Bread--where it all began

I'm no good at finding deals at the grocery store. I decide what I want to eat, make my list, and buy everything on it. I don't check to see what's on sale. And although I do look for the best price on a particular item, I don't track the prices between stores or remember how much it cost last week. But even I have noticed the incredible jump in the price of bread. When my sexy husband and I got married just 3 1/2 years ago, I could buy baguettes at Mejiers or Kroger for 99 cents. Shortly thereafter, the price went up, but I could still find them on sale for 99 cents routinely. I'm not sure when it happened, but those same baguettes are $2.50 or more now...and they aren't even THAT good.

So...I've decided to do a short (or maybe long...we'll see where this takes us) series on homemade bread. And I'm starting where it all began for me...No knead bread. Truthfully, I'm not really sure it can get better from here.

Let's face it. Bread is scary, but this bread is completely fool-proof. It doesn't even require special equipment. All you'll need is some flour, rapid rise yeast, salt, water, a bowl, and an oven-proof pot with a lid that can withstand temperatures of 450 degrees (and an oven, if you want to get technical). The pot doesn't have to be anything in particular. I've used my Corningware stoneware (similar to their current creations line) 3 quart covered casserole dish, and I've used my enamelled cast iron dutch oven (6 quart, I think).

The basic idea of this bread is that you are using very little yeast, a lot of time, and a lot of water to create a wonderful, crusty, soft, moist loaf.

I start my bread the night before I'm going to want to eat it. You may want to start it two nights before (that's the only draw back of the bread). In a large bowl, mix 3 c all-purpose flour, 1/4 tsp instant yeast, and 1 1/4 tsp salt. Then add 1 5/8 c water and mix thoroughly. Your dough will be very wet. It will not form the nice ball that you would expect if you have made bread before. Mine looked like this:


And then you wait. The recipe says to wait 12-18 hours. I just mix the bread up before I got to bed, and it's more than ready when I get home from work the next day. It should be covered with small bubbles like this:


Then 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. Don't worry, mine wasn't pretty either. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. After it has "rested" the recipe says to use just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers and gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Mine did not shape into a ball...just a different blob. I'm not sure the towel is necessary, but the recipe then says to generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side (what seam?) down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. According to the recipe, when it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. I didn't check.

30 min before you're going to want to bake this shaggy loaf, heat oven to 450 degrees with your pot already in it. (The recipe recommends a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot...cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic.) "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.

And this is what you get: a crusty (they call it a "shattering crust") bread with a fantastic "crumb" that you can use for almost anything.

If I made it seem hard, check out the original recipe from the NY Times. I think they even have a video. Trust me, anyone can do this....and it's going to be the best loaf of bread you've ever had.