The Famous No-Knead Bread
I am about two months behind the curve with post, but somehow I just haven’t gotten around to baking Jim Lahey’s much-vaunted No-Knead Bread that appeared on the front page of the New York Times food section on November 8th, 2006. This amazing bread recipe/technique sent ripples through the foodie world, and you can find a list of links to people who made the bread here and here.
I’ve been home sick for the last couple of days and in a moment of stir craziness yesterday I decided to start this bread. It’s fantastically simple from beginning to end. First off you mix three cups of flour (I did two cups of unbleached white flour and one cup whole wheat) with either 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast or a 1/3 teaspoon of regular dry active yeast and 1 & 1/4 teaspoons of salt. Mix these three dry ingredients together well and pour in 1 & 5/8 cups of water (I don’t have a measuring cup that measures in eights, so I guessed a little). Stir just enough to combine, cover with plastic and let sit for 12 to 18 hours (I let it go for nearly 20 and it was just fine).
It’s ready when the surface is dotted with bubbles. Turn it out onto a well-floured counter-top or cutting board and fold it over onto itself a couple of times. Then cover with plastic and let it sit for 15 minutes. Once its rested a bit, flour the dough and your hands and quickly shape it into a ball. The recipe says to place it, seam side down, on a dish towel dusted with either flour, wheat germ or cornmeal. I used wheat germ, but it was kind of messy and burned a little while baking, so I’m going to stick with flour next time. I also didn’t sit it on a towel, because I’d read things about how the dough stuck badly. So I dusted a sheet of parchment paper and sat it down on that. I dusted the top with flour and did drape a towel over the top. Let it rise for two hours.
An hour and a half into the rising time, set your oven to 450 degrees with with the pot you’re going to bake it in inside. The secret to this bread is that for the first half hour, you bake it in a pre-heated lidded pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic), to keep the baking environment moist. For the last fifteen to thirty minutes, you take the lid off so the top browns. When the rising time is up, turn it into the pot and bake.
The whole way through, I thought I had done something wrong. I didn’t get many bubbles on the top, and it didn’t rise much during the last two hours. But I figured I should just keep going to see how it turned out and I’m so glad I did. When I pulled my faux-Le Creuset pan out of my oven around 4 pm today, I was greeted with a perfect boule of bread. I let it cool for about 20 minutes before carving into it. For someone who has almost never baked bread and has a bit of a yeast phobia, this bread has done much to bolster my confidence. As it is, I have a full whole wheat batch fermenting on my kitchen counter right now, as I’m curious to see how it will do with just a whole grain.
It’s especially good with a smear of my mom’s seedless wild blackberry jam. If you want to see the bread in action, we also made a loaf on an episode of Fork You.
January 7th, 2007 10:57
I’ve made that bread about 4 times now and it is a fabulous thing. It has made me very happy.
January 8th, 2007 08:48
I really have to try this bread. Everyone I know raves about it.
January 8th, 2007 13:08
It’s really amazing because it requires so little effort. I did a loaf with just whole wheat flour and it still worked beautifully. It was a little dense, but that’s the trade off.
January 19th, 2007 12:40
[...] Join Marisa and Scott as they make the famous NY Times No Knead bread. It is simple, quick, and delicious. Watch Now: Podcast Video [00:16:38m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download document.getElementById(’podPressPlayerSpace_12_label_videoPlayer_12_0′).innerHTML=’Hide Player’; document.getElementById(’podPressPlayerSpace_12′).title = ‘videoPlayer_12_0′; « Episode 4: Booze for the holidays | [...]
September 13th, 2007 10:27
Looks lovely, I’d love to try it! Great pix.
BTW, it’s “much-vaunted,” not “much-vaulted.”
September 13th, 2007 15:47
[...] most of the foodie world, I was totally entranced by the No-Knead Bread recipe that got posted in the New York Times Dining and Wine section last [...]
October 12th, 2007 09:12
[...] no-knead bread photos, check out the nokneadbread tag on Flickr. Recipe: No-Knead Bread [NYT]The Famous No-Knead Bread [Apartment [...]
October 12th, 2007 10:36
Congratulations girl! You made it to Lifehacker!!
October 12th, 2007 14:14
Hi,
One slight fix you might make: it should be much-vaunted (vaunted:praised boastfully or excessively) not much-vaulted (vaulted:having a hemispherical vault or dome).
October 12th, 2007 17:53
I’ve made this recipe dozens of times and let me tell you it is idiot proof. In fact, I have stopped doing the 2 hour rising time completely and the results are STILL wonderful. The cooking vessel I use is Target’s ChefMate cast iron 5 quart kettle ($26 approx). I follow the recipe as far as ingredients, mixing, covering with plastic, letting sit 16 hours or so, then I dump it out onto a dusted cutting board while the oven and kettle are heating up for 30 mins, fold it over a few times, dust with flour, cover with plastiv wrap again then when oven is ready just dump it into the pan, cook for 30 mins, take the lid off, 15 mins more and it is perfect every time. Enjoy!
October 13th, 2007 00:43
[...] in foodie blog circles. In that post I referenced my own post about that bread that I had written last January. For some crazy reason, both Lifehacker and MSNBC’s Clicked blog linked to my old No-Knead [...]
October 16th, 2007 10:22
[...] Apartment 2024 » Blog Archive » The Famous No-Knead Bread (tags: baking blog bread Cooking easy Food reviews recipe Recipes) [...]
December 6th, 2007 12:36
[...] in Daily life, Food, Recipes/Cooking at 9:36 am by LeisureGuy Shouldn’t you try this one of these winter [...]
December 7th, 2007 08:04
ooooooohhh….Mom’s Sseedless Blackberry Jam….can I bribe Mom for the recipe?!?
January 31st, 2008 08:59
That looks so delicious! What did you use on the outside to get that texture?
I took on this recipe here: http://red-icculus.com/?p=21