No Knead Bread is heavenly and easy!

Nothing smells more welcoming and comforting than a loaf of fresh bread baking in the oven. It’s been cold, foggy and dreary here so I’ve been making bread to keep my spirits up and to accompany all the soups, you’ve seen in previous posts. I’ve been working on art and print making during my winter break so most dinners have a hearty warm soup and slice of this fresh bread. This recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated and is a refinement of the original Mark Bittiman New York Times version. It’s so easy, that it’s foolproof, just make sure you use rapid rise or instant yeast not regular.

Because I keep my thermostat at 64 (and I wear polar fleece and Uggs to keep warm), I usually set the bowl of dough on top of the refrigerator where it’s likely to be warmest. The bread is best eaten the day you bake it but will keep longer. While you’re making the next batch, you can use the last few slices for breakfast pain perdu, French toast. It makes great garlic croutons for salads and soup. It’s also a great money saver, when compared to a $4-5 artisan loaf of bread.

Almost no knead bread

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface

¼ teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast

1 ½ tsp teaspoons table salt

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons water (7 ounces), at room temperature

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)

1 Tablespoon white vinegar

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms.
2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
3. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times.
4. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray.
5. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
6. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees.
7. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough.
8. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven.
9. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer.
10. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. If you need to go to bed, or leave it out longer, put it in a brown paper bag to cools and the crust will be prefect.