Keeping the Castle - Housekeeping & Homemaking Tips

No-Knead Bread

by Maricar on January 29th, 2007

Baking bread seems to be getting easier these days. Unlike our grandmothers, we now have breadmakers, electric mixers with dough hooks, and bread mixes that come in boxes. One of the easiest, though not the shortest, way to your own homemade bread is this recipe for No-Knead Bread.

The original recipe appeared in the New York Times late last year. It’s apparently been tried and blogged about by many, including Bryanna Clark Grogan, who writes the blog “Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen“. Bryanna’s write-up has a number of photos, a step-by-step description of the process and her notes on the original recipe.

I always thought one cannot make bread without kneading, but I’m glad to see that it’s not so. This recipe seems really easy, and the ingredients are simple. Anybody can bake this bread!

Here’s the original recipe as it appeared in the New York Times:

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
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.

[Source: The New York Times; Hat tip and Image Source: Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen]

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POSTED IN: Cooking