Best Bread? No Need to Knead

The best bread I've ever made? Also the easiest. The no knead bread recipe developed by Jim Lahey is super easy to follow and makes some of the best "crust and crumb" that I've ever managed to put out. The secret? Super hot cooking in a Dutch Oven (large oven-safe pot for those of you unfamiliar with the Dutch Oven).

 

Here’s the original article on No Knead Bread. And, here's the recipe they talk about in the article.

Tips and Tricks

• I’ve found that the 1 ⅝ water the recipe calls for can make the dough a little slack (or watery). I know it’s not a huge difference but between 1 ½ and 1 ⅝ seems to work best for me, depending on what other ingredients I may have added.
• Also, they talk about folding the dough several times. This is not necessary, I’ve had great luck using a floured bench scraper to form it into a round and pull the slack underneath to give it that nice tight top.
• Don’t use a towel to put the dough on and to cover – you’ll have trouble with it sticking. Parchment paper works great. When the dough is ready, just pick it up with the parchment paper and pop the whole ball right into the Dutch Oven. Easy, no mess.
• The best place I’ve found to let the dough rise is in the microwave. Keeps the dough nice and warm in a confined space (as long as you can stand to not use your microwave for 12 hours)

Another article, published about a year after the NYT article

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/09/10/no-knead-bread-revisited/

Here’s a video of Mark Bittman interviewing Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery where they actually make the loaf and Jim explains some of the science and “why’s”

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/09/10/no-knead-bread-revisited/

Here’s the proportions and method I’ve been using

• 3 cups flour (unbleached, unbromated all purpose or bread flour)
• ¼ tsp active dry yeast
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
• 1 5/8 cup warm water

Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until blended. It's not necessary to knead the bread - the yeast will be doing all the work for you. Cover with saran wrap and pop it in the microwave for 8-12 hours (yes, you leave the microwave off).

Pour out the dough onto a well floured surface. Using a floured dough scraper, form the dough into a round ball. Flour the top of the dough and using the dough scraper to help, grab it and place it on top of the parchment paper. Put the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and back into the microwave to rest while you start to heat the oven.

Put your Dutch Oven into the oven and heat to 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Take the bread out of the microwave and with a very sharp knife, score the top of the loaf so that it has room to expand as it cooks. Take your Dutch Oven out and remove the lid. BEWARE: 500 degrees = instant burns.

Fold up the corners of the parchment paper and use it to lift the dough into the Dutch Oven. Replace the lid and back into the oven and turn the temperature back to 425 degrees. After 30 minutes, remove the lid from the Dutch Oven and allow to bake for another 20-30 minutes.

Take the loaf out of the Dutch Oven and place on a wire rack to cool. As tempting as it is, don't cut into the bread for 20-30 minutes. It has to cool on its own to finish developing that internal structure.

Mmm...

 

Of course, every project needs a playlist. Here's one to listen to while you let the bread finish...

Send me an email and let me know how your bread turned out.