RhinebeckFarm.com

This is Jim Lahey’s recipe for no-knead bread made famous by Mark Bittman of The New York Times, with some very modest adaptations.  It is very hard — though not impossible — to screw it up.  Its only real deficiency as a recipe is that you have to decide you want bread a day in advance.

No-Knead Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur)
1/4 tsp instant (fast-acting) yeast
1 scant T salt
1.5 cups water

1.  In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.  Add water and stir until blended.  Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm spot for c. 18 hours.  (If I am baking a loaf for dinner Saturday, I usually start at 10:00 p.m. Friday.)

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.  (You can actually knead a little here — it won’t hurt.)  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; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour.   Cover with another cotton towel (or fold the first one over, leaving room for expansion) 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, put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (Le Crueset is good for this) in the oven and heat to 450 degrees.  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.  Using a sharp knife, cut a cross or other shape in the top of the dough.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is browned.  Cool on a rack.