No Knead Bread (Artisan Bread)

Submitted by Julie Twitchell

Do any of you like artisan bread? At our house, we love it. Tyler LOVES it. We buy it at Costco, then freeze it so we can have it whenever we want. Nothing like the crust. Well, Tyler decided on Saturday morning that he wanted artisan bread for his Father's Day dinner. I did not want to go to Costco on a Saturday.(I hate that place on Saturday with 4 kids) So I found this recipe and thought I would give it a try. Results--we won't be buying Costco bread anymore. This stuff is so yummy. I figure the cost of this bread was less than 25 cents. Can't beat that. Tyler has already requested it for his birthday dinner.

This recipe was in the NY Times back in 2006.

Time: about 1 1/2 hours plus 14-20 hours of rising

3 Cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt
cornmeal or wheat bran as needed
1 5/8 cup water

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add water and stir until blended. The dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at least 12 hours, preferably about 18 hours, 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. Put dough seam side down 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 6-8 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 okay. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15-30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

(This is all that is left of a very large round loaf. The kids loved it too.)

Cook's Note: I started my dough Saturday night around 9:00 p.m. We ate it Sunday around 6:00 p.m. I don't have a cast iron or ceramic pot, so I used my regular soup pot. It is not oven proof, but I learned from Rachel Ray that if you cover the handles with tin foil, it will work. So I did it and it really did work. I think I will buy some smaller pots. Then I can make two loafs, one to eat now and one to freeze for another time.