I guess by now each and every one of you has a pretty good understanding that our house we like to hit the carbs pretty hard. My favorite thing to bake is bread! There is something so satisfying about the simple treat of warm home made bread and real butter. I could eat that for every meal the rest of my life and be as happy as a clam (are clams really that happy?). I have been trying for years to master a simple no knead bread recipe. I consider myself to be a pretty accomplished baker but have had no luck with the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook. I have, however, become quite a fan of all King Arthur recipes and each one I have tried has been fantastic.
The key to any recipe is how you measure your flour. To get a correct measure you must use a scoop to dump the flour into the measuring cup, otherwise you are getting a measurement of flour that is packed down tighter, thus making the measurement incorrect. Anyway, I digress. This recipe makes a fantastic crusty loaf, the most beautiful loaf I have ever made. In retrospect, the 5 Minutes a Day recipe probably isn’t any different but making the recipe with King Arthur flour makes it much better because of their high standard of quality.
Ingredients
3 cups lukewarm water
7 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (or 32 ounces)
1 tablespoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Combine all ingredients in a food safe container, mixture will be shaggy, sticky and still quite wet. I use a large container from a restaurant supply store but a Rubbermaid will work just fine. To let mixture rise allow it to sit on the kitchen counter at room temperature without the top on tight for two hours.
You will be surprised how much the dough will rise so be prepared with a large container. After the two hour rise you can refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours, or for up to about 7 days. The longer you keep it in the fridge, the tangier it'll get; if you chill it for 7 days, it will taste like sourdough. Over the course of the first day or so, it'll rise, then fall, that's what it's supposed to do. If you like this recipe and plan to make it again you can use the same container without washing it out. It sounds funny but the bread tastes great!
When you're ready to make bread, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour; this will make it easier to grab a hunk. Grease your hands, and pull off about the size of a softball, or a large grapefruit.
Plop the sticky dough onto a floured work surface, and round it into a ball, allow to rest for 60-90 minutes. When it is time to bake slice top in an ‘x’ or tic tac toe pattern. About 10 minutes before baking place dutch oven in the oven. Once heated through place slashed bread in dutch oven and then in the real oven (gosh that gets confusing). Bake with lid on for 15 minutes then remove the lid and bake for 15 minutes with it off. Bread will be done when you tap on the bottom and it sounds hollow and it is deep golden brown. Recipe yields 4 small loaves.
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