No Knead Bread

I tried the no-knead bread recipe that made such a stir last week and I'm happy to say that it really works. I made two loaves over the weekend and the only tricky part for me was getting the oven to 500° F - 515° F (I have an older oven, see notes below).

The quality of the bread is very good. Even using all-purpose flour I got chewy, crusty delicious bread. This is very easy to do and I plan on making several loaves a week part of my routine.

Here are my notes:

1. Yeast, I didn't have instant yeast as called for in the recipe, so I bloomed my rapid rise yeast before mixing it in.
2. Initial Rise, I let my bread alone for a good 18 hours.
3. Bench Rise, after folding (punching down) I let the dough rise again for 2½ hours.
4. Baking Vessel, I used my 5½ quart Le Creuset enameled cast iron French oven. The size was fine but a smaller one might pose a problem. Also the lid's handle is not rated for use above 450° F so I took it off and stuffed aluminum foil in the hole. I plan to get a screw and wing nut to make this easier in the future. Update: a 5 mm. wingnut fit the screw that came with the Le Creuset oven lid.
5. Oven Temperature, you really want to get the oven to between 500° F and 515° F. An oven thermometer is recommended. With my first loaf the oven was at about 525° F and the bread was slightly burnt, but still edible. If your oven is closer to 515° F than 500° F then I would still bake for 30 minutes with the lid on but start checking the bread after 10 minutes when the lid is off.
6. I made one loaf with AP flour and one with bread flour. I will try rye flour and whole wheat.

Web Links

• The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work, Newsvine seed.
• Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread, at Wednesday Chef blog.