I didn’t believe my friend when she told me she had a fabulous recipe for no-knead bread that only required four ingredients. But she made it for me (pictured above) and it was DELISH! Here is the recipe, modified from the NY Times.
Ingredients:
3 c flour
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 5/8 c water
Directions:
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add water and stir until blended. Dough will be “shaggy and sticky.” Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit 16 hours in a warm corner of your kitchen. (We put it on the fridge.)
At 16 hours, dust a cutting board with flour and place dough on it. Sprinkle the dough with flour and fold the dough into itself once or twice. Let sit 15 minutes under a cloth.
Cover your hands with just enough flour so the dough doesn’t stick to you. Shape the dough into a ball, cover with more flour, and place seam side down. Then place a cloth on top and let it rise 2 hours. Dough should double in size but will not spring back when you poke it. Thirty minutes before the bread is done rising, heat over to 450 degrees.
Put dough into a heavy 6-8 quart covered pot, seam side up, place the lid on top and bake 30 minutes. Take the top off and bake another 15-30 minutes, or until the bread is nicely browned. Serve warm with butter.
Note, the bread does not last a more than a few days because it has no preservatives. I wish there was a recipe as simple as this for wheat bread. Do you have one?
January 11th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Maybe you can subsitute wheat flour for white flour. Has anyone tried this?
January 11th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
This is a recipe that is usually made in a Dutch oven. Walmart.com sells a really good one for a great price. It’s the 6.5 qt. Tramontina Dutch oven and it was highly rated on Cook’s Illustrated:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=13230075&findingMethod=rr
There’s free shipping to the store too. The only problem with this model is that you’ll have to unscrew the knob because it’s not ovensafe at high temperatures. I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I love my Dutch oven for stews and soups.
January 11th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Just a quick question: why do you turn the oven on at 15 1/2 hours if you still have to let it rise another 2 hours? Thanks for clarifying the recipe… sounds “delish”, just like you said.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Good point! I’ll correct the recipe. Thanks for noticing Jenni.
January 11th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Wheat bread is made using white flour by 1 less cup of it and add a cup of wheat flour instead. all else should be the same. Keading it will give it more volume and air inside and it won’t be so flat looking. If you roll it like a jelly roll and turn the ends under and bake seam side down it will help also. Use a regular bread loaf pan to get a loaf shape for easier slicing
January 11th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
I first ran across the ‘no knead’ technique in 1972 in a booklet put out by Fleishmann’s (the yeast people). I still have and use the book (it offered a variety of recipies using various techniques.
There’s a bread website with more info on the ‘no knead’ technique at
http://www.breadtopia.com/basic-no-knead-method/
Fleishmann’s offers a recipe booklet free ($1.00 for shipping at handling) at
http://breadbreakthrough.com/Default.aspx
You have to use the pulldown menu to show where you heard about the offer to be taken to the window where you get the ordering info on the special booklet.
If you have problems accessing the page you can just mail the $1 to:
Fleischmann’s Bread Breakthrough
Offer 29737
PO Box 5207
Clinton, IA 52736-5207
Some tips:
If you’re going to bake much bread go to a warehouse store or Smart & Final and get flour for bread making, it has the necessary gluten for proper rising. All purpose flour will work but not as well.
You can buy yeast in the individual packets (1 oz), a small jar (keep in fridge) or (again, warehouse or S&F) large package which will save a lot of money and last a long time in a well sealed container in the fridge. One Tsp=1 oz.
I really appreciate Fleishmann’s for their work in making such recipes available–but I personally prefer Fermipan yeast….
If you use a little honey in the recipe it will stay fresh longer…honey is a natural humectant (draws moisture to itself).
Happy baking!
January 11th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
the reason you turn on the oven 30 minutes before it’s done rising because it takes a long time to heat up oven to a roaring 450. Also, what’s missing from that recipe is that pot should be in the oven when it’s heating up. You want the pot really hot when you put the dough in. I don’t know why, but it works.
February 19th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
Thanks for the sharing! Your blogpost truly helped me.