Yum Bread

So I finally tried it - the magical NY Times no-knead bread, and the verdict is...

It is pretty good.

There are a few things I would do differently next time, like remembering to heat the pan before I put the bread in, and making sure the bread was more covered with coating, and use something like flour or wheat germ instead of cornmeal. I would also use about twice as much salt, except now I just realized that I didn't even use half the amount of salt called for. Oops.

Here is the recipe: (I just copied it from the blog I got it from)

1 1/2 cups warm water
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 cups flour
The dough will be very, very sticky and almost runny. Cover the bowl with a plastic lid or saran wrap and let rise for 15-18 hours. Or more. It won't hurt it at all. I usually make mine some time in the afternoon or evening.

The next day, once the dough is full of bubbles on the top (it will look like bubbly pancake batter when it is being cooked), stir it a few times to deflate the bubbles. Sprinkle a generous amount of cornmeal, rolled oats, wheat germ, etc on the towel. Put the towel in a shallow, wide bowl (this helps the ball of dough go up and not just out when it rises). Put the dough on top of the towel, sprinkle with a little more cornmeal to keep it from sticking, and cover with another towel.

Then neglect it for a while: 2-4 hours. I like letting it rise a long time, more than the recommended 2 hours, for extra pouffy-ness.

Put a large cast iron or ceramic dish (one with sides at least 4" tall and that has an oven-proof lid) in the oven at 450. I use a square ceramic dish about 9x9" and 5" tall. Once the dish is nice and hot (give it 20 minutes in the oven), take it out and carefully dump the dough into the dish. Be as gentle as possible so you don't deflate it.

Bake with the cover on for 35 minutes. Take the cover off and bake another 10 minutes.


For mine, I made it whole wheat, so I used 3 cups whole white wheat flour, and it needed additional liquid, so I used 2 1/4 c. water. I know I should have taken a picture, but I was too tempted to just start digging into it right away.

It is times like this that I wish I had some homemade havarti or brie in the fridge to put on my bread. Oh well, storebought will do for now. When I come back from Texas, I am getting a cheesepress and I will start making cheese. Because cheese and bread...ah...that is the food of kings.