bread

We have been making our bread every week for the past few months. We grew tired of reading the ingredients of the store bought bread that all inevitably said they had sugar in them. Bread is not made with sugar: flour, yeast, and water. That is it. Crazy. Three ingredients. We are using the New York Times' "No Knead Bread" recipe. We love it.

The only thing you need is a dutch oven. Last year Grammy helped us find one at the Crate and Barrel outlet. It was cheap: 30 bucks. The dutch ovens can be expensive, or you can get one at goodwill. The most important aspect of the oven is that it has to withstand very high temperatures: 450 degrees. Ours from Crate and Barrel has plastic handels that are clearly out gassing when we get the pot above 325. So last night we went to the Le Creuset Outlet and bought a new dutch oven (shown in the photo). Since we are making the bread all of the time we realized we needed it and therefore the purchase was justified.

Recipe: No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (We only use wheat flour.)
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.