Bread.

Fresh. Baked. Bread.



Smell it. Taste it. Say it with me now...
Fresh Baked Bread.
Its like a little prayer. Well, it is for anyone who isn't avoiding carbs anyways.



I don't know what too me so long. This recipe has been floating around the internet for almost FOUR years. Where was I? Drooling over the thought, and lamenting my lack of appropriate cookware.




No knead bread was introduced to the the world by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery via Mark Bittman of the New York Times, though its based off of recipes that have been around for ages. Its got 4 ingredients, 5 if you are me and you like to mess with things, and is so easy a 4 year old can do it.



There were two problems with this recipe that do put it out of the reach of some (including me for so long). One, this recipe takes time. By trading out the physical effort, one must put in almost a whole day of waiting. So hard!



Secondly, one needs a large pot that can be put in a very, VERY, hot oven. My new baby came in handy in this capacity, but, as this is a fairly recent acquisition, I was ill-equipped before now.



If you have the hardware, and you have the patience, please make this bread. Its so good. Fresh baked bread is pretty much always good, but THIS bread is really good. It's chewy, full of big holes for filling with butter, and has a crispy crunchy golden crust. Do it. Do it now. What are you waiting for?


No Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

(I made mine with a bit of whole wheat flour from my farm, but if you don't have any or don't want to use any, just use all all-purpose flour)

2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast (like Fleischmann's RapidRise)
3/4 tsp kosher salt (or 1 tsp table salt)
1 1/2 cups warm water

Special Equipment: a large (6-8 quart) heavy pot with a well-fitted lid.

1) Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
2) Slowly pour in the warm water.
3) Stir into a gooey, sticky mess of dough, cover, set aside. It will look wet. It's supposed to.
4) Ignore the dough for 8-10 hours.
5) Uncover, and with wet hands, lift the dough out of the bowl and fold over on itself several times. Just flop it around, this is not kneading, this is just poking it. This helps, I promise. This will help get more of those delightful big bubbles.
6) Put the dough back in the bowl, cover, ignore for another 8-10 hours.
7) Sprinkle some cornmeal or flour on a board, and with wet hands, lift the dough out of your bowl and drop on the board.
8) Fold it over and flop it on itself a couple more times and shape as best you can into a ball-like shape.
9) Place the ball of dough onto a floured towel (NOT terry cloth) or piece of parchment paper. Place back in the bowl and let it rise another 1-2 hours.
10) 30 minutes before the dough is finished with its final rise, place the pot in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees.
11) When your dough has finished its final rise (it should be about double the size), quickly open the oven, lift off the lid of the pot, drop your dough in the pot, bake for 30 minutes.
12) Remove the lid of the pot and bake an additional 15-30 minutes. The bread should look brown, shiny, and thump when you tap it.

Let cool, slather with butter, enjoy!