No-knead Bread

No-knead Bread

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 No-knead Bread? “What ? Is she going mad?” You are probably wondering. No, I haven’t lost my mind, my friends. In my recent bread-making frenzy, I have come across an ancient, wondrous recipe that will turn each one of you into an Artisanal Baker.

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In Italy this No-knead bread used to go by the name of Pane Cafone, which translates to boorish bread. To date, 8 million food bloggers world wide have baked  it and blogged about it incessantly.

The end product looked like this.

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If you mix your ingredients properly and you let the mixture prove long enough it will turn into a bubbly, light-as-a feather dough.

The result will be a crusty loaf with a moist, soft and airy crumb. Genius, if you ask me.

I have adapted Jim Lahey’s recipe to suit my oven and my personal taste. Honestly, I proudly confess I have not bought a single loaf of bread for over a year now.

No-knead Bread

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Ingredients (if using dry yeast)

  • 450 g (3-3/4 cups) All purpose flour

  • 350 ml (1 -1/4 cups) filtered water, at room temperature

  • 1/2 scant teaspoon dry yeast

  • 2 teaspoons  of salt

If using your own sourdough starter, home-made-sourdough

  • 400 gr (3 1/4 cups) All purpose flour

  • 280 ml (3/4 cups) filtered water at room temperature

  • 200 gr (7 oz)starter

  • 2 teaspoons of salt

Semolina for dusting

  • Using a wooden spoon mix the flour, the water and the yeast together, add salt and mix it again. If done properly the mixture should look and feel quite sticky.

  • Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let it prove for 10 to 14 hours. At this pointtil it will have grown to three times it’s size and should look bubbly.

  • Dust the cooking bench and your hands with flour and shape the sticky mix into a ball.

  • Sprinkle it generously with semolina flour after which wrap it in a kitchen towel and let it rest for an hour and a half.

  • Turn the oven to 220 C (430 F).

  • Put the ball of dough into a cast iron pot or a dutch oven, without the lid and let it heat up  for about 40 minutes.

  • Gently put the risen dough into the pre-heated pot, cover with the lid and bake for 25 minutes. Please, use oven mitts!

  • Remove the dough from the oven.  After taking off the lid, place it back in the oven and bake it for an additional ten to fifteen minutes. The result will be a perfectly browned bread.

  • Now remove it from the oven and let it rest.

ECCO!

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This is No-knead Bread

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