Full Gastronomic Tilt

A little over three years ago, Mark Bittman, via Jim Lahey, turned the bread baking world on its ear and gave it an impolite finger (I’ll let you imagine which one). Bittman’s New York Times column, The Minimalist, published “The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work” and included a recipe for No-Knead Bread. This was about the time the food-blogging world started to grow exponentially, so everyone and their mother tried this technique. And whaddaya know, it actually worked.

Now, before you wince and turn away to comfort your bread machine or indignantly defend your kneading abilities…hear me out. No-Knead Bread may not be for everyone, but it certainly works for me.

Why I Like No-Knead Bread:

1. Prior to trying no-knead, I was afraid of yeast. Baking chemistry freaks me out. So precise, with many things that can go wrong. I hate the thought of abject failure, even though it’s an integral part of the learning process.

2. I still fear kneading, perhaps irrationally. This gives me something to work up to.

3. It’s easy, but not without thought. Three ingredients and time, that’s all you need! Mix, stir, rise. Flop, fold, sit. Add cornmeal. Let rise again. Slide into pot, bake. Remove lid. Bake some more ’til brown.

4. You can make it in or on practically anything. I used an 8-quart Lodge cast iron dutch oven and it worked beautifully. I’ve heard you can also flop it on a pizza stone. Just be sure to warm up your surface in the oven as you are pre-heating!

5. It makes neat crackling sounds as it cools. Perhaps all bread does this. I have no idea.

6. It’s my favorite kind of bread. Crunchy, chewy crust, speckled inside with lots of air pockets, made for lots of butter. I find it sooo satisfying.

Check this out:

The Original No-Knead Bread
makes one 1½-pound loaf
shamelessly reprinted in full from the NYT website
(Hey, who knows how long they will continue to have older posts available for free? Death of print, pay-per-view, advent of the iPad, all that?)

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ 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. Cool completely to room temperature before cutting!

So, a few notes:

This dough is sticky! You can kind of tell from looking at the above picture, taken after I dumped the dough onto the counter. It can be a little challenging to work with, but as long as you lightly (I said lightly!) flour your hands, you should be okay. The below picture is immediately before the second rise. As directed, I shaped the dough into a ball, which is a (fruitless but not pointless) battle. Don’t expect a perfect sphere, more like a flattish oblong. This is totally okay. Just move quickly and use a LOT of cornmeal on the towel and all over the top. I’ve made this exact recipe twice. Once a year ago and once yesterday. Both times resulted in a tasty loaf. Crackly outside, nubbly from the cornmeal, springy inside texture. Whether you’re a bread-baking novice like me, or just pressed for time, No-Knead Bread is worth it.

Of course, an easy, inexpensive recipe resulting in homemade bread in no time at all was just the beginning. As the recipe made its way around the blogosphere, no-knead bread started getting fiddled with and adapted. Below is a small sampling of the many, many experiments bravely attempted:

* Steamy Kitchen makes Rose Levy Beranbaum’s adaptation, with success (and zero effort - she had her 4-year old make it!)

* Mark Bittman made No-Knead Bread even faster, two years later. And this is where my foolproof caveat comes in. I tried this recipe after my first no-knead success and it was a total disaster. The dough stayed goopy, impossible to shape and it baked up terribly. Should try it again.

* The Pink Peppercorn makes a cinnamon-raisin version! Yum!

* In 2007, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day was published, to rave reviews, further increasing the popularity of no-knead bread. No-knead challah? Yes, please.

* More recently, The Kitchn hacks No-Knead Bread to make a sandwich loaf!

One additional note: Due to the extended rise (12-18 hours), you do have to think ahead a little. I started this loaf on Friday evening around 7:00 PM. Fresh bread was cooling on the counter by 12:30 Saturday afternoon. Remember that the second rise takes about 2 hours. I’d advise starting it on a weekend evening, Friday or Saturday, but feel free to make it suit your schedule.