Miracle No Knead Bread

THIS bread recipe will restore your faith in your own bread baking skills! With its Ciabatta (ish) chewy texture to me its the ultimate bread.  I cannot urge you enough to give this bread a go, it takes 5 minutes to throw all the ingredients together, stir, wait overnight, dough in a pot and Viola you have the perfect loaf!

CULT RECIPE: inspired by Jim Lahey No-Knead Bread recipe for the New York Times and made a million times over

Endless, slather with lots of butter (him) or dip into a very good olive oil (me)

Best friends with any Soup

a heavy 20cm pot (see notes) *

• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt AND a pinch
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 1/2 cups water

(yup that is it)

DOUGH PREP

1. measure all the ingredients into a large glass bowl
2. add the water and stir with a spoon (I use the handle of a wooden spoon) until a thick dough forms
3. if you need to add a few more tablespoons of water, do so but just enough to coat all the dry ingredients
4. its going to look nothing like bread dough, don’t panic, stick to the plan
5. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 12-18 hours at room temperature.
6. Overnight is ideal

PREP FOR BAKING

1. pre-heat your oven to its hottest setting, 250c(ish) and place the cast iron pot (with the lid on) in the oven,  for  at least 30 minutes prior to baking to get the pot REALLY hot!
2. the dough should have risen a fair bit and should look puffy and bubbly
3. cut a square with greaseproof paper big enough to sit into the pot quite snugly and flour with a few tablespoons of flour
4. wet your hands a bit and scrape the dough out into the floured greaseproof paper
5. clear the kitchen of little ones and only now, take the pot out of the oven (its hot!)

BAKE

1. gently lift the dough into the pot
2. wearing gloves, close the lid and bake for 22 minutes
3. after 22minutes remove the lid and put back into the oven, placing the HOT LID somewhere out of reach and out of touch
4. bake for another 5 minutes, the bread should be golden & crispy and hollow when knocked
5. place on a wire rack to cool down

a Le Creuset Pot would be ideal here, I am by no means advocating buying a Le Creuset pot, but if you are thinking about investing in a good heavy pot, this is a good choice. In fact it would make the perfect gift if you can hint in your family or friends direction. If you are lucky enough to be in the position to get one, note that the lighter the colour the more discolouration your pot will endure at these high heats. I bought a cream one (because I have a thing for cream) and its now a shade of not so cream : )

I like to score my bread (as in the bread) and I do this by cutting a ‘cross’ with a good and sharp kitchen knife.

Happy Baking

Here is one of the most popular recipes The Times has EVER published, courtesy of Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery, and has since deserve its cult status! I have to confess though, the first I heard of this bread is through the Pinch of Yum website via a video they posted, have a look, how yummy does this not look?