My Weekend Project - No Knead Bread

If you google "Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread", you'll find several blogs on this fabulous-o bread.

I used the recipe from the "steamy kitchen" blog - but had the instructions from the original NY Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html

Ingredients:

3 cups bread flour

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

3/4 tablespoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

I mixed the ingredients together on Saturday @ noon. It took like 5 minutes. I used a glass bowl.. and put plastic wrap over the bowl and left it on the counter overnight.

This is what it looked like Sunday @ Noon. I let it set until about 4pm.

Then, I followed the directions from the NY Times recipe. I floured the counter, and folded it over twice, then wrapped it in plastic (not shown).  After 15 minutes, I wrapped the dough in cornmeal on cotton towels - and let it set for 2 hours.  After the bread set for a hour and a half, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees and placed the empty cast iron pot in the oven for 30 minutes.

I placed the dough in the hot cast iron pot ( this is a 5 gallon Paula Deen cast iron pot).

After 45 minutes (30 minutes with the lid on) and about 15 minutes with the lid off, the bread is done.

I was amazed that it kept "crackling" while it was cooling on the rack. It was amazing.

I wasn't sure how long you were supposed to let it cool, so I almost immediately had to slice into it.

The outside was crunchy and firm, but the inside was warm and moist.

The best homemade bread - taste like the artisan breads I buy at the specialty markets
So easy to make - a 4 year old could do it!