Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread (from the Star Tribune)

I've only tried this bread once and it came out pretty good, except that it stuck to the bottom of my corning ware dish. Jane has had greater success, although she keeps burning her fingers. The recipe calls for a dutch oven or other coverable, oven safe pot. Apparently you don't need to grease the pot, but I will be doing that anyway from now on.

Materials:

- 3 cups flour (up to 1/3 can be whole wheat and it works fine)
- 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (you can also use active dry yeast without proofing it first, but I use closer to 1/2 a teaspoon)
- 1 teaspoon salt (the original called for 1 tablespoon, but Jane found that too salty)
- 1 5/8 cup water

Procedure:

- Stir ingredients until combined, then cover with plastic wrap and let sit 18 to 24 hours.
- Dump the dough out on floured surface and sprinkle it with a little flour.
- Fold the dough over on itself twice, then let it sit covered for 15 minutes.
- Shape the dough into a ball, place it on cornmeal-covered surface, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rise another 2 to 3 hours.
- 30 minutes before you are ready to bake the bread, turn the oven to 450. Put your baking pot in to warm it up.
- After 30 minutes, dump the dough into the pot seam side up. Shake the pot to distribute the dough evenly. It may look like crap . . . that is ok.
- Bake according to the following schedule, which helps make a crispier crust:
...20 minutes covered
...10 minutes with the lid off
...10 minutes on a baking sheet
...5 minutes with the oven on and the door ajar
...5 minutes with the oven off and the door ajar

Good luck. I still say time is the painful part of breadmaking, not kneading, and this recipe sure takes a lot of time. However, it is tasty. I'll look forward to hearing our group's results.

Thanks for the recipe, Jane.

Sam