Artisan Cuisine: No-knead bread turns out easy and beautiful

This bread is almost like magic. It involves creating a more hydrated dough with minimal yeast and letting time do all the work. It’s homey, rustic and comforting. 

I have taught at least 100 people who said they couldn’t bake bread how to make no-knead bread and they are always amazed at how good it turns out.

A few years back I decided that it was silly of me to tackle all kinds of other cooking and baking subjects and still not be able to make rustic-style breads that I loved. While surfing the Internet for tips and ideas I came across an article in the New York Times about no-knead bread. After watching the video I gave it a try.

This technique using a floured kitchen towel was messy and my dough deflated a bit upon entering my baking vessel, but the bread still came out pretty amazing. I was hooked. I studied and learned and each time I came back to no-knead bread I found ways to make it work better. I started creating many variations including pumpernickel, cranberry pecan, a rich chocolate bread, sourdough, and my beloved baguettes.

Start out with this basic recipe and then experiment!  It will look beautiful on your holiday table.

No-Knead Bread

4 cups bread flour or all purpose flour

2 cups cool water (non-chlorinated if possible)

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp instant or active dry yeast (yes, that's right, only 1/4 tsp is needed)

In a large bowl, mix together to make a ragged wet dough, adjust water/flour as necessary to get a wet bubblegum texture. After you make it a few times you will be able to tell right away by sight and touch when it’s perfect. It’s a very forgiving dough.

Cover the bowl lightly with plastic wrap and leave it out on your counter for 12-18 hours. It will have grown and have air bubbles all over the top when it’s ready. I usually start my batch of dough the night before and that way I can bake the bread the next day for dinner. If you mix it up and find you can’t bake it for another day or so, pop it into the fridge until you’re ready. It will keep a few days.

Find a small to medium sized mixing bowl (I want the dough to round up a bit since it's quite slack) and layer the bowl with a large piece of parchment. Then sprinkle flour over the top of the wet dough to help keep hands from getting dough stuck all over them. Add more flour as needed while you’re shaping the dough to make it a bit firmer for shaping. I turn it under and under to make a ball shape, but if it’s very slack you can just dump it onto the parchment as is.

Once baked, the parchment paper slips easily away from the bread, so no greasing necessary. Let it sit in that parchment lined bowl for two hours or until double in size.

About an hour or so into the rise you’ll need to put your baking vessel into the oven to preheat. What you can use is a dutch oven with a lid, a casserole with lid, or any pan or pot that can withstand 500 degrees and has a lid. I don’t recommend any kind of Pyrex, glass or thin pans that could break or crack. I use an old ceramic lined dutch oven with a lid and for baguettes a turkey roaster.

Put the baking vessel into the oven with its lid on. Heat to 500 degrees and let heat for at least 30 minutes to an hour before baking bread. When the bread is ready, sift a little flour and cut a gash or two on the top of the bread with kitchen scissors about 1 inch into the body of the bread.

Then, open the oven and the lid on your baking vessel and, using the parchment, quickly pull the dough out of the bowl and put it into the pan. Put the lid on top (don't worry, the parchment paper won't catch fire) and pop back into the oven and immediately turn the heat down to 450 degrees and bake 20 minutes covered. Then, take the lid off and bake another 20 minutes to brown the top.

Carefully remove, but don’t cut the bread until it has cooled down. You’ll hear it crackling and singing as it cools, one of my favorite sounds. Enjoy!