.