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Everyday Creative Adventures

Easy No-Knead Bread

I’m just going to say it… I love bread!  Which means I never keep it in my house.  If I ever have beautiful artisan bread in my house, it rarely lasts longer than an entire day – yes, I’m ashamed to say that means I can eat an entire loaf in a day.

My talented friend Diane is an incredible baker.  She’s always bringing in her stunning loaves of bread into work and taunts the entire office with that warm, rich and delightful fresh baked smell.  Myself, I usually don’t have much luck with baking but I thought I’d get some advice from Diane about an easy bread that I may have some success with.  Diane suggested a no-knead bread so I came home and looked up some recipes online until I found this recipe on Frugal Living NW. Overall I thought the recipe was great but personally,  I like something with a bit more flavour so I added asiago cheese, garlic, rosemary and a touch of oregano to the recipe the next time I made it and it was to die for.  Now I make this whenever I have at least a days notice that we’re having company. This also makes a wonderful gift to take when attending dinner parties – always a hit!

Here’s the recipe:

Basic No-Knead Bread
slightly adapted from Jim Lahey’s My Bread

6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast
2 1/2 t. salt
2 2/3 c. cool water

  1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; (THIS WOULD BE WHERE YOU COULD ADD ANY EXTRA FLAVOURS OR INGREDIENTS YOU’D LIKE) the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.
  2. Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.
  3. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises; place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.
  4. After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
  5. Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown. The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.
  6. Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

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