No-Knead Bread

A great loaf of bread is a thing of beauty. I've had really bad luck with bread lately, partly due to my reluctance to throw out a batch of old yeast, and partly due to my curiosity about what turned out to be some pretty bad recipes. Last night, I decided to kick my losing streak to the curb with Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread, which created quite the sensation in Mark Bittman's The New York Times column a few years ago.

As expected, the bread turned out perfectly. This is probably the most perfect loaf of No-Knead bread to come out of my oven. Not only is it beautifully rustic, it's strongly scented with rosemary and sage from my family's house in LA. It's taken me awhile, but I'm ready to write down the recipe for myself in case the NYT article disappears from the internet. I've added adjustments, which were mentioned in a follow-up article by Bittman.

• 430 grams or 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (I substituted in about a cup of whole wheat flour)
• 350 grams or 1 5/8 cup tepid water
• 1 gram or ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 gram or 1¼ teaspoons salt (overwhelming consensus is that this bread needs more salt, especially if you use kosher salt. Two to two and a half teaspoons is a good amount)
• Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed (I always use flour because I don't like hard cornmealm, and wheat bran tends to burn)

Combine everything but the cornmeal/bran in a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until it all comes together in a shaggy mess. There's no need to scrape down the bowl or make the mix even. Just make sure there aren't lumps of dry flour. At this point, you can add things like a handful of fresh or dried herbs, chopped olives, toasted or raw chopped garlic or onions, nuts, raisins, whatever you like. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and leave for 12-24 hours.

After about 12 hours, your dough will look like a very wet mess. It's up to you to determine when you want to continue to the next step.

A good rule of thumb is this: if the glutens have formed long strings, you're ready to move on. Tilt your bowl. If the dough pulls away and you can see some stringiness clinging to the sides, that's perfect. If the dough moves as one mass or just site there you need to let the dough rest longer.

This part gets tricky. Rub a lot of flour into a silicon mat, then sprinkle generously with more flour, cornmeal, or bran. You can do this in a bowl or on a towel too. Whatever you do, make sure you also cover your hands in plent of flour. Scrape the sticky dough onto the mat, then using your floured hands quickly fold the dough over itself a few times. You will probably feel like this is a futile task, because the bread will retain its shape of a giant blob no matter how much you tug at it. Just try to get it into a circle or an oval. Dust the top generously with flour, cornmeal, or bran. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it sit for an hour. If you remember to, come back from time to time and lift the plastic gently off the dough and then put it back. This will help prevent sticking at the end.

Forty-five minutes into the second rise, turn your oven on to 450 degrees and put in a 5-9 quart pot with a lid. Cast iron, enamel, or Pyrex are best, but any oven safe casserole or pot will work. The smaller your container, the taller and rounder your bread will be. A 9 quart pot will result in a very flat, wide loaf. I used a 5 quart ceramic casserole this time and loved the shape.

Tricky step: when your oven and pot are heated, carefully remove the pot from the oven and take off the lid. Take the plastic wrap off your dough, then carefully but quickly flip the dough into the pot. There will be some sizzling, and the bread might all end up on one side of the pot if you have bad aim. Shake the pot a little, but don't worry. Usually the bread's shape evens out as it rises. Put the lid back on the pot, put the pot back in the oven, and don't open the oven door for half an hour. Then remove the lid from the pot and bake the bread for 20-30 more minutes, until the outside is golden brown and the internal temperature hits 190.

Remove the pot from the oven and put it on a heatproof surface. When the bread is hot enough to handle, put it on a rack to complete cooling. DO NOT cut into a hot loaf of bread fresh from the oven! Not only will you probably burn yourself, you will end up with gummy bread. Bread needs to cool down for at least half an hour so some moisture can escape and leave behind airy goodness. The really cool thing about No-Knead Bread is that as the bread cools, you can hear the crust crackling. It sounds delicious.

It's really best to let the bread cool for an hour or more after you take it out of the oven, but I confess I cut into it after waiting only 30 minutes. A little butter is all this bread needs, though of course the possibilities are endless.