Czech bread is, like every other traditional Czech food, very dense and filling.  A few bites will stuff your tummy for hours.  And don’t worry about the calories; you will work them off when making the bread. I promise this Czech bread that will make your mouth go wet.

You don’t need many ingredients.

5 cups of flour: bread flour works the best 

2.5 cups of tepid water

1 Tbs of caraway seeds

2 Tsp of salt

1/2 Tsp of sugar

1 pack of quick-rising yeast

Start by mixing half a cup of warm water, sugar and yeast and wait about 15 minutes for the mixture to rise.

Then add in 1 cup of flour and stir it well medieval style = with a wooden spatula or spoon.

Add 2 Tsp of salt to the rest of the water and add it to your lovely looking mixture together with the rest of the flour. Now enjoy about 5 minutes of mixing labor until you have something you would be happy to call a dough.  If 5 minutes is not enough for you, feel free to torture your arm to the extent of your full satisfaction. Remember, the more you stir the better the bread will be!

To add to our bread a bit of something you can pick out of your teeth hours after you have a slice of it, mix in caraway seeds. 

Now, just scrape down the sides of the bowl and let it stand in a warm place for about 2 hours. If you feel fancy, cover it with a clean dish cloth but be sure your dough have enough space to rise and won’t stick to it. Otherwise, just put a cling film over it.

Go do some productive stuff.

Come back to the kitchen and dust a clean counter with a bit of flour.

Flour your hands, take the squishy dough out of the bowl and knead it like you mean it for about 8 minutes.

If you feel that the dough is a bit too clingy and doesn't want to let go of you, just keep adding a little bit of flour. But don’t over-flour it.

Next, give it some rest. Just tuck it under a plastic wrap and sing it a lullaby. About 10 minutes should be enough; we don’t want it to get lazy.

After 10 minutes, give it a fierce wake-up call by kneading it until it’s smooth and elastic.  This should take about 5 – 7 minutes or more, depending on your arm strength.  For the masochistic types among us, just knead it until your arms feel numb and then some more! Remember, this is the part where you can burn the most calories.

Then, give it some shape. Round would probably work the best.

If you have a rimless baking sheet cover it with parchment paper, dust it with flour and place your dough creation on it. If not, just take whatever baking bowl you have,  butter it, flour it and then place your aspiring bread on it.

I like to make a cross on the top of the dough with a sharp knife as it makes the bread look prettier.  But if you aren't the cross type, you can either leave it or carve on there whatever you like.

Finally, sift some more flour over it to give it some colour and texture. Now, give it some rest AGAIN! Approximately 1-2hours. The dough should spring back slowly when you press a fingertip into it.

Preheat the oven to 220ºC and put in some ice cubes to create a Swedish-sauna-like environment that will create the amazing bread crust you can break your teeth on.

Put the dough in for about 30 – 40 minutes until it has browny color, sort of like the skin colour of people from Jersey Shore.

Resist the temptation to open the oven during baking. Staring at the baking magic though the glass is permitted though. 

When satisfied with the colour and look of your product, take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least 1hour. 

Carve yourself a slice and try not to be tempted to eat the whole thing there and then.

Czech people say that when a girl can cook/bake, she can get married. Although this statement says more about Czech culture than about Czech cooking I think of it this way: if your version of this bread is edible, there is nothing in the world you wouldn't be able to do. Let us know how your bread turned out!