No Knead Bread

Submitted by kmergirl

"This takes a little time it to let the dough rise but well worth it. But makes a wonderful hardy bread to serve with a hot bowl of soup on a cold day."

 

• Ready In: 24hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 4
• Yields: 1 loaf
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose bread flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 1⁄4 teaspoons salt
• cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed

directions

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, 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. Cover with another cotton towel 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- to 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 O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Reviews

[shawneebookworm]

OH! I cannot wait to try this one. Thanks!~ OK!` I tried this and it is a keeper for those times when you want a hearty bread without all the fuss. Thanks so much!~ I used rapid rise yeast and decreased the rise time to 8 hrs. Awesome!~ I am now gooing to try this method for lite wheat bread.