Last night after dinner I started the New York Times’ famous no knead bread. I definitely need to add more flour (or maybe cornmeal) to the towel next time because my bread stuck to it when I tried to dump it into the pan. But no matter. It still came out great!
And it’s so easy. Mix up the flour, water, salt and a tiny bit of yeast and just let it sit for 18 hours. Turn out and knead a few times, then let it sit 15 minutes. Form into a ball and let it sit 2 hours. Preheat the oven and a covered dish, bake 1/2 an hour covered and another 15-30 minutes uncovered. Starting it after dinner makes it ready for the next night’s dinner if you’re around in the afternoon.
No Knead Bread
Doesn’t that look great? It was a bit flatter than I expected but tasted great and had that chewy texture that I miss from bread machine bread.
Recipe: No-Knead Bread recipe
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
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.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=1
Suze,
Whoops! That was me, not your computer. I’ve fixed the link now. Sorry about that.
I would love to try this bread but the no knead bread link took me to the New Yorker. Is it my computer or the link? Thanks so much – Suze
I’ve got that recipe but haven’t given it a spin yet. It’s been too hot here to turn the oven on. If we get a break from the heat, I think I will give it a whirl. There’s nothing better than home made bread.