No-Knead Bread

Okay, this is my last bread post for a while (I promise, Amy!!!) and then I'm going to focus on low carb dishes. The leftover French bread loaf just got chopped up, baked, and turned into croutons. All the bread is gone now, I think. Gonna have to be that way for a while.

No-Knead Bread*

3 c. warm water
7 c. flour
1 T. salt
2 pkts. active dry yeast

1. Measure the flour into a LARGE mixing bowl; whisk in salt.

2. Mix both yeast packets into **1 cup** of warm water; allow to stand 5 minutes.

3. Add yeast mixture and remaining 2 cups of water into flour.

4. Stir with a wooden spoon until everything is combined.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to stand at room temperature for roughly 2 hours.

6. Get one of those empty 6-quart ice cream buckets from the pantry…you know—the ones you're always complaining are in the way and you have no practical use for?—one of those! Put your dough in it. Slap the lid on. Put it in the fridge. (I did all my mixing in the ice cream bucket.)

7. Allow the dough to sit in the fridge for 2 hours. It will rise, but don't panic if you see it deflate—it will rise again. (NOTE: you don't have to use the dough today, if you don't have time; it will keep in the fridge for a week. Then you HAVE TO bake it.)

8. When ready to bake, grab a softball-sized piece of dough from your bucket. You might want to flour your hand first, cause the stuff is sticky. And it is very stringy-stretchy.

9. On a floured surface, shape the ball into a loaf. Place loaf on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle the top with a little flour. Cover with waxed paper and allow to rise for about an hour.

Above: I allowed this to rise without slashing it first, and it split down one side. When I tried to slash it before baking, it had a crust on it that prevented me from making "pretty" slashes.

10. Heat oven to 375°. Slash loaf—either down the center, or crosswise 2 or 3 times—with a sharp knife to allow for expansion. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until crust is a nice brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped.



NOTE: If you want your bread to turn out crusty, you have to add moisture to the environment. You accomplish this by adding a pan of water underneath the oven rack where your bread will be baking. When I did this, the crust was nice, but the bread didn't seem done in the center. These instructions reflect my discontentment with the original recipe. I have lowered the oven temp and increased the time.

*Adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe.



I also made some breadsticks. I flattened out the dough and sprinkled it with garlic salt and dusted it ever-so-lightly with flour, then folded it over again and again, repeating the process, to make flakey layers.

They looked beautiful after baking:


This is some sticky dough!!!




When all is said and done, I think I have enjoyed some of my other bread recipes more. It was just "okay." This really didn't seem too much easier, I thought, than making regular bread.