No-Knead Bread

I found this recipe on my all-time favorite food & cooking blog: The Amateur Gourmet, Adam Roberts. Apparently this no-knead bread technique has been around for a while, but I'd never heard of it because if I had, I'd have been making it every week since.

The first time I made this was just before going to Richmond for Christmas. It literally came out of the oven and was the last thing packed in the car; I almost didn't want to leave and let the aroma of baking bread be enjoyed by only the kittens, but the whole ride down was like sitting in a bakery. I've made it twice since then, trying both variations of using bread flour vs. AP flour, and flour vs. cornmeal as a coating. I have found the best combination for the softest bread and crust that's not too hard. Either bread or AP flour will work fine, but I liked the AP flour the best. Cornmeal is much better than flour for the coating, and I do suggest buying some for this rather than using flour because the crust comes out much nicer. (Ladies at the dinner swap yesterday - you got the loaf with the bread flour and flour coating. The winning combo came out of the oven later last night.) Also the first time I made it (and took the pics) I followed the timing exactly, but yesterday when I made two, I slacked and did not follow it precisely, and I didn't get the same rise and texture inside. I did hold the rising process at step 5, as I noted below, and I don't think that caused a problem at all.

I insist you make this, I really do. You just can't not. It's so easy!! Plan to make it for sure if we get a snow day, and I stress PLAN because you do have to start a day ahead. I scribbled down the recipe from Adam Roberts's blog on an envelope, but I now have it easily memorized because there's not much to it. It looks like a lot of steps but I broke it down that way to make it easiest to follow. This is the most bang for your buck type of recipe I've ever made - meaning so few ingredients, effort, and working time on your part for such a great end product. I'll even put in a nice little time-line for you.

Of course you can just click on Adam Roberts's blog for the recipe, which is hilarious and has great photos, but here's my spin:

No-Knead Bread

Ingredients:
3 cups of AP flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons water (1 5/8ths cups)
Cornmeal (1/2 cup or so)

Directions:
1. [4:00pm day one] Place flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl and stir.

2. Add the water and mix in. Cover with plastic wrap.

3. Let rise for 12-18 hours (18 is better).
4. [10:00am day two] Flour your counter and plop the dough down on it. Fold the dough over onto it's self a couple of times. Place it back in the bowl and cover with the plastic wrap again.
5. Let rest for 15 minutes. (For one of my loaves yesterday, at this point I refrigerated it because I needed a few extra hours before baking, and that did work out nicely.)

6. [10:15am] Lay a clean kitchen towel down on the counter, and coat it with cornmeal.

7. Plop the dough onto the cornmeal in one big ball, then sprinkle more cornmeal over the top. Cover with another kitchen towel.

8. Let sit for 1.5 hours until the next step (the dough will sit like this for a total of 2 hours).
9. [11:45am] Place a 6-8 quart enamel coated cast iron pot, and it's lid, in the oven and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Let it heat up for 30 minutes.

10. [12:15pm] Remove the pot from the oven and take off the lid (KEEP THE POTHOLDER ON THE LID AFTER YOU REMOVE IT OR YOU WILL FORGET THAT IT'S HOT AND YOU WILL BURN YOURSELF). (OK that note was mainly for myself because you are smarter than me, but it is a good tip.)

11. Plop the dough into the pan, trying to let the bottom be flat and any folds or creases in the dough to be on top.
12. Put the lid back on and place in the oven for 30 minutes.
13. [12:45pm] Remove the lid and bake for another 15-30 minutes until it looks nice and brown.
14. [1:00 or 1:15pm] Let cool, at least for a few minutes, before you slice it.OK, now is the fun part. This isn't the type of bread I like to slice and eat plain because the crust is so crusty, unless it's still warm and you have butter on it. Here are some ideas:

Toast, then slap on some butter and jam (or Sue Ann's homemade blackberry preserves like I had this morning, way yum).

Grill or toast, then rub with a cut piece of garlic. Drizzle on extra-virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and cracked black pepper.

Or grill or toast and top with bruscetta. (Accd to my Amateur Gourmet: That's 5 plum tomatoes cut in half and cored and seeded (I used a soup spoon), cut into 1/4-inch cubes, and tossed with 3 cloves of chopped garlic (I like it garlicky), a bunch of basil leaves chiffonaded and then a splash of red wine vinegar, a heavier dose of olive oil (but not too much), salt and pepper. It's that easy and it'll knock your socks off. As my great-grandmother Helen would say: "It's the cat's pajamas and the snake's hips.")

Or, for garlic bread: make a mixture of softened butter, lotsa garlic (either fresh minced or garlic powder is good here too), parsley (fresh or dried, or dried Italian herb mix), salt and black pepper. Smear this on thick cut bread and toast or broil on a baking sheet.

For REAL garlic bread, shmear toasted bread with roasted garlic and olive oil.

Next time I make this bread, I'm going to add some roasted garlic cloves and maybe fresh thyme or chives, or some other herb, to the dough and bake it in. I think the smell of that baking would delay a road trip...