Almost No-Knead Bread

In my quest for the perfect loaf of bread – crusty, sour, easy to make, and relatively healthy – this comes pretty close. The only thing you need out-of-the-ordinary is a Dutch oven with an oven-proof lid. I got the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. 

You’ll want to start this the night before, but it’s so easy that doesn’t matter. 

Almost No-Knead Bread

3 cups flour (I used 1 ½ cups white flour and 1 ½ cups whole wheat - the whole wheat makes the loaf a bit more dense, but I love the flavor)

1 ¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. yeast

¾ cup plus 2 tbs. water, room temperature

1/3 cup mild-flavored lager, room temperature (see note below)

1 tbs. white vinegar 

Note: I don’t drink beer nor do I cook with it even if the alcohol cooks off. Actually, all the alcohol doesn’t cook off, so I just used my sourdough start. I added about 1 cup of sourdough start and adjusted the water to a bit less.

Whisk flour, salt and yeast together in a large bowl. Add water, beer (or sourdough start), and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from the bottom of bowl, until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Lay 18x12” sheet of parchment paper inside a 10” skillet and spray with cooking spray. Transfer dough to a lightly floured counter and knead by hand 10 to 15 times. (I just kneaded it in the bowl.)Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer loaf, seam side down, to prepared skillet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size – about 2 hours. Dough should barely spring back when poked with knuckle.)

Fifteen minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place Dutch oven (with lid) on rack and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using a sharp knife or single edge razor blade, make one 6” long, 1/2” deep slash along top of dough.

 

 

Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up loaf by lifting parchment corners and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge).

 

 

Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown – about another 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven.

Carefully remove loaf from pot; transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, before slicing.

Isn't this beautiful?

Ok – this 2 hour rule… Seriously? I could not wait that long! So I cut a nice thick slice, slathered it with butter while the bread was still warm and was in baker’s heaven for a time.

 

 

If you don’t eat the whole loaf that day, you can recrisp the crust – place the bread in a 450 degree oven for 6 to 8 minutes. You can also play with adding flax seed, rosemary, roasted garlic, or anything that strikes your fancy when you are mixing the dough!

So easy, delicious, crusty, and wonderful! Enjoy!