No Knead White Bread

I mentioned in my last post that my parents came to town for a quick visit. Along with cookies I did make them some real food. I promise! We enjoyed Jambalaya and some freshly baked bread for dinner Friday evening.

Everybody really liked the bread. My Mom thought that it tasted a lot like the bread at Panera. It was at that moment I decided I better conduct a taste test. I have to say that it was wonderful. I've never been much of a bread eater, but this bread was really, really good.

You can find the simple bread recipe by clicking HERE or HERE. I have also posted the recipe below with photos.

No Knead French Bread

From Artisian Bread in 5 Minutes a Day via The Ivory Hut

Also posted at Honey and Jam

3 cups of lukewarm water

1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast

1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Grab a very large mixing bowl, or a large container that you can cover. In it, mix the water, yeast, and salt. You don’t have to heat up the water to a precise optimal temperature for the yeast. I’ve even used just regular tap water, and it’s worked well for me. Just let that sit together for a while (you don’t have to wait for the yeast to dissolve completely), then dump the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon. You don’t need to knead this, and you’re not looking to make it come together into a dough ball. You just want everything mixed well, with no streaks of flour left, and you’re done.

Leave it in your container, covered (but not airtight, or it’ll pop), for a few hours. When it has risen and then deflated a bit, your dough is done. It’s ready to be used or stored in the refrigerator.

To bake the bread, just grab a chunk of dough, about the size of a grapefruit. Dust your hands with flour to help prevent sticking, and gently pull the sides of the dough toward the bottom, rotating the dough, until you get a roundish shape with a smooth surface. It should only take you about a minute or less to do this. The dough won’t be entirely in the bottom, where it may look bunched up, but don’t worry about it.

Put it on a cutting board that’s been dusted with cornmeal (I just dusted mine with flour) to prevent sticking, and let it rest for at least 40 minutes. No need to cover it. If the dough has been refrigerated, it helps to let it rest a little more, until it’s no longer chilled.

Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake, put a cast iron skillet (or a pizza stone) (I baked one loaf in a cast iron skilled and for the other two loaves I used a cookie sheet and coated everything with nonstick cooking spray) in the middle rack of your oven, and put a broiler pan (I used a cookie sheet with raised edges) in the bottom rack. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Dust some flour on the top of your loaf, and slash the top ("x", criss-cross, tic-tac-toe grid, stripes, etc), about 1/4-inch deep.

After twenty minutes of preheating, it’s time to bake. (You can put the bread in after 20 minutes, even if your oven hasn’t reached 450 degrees yet.) Slide the loaf onto the baking stone, and then quickly pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler pan. Then quickly shut the oven door to keep the steam inside.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until you get a nice brown crust. Remove and let cool completely, if you can wait that long.

I made 3 good sized loaves out of this recipe.

I will post my Jambalaya recipe soon. Stay tuned!