Almost No-Knead Bread
Monday, February 28th, 2011I have been on the lookout for an “easy” bread recipe. When serving your family or guest, having fresh homemade bread is such a nice and personal touch. This recipe is from Cooks Illustrated magazine from a couple years ago. I love flipping through old magazines and finding new treasures, like this little gem of a recipe. You’ll need a dutch oven to cook it in, the listed ingredients and a little bit of time but in the end you’ll have a beautiful and delicious masterpiece that was “easy’!
Almost No-Knead Bread
Ingredients:
- 3 c. unbleached all-purpose flour (15 ounces), plus additional for dusting work surface
- 1/4 t. instant or rapid-rise yeast
- 1 1/2 t. table salt
- 3/4 c. plus 2 tablespoons water (7 oz.), at room temperature
- 1/4 c. plus 2 tablespoons mild-flavored lager (3 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
Directions:
- Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
- Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
- About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.
“No-Knead Bread 2.0.” Cooks Illustrated Jan.-Feb. 2008: 18-20. Print.