No Knead Bread

I keep running across articles and recipes for no knead bread, most of which are traced back to a New York Times article with a recipe by Jim Lahey from 2006, and I couldn't resist giving this no fuss bread a go. And I must say, I'm quite impressed with it and will definitely be making it again. The crust is so crisp and the inside is perfectly soft, a little chewy and just all around wonderful.

No Knead Bread (from here)
3 cups flour (all purpose or bread flour, I ended up using a combo of both)
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 5/8 cup lukewarm water

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, the mixture will be very sticky and somewhat shaggy looking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel (or both depending on how drafty your kitchen is).

Let the dough sit for at least 12 hours (and up to 18; the longer, the better with this), when it's ready the surface will be dotted with small bubbles.

After the long wait, thoroughly flour your work surface and scrape the dough onto it, with well-floured hands (this dough is so sticky), fold the dough onto itself a couple of times, then cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

While the dough is resting, flour a piece of parchment paper or kitchen towel (I opt for parchment as I am in favor of less cleanup). I was super liberal with the flour here because of how sticky the dough was (you can see the amount of flour still left on the loaf in my pictures, but it tasted just fine). After the rest, shape the dough into a ball and place it, seam side down, onto the floured parchment/towel. Cover and let rise for another 2 hours. The dough will more than double in size.

When there's a 1/2 hour left to the final 2 hour rise, turn your oven on to 450 degrees and put a large dutch oven (I used a 5 1/2 quart Le Creuset for mine, but any heavy pot with a tight fitting lid should work) in the oven to preheat.

Once the oven and pot are preheated, and the final rise is complete, pick up the dough by sliding your hand underneath the towel or parchment paper, then turn the loaf out into the pot, the seam side should now be up. If the dough looks wonky or not evenly distributed, give your pot a little shake, but don't worry too much about perfection with the shape, it'll turn out just fine.

Cover the bread and bake for 30 minutes then remove the cover and bake for another 20 minutes or so, until the bread is nicely browned. Remove from the pot and cool on a rack.

 

 

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