Earlier this week, my husband asked me if I had ever heard of "no knead bread". I had not, so I went online and rummaged through recipes for this type of bread. I found the recipes all very similar in ingredients and directions. The method is so simple and straightforward (no kneading required), I decided to give this homemade bread a try. Boy, am I ever glad I did! It was SO EASY to prepare and the bread turned out absolutely perfect! It's light and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. Several friends asked me for the recipe, so I am sharing it on here with you today! Enjoy!
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 2/3 cups lukewarm water
Directions
In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, dry yeast, and water. Stir the ingredients with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.
The dough will look ragged and messy, just like this.
Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let the dough sit, untouched, for 15-20 hours.
After 15 hours, the dough will look like this - sticky and bubbly.
Sprinkle flour on your counter top and empty out the dough (using a wet spatula) onto the floured surface. With floured hands,shape the dough into a ball, and with seam side down,
Place the dough ball in a a large bowl lined with a clean tea towel.
Fold over the tea towel to cover the dough. Let the dough sit for another 2 hours.
After 1 hour and a half, place an empty, covered dutch oven in a cold oven.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Let the pot sit in there for 30 minutes.
Once dough has sat for two hours, uncover it.
Remove pot from the oven. Empty the dough from the tea towel into the preheated pot.
Wiggle the pot to even out the dough. Cover with lid and bake in the 450F oven for 30 minutes.
Now remove the lid and bake for 15 minutes longer. The crust should be a golden brown and crisp. Remove pot from the oven.
Carefully remove the bread from the pot onto a cooling rack.
Cool for several minutes (if you can stand the wait!).
Slice the bread and serve warm...
...slathered with oodles of yummy butter!
And that's it! Isn't it wonderful? So simple to make, and so good!
Have any of you baked this type of bread before? Do you bake bread at home? If you plan to give this recipe a try, please let me know what you think. I always love reading your comments!