Bread, No-Knead Crusty White

By KodiakDavis

The most basic of all no-knead loaves, this is a wonderful way to get into yeast-bread baking. The easy stir-together dough rests in your refrigerator, developing flavor all the time, till you're ready to bake. About 90 minutes before you want to serve bread, grab a handful of dough, shape it, let it rise, then bake for 30 minutes. The result? Incredible, crusty artisan-style bread. If you're a first-time bread-baker, you'll never believe this bread came out of your own oven. And even if you're a seasoned bread baker, you'll love this recipe's simplicity.

Ingredients

• 3 cups lukewarm water
• 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour* or Organic All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons instant or active dry yeast

Details

Servings 3
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 50mins
Adapted from kingarthurflour.com

Preparation

Step 1

Combine all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, or a large (6-quart), food-safe plastic bucket.
For first-timers, "lukewarm" means about 105°F, but don't stress over getting the temperatures exact here. Comfortably warm is fine; "OUCH, that's hot!" is not. Yeast is a living thing; treat it nicely.

Mix and stir everything together to make a very sticky, rough dough.
If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed with the beater blade for 30 to 60 seconds. If you don't have a mixer, just stir-stir-stir with a big spoon or dough whisk until everything is combined.

Let the dough rise. If you've made the dough in a plastic bucket, you're all set — just let it stay there, covering the bucket with a lid or plastic wrap; a shower cap actually works well here. If you've made the dough in a bowl that's not at least 6-quart capacity, transfer it to a large bowl; it's going to rise a lot. There's no need to grease the bowl, though you can if you like; it makes it a bit easier to get the dough out when it's time to bake bread.

Cover the bowl or bucket, and let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours. Then refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, or for up to about 7 days. (If you're pressed for time, skip the room-temperature rise, and stick it right into the fridge). The longer you keep it in the fridge, the tangier it'll get; if you chill it for 7 days, it will taste like sourdough. Over the course of the first day or so, it'll rise, then fall. That's OK; that's what it's supposed to do.

When you're ready to make bread, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; this will make it easier to grab a hunk. Grease your hands, and pull off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the dough — a 14-ounce to 19-ounce piece, if you have a scale. It'll be about the size of a softball, or a large grapefruit.

Plop the sticky dough onto a floured work surface, and round it into a ball, or a longer log. Don't fuss around trying to make it perfect; just do the best you can.

Place the loaf on a piece of parchment (if you're going to use a baking stone); or onto a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sift a light coating of flour over the top; this will help keep the bread moist as it rests before baking.

Let the loaf warm to room temperature and rise; this should take about 60 minutes (or longer, up to a couple of hours, if your house is cool). It won't appear to rise upwards that much; rather, it'll seem to settle and expand.

Preheat your oven to 450°F while the loaf rests. If you're using a baking stone, position it on a middle rack while the oven preheats. Place a shallow metal or cast iron pan (not glass, Pyrex, or ceramic) on the lowest oven rack, and have 1 cup of hot water ready to go.

When you're ready to bake, take a sharp knife and slash the bread 2 or 3 times, making a cut about 1/2" deep. The bread may deflate a bit; that's OK, it'll pick right up in the hot oven.

Place the bread in the oven — onto the baking stone, if you're using one, or simply onto a middle rack, if it's on a pan — and carefully pour the 1 cup hot water into the shallow pan on the rack beneath. It'll bubble and steam; close the oven door quickly.

Bake the bread for 25 to 35 minutes, until it's a deep, golden brown.

Remove the bread from the oven, and cool it on a rack.

Store leftover bread in a plastic bag at room temperature.

Notes:

The flour/liquid ratio is important in this recipe.
If you measure flour by sprinkling it into your measuring cup, then gently sweeping off the excess, use 7 1/2 cups.
If you measure flour by dipping your cup into the canister, then sweeping off the excess, use 6 1/2 cups.
Most accurate of all (and guaranteed to give you the best results), if you measure flour by weight, use 32 ounces.
Using the same ratio/measuring, you can make a half-recipe if you prefer. While it's great to have dough on hand, it's fine to make less.

Whole wheat flour: You can absolutely make up to half of the total flour whole wheat, either our Premium or white whole wheat flours.
Add an additional 2 teaspoons water per cup of whole wheat flour to prevent the dough from being too dry.
Would it be better to use bread flour here? Bread flour has more gluten-forming protein, so if you choose to use it in this recipe, the crust will be a bit thicker and you won't get quite the same open-holed structure as with all-purpose. We really prefer the texture of both crust and crumb when all-purpose flour is used.
If you do use bread flour, increase the water by about 2 teaspoons per cup of flour to make the requisite sticky dough.