No-Knead Bread
Martha Stewart - Courtesy of Jim Lahey of New York City's Sullivan Street Bakery and the New York Times
Ingredients
- 3 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
- 1/4 t. instant or active-dry yeast
- 1 1/4 t. salt
- 1-1/2 cups water
- Olive oil, as needed
- Cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed (optional)
Preparation
Step 1
1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
2. Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Sprinkle just enough flour over work surface and your fingers to keep dough from sticking; quickly and gently shape dough into a ball.
4. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises; place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
5. After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
6. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown.
7. Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.
Place the loaf on a cooling rack. You will hear it crackling as it cools. Use every ounce of self-control to resist cutting into it until it is “quiet”; cutting it too soon will make the bread dense and gummy.
This bread is best the first 2-3 days. I just store my leftover loaf inside the Dutch oven on the countertop. Using plastic wrap will soften the crust. Dry, leftover bread makes great bread crumbs, toast, French toast, or croutons!
Enjoy. And pat yourself on the back. You just baked an amazing loaf of bread!