No-Knead Bread
One of the things I was excited to try when I bought my dutch oven was the no-knead bread recipe featured in the New York Times. I’ve never made bread at home except for the kind from a mix (like soda bread) or sweet breads like banana bread. I’ve never even had yeast in the house before. Still, this recipe seemed easy enough, with the long fermentation process doing basically all the work. I bought instant yeast and cornmeal and got started.
Overall it came out pretty well, especially for a baking beginner like myself. The bottom burned a little, and the inside is a teensy bit gummier than I think it should be, but the flavor is nice and yeasty and the crust has an awesome crunch to it. I did not heed the warning on my dutch oven, and so the knob exploded off the lid about 15 minutes into preheating the oven (apparently once it hit about 400 degrees or so). I found this more amusing than anything, especially since having a plastic-y knob that is only heat safe to 375 degrees is kind of silly on a cast iron pot that can withstand much higher temperatures. It’s all good, though - the knob is easily replaced with a stainless steel one (either a Le Creuset one, or a plain old drawer pull).
I’m definitely going to make this again, and perhaps I’ll let it rest a bit longer to begin with (the first rest was 15 hours; I meant to do 18, but I was too excited!), and even lengthen the second rest for a bit - it hadn’t really doubled in size after two hours. I think my house might not have been warm enough, either. Anyway, it was a great first attempt. It’s so satisfying to start with flour and water, yeast and salt, and come out with a beautiful, rustic loaf of bread.
After 15 hours of proofing:
After the first folding:
After resting for 15 minutes and being placed on the cornmeal dusted towel:
Cut open:
You can watch the video of the bread being made here - just note that there are a few additional things that are in the recipe, but not in the video. Make sure to read the recipe too.
Original Recipe (reposted below)
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed
INSTRUCTIONS:
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.