Famous NYTimes No-Knead Bread

Excellent bread is just far too easy to come by in New York City to warrant baking your own bread. Even though this was super easy, I was hoping it would be enlightening, hoping it would fill my home with the smell of freshly baked bread, hoping it would bring that extra magic touch to dinner.

Don't get me wrong, it was fun, cool to watch and decently good, but the house smelled like short ribs w/ a whiff of baking bread here and there, I spilled yeast and wheat bran everywhere, and the only one who really LOVED the bread was Jon, aka Linus for the evening. Cool to do it once, but next time I'm hitting up GrandDaisy and getting my favorite olive loaf. Yum.

"Shaggy" dough

After 18 hours of resting

Baking w/ lid on

Baking w/ lid off

Done!


No-Knead Bread
NYTimes November 8, 2006
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.