No-Knead Bread – A smaller batch

This recipe has been kicking around for quite some time, and it’s pretty much the same recipe no matter who offers it. Created by Jim Lahey for the Sullivan Street Bakery, and then tweaked by Mark Bittman of the NYTimes. I’ve wanted to try it for ages, but it, and I, had to wait until I purchased a large enough cast-iron enameled Dutch oven. Most recipes say that a Pyrex casserole dish would do, but having exploded one of those in my oven already, I didn’t want to take the chance.

My Dutch oven is only a 3-quart version, so I had to make some modifications to the volume of ingredients, from the original.

2 1/2 cups AP flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups warm water
3-4 quart covered pot

Combine all ingredients in a big bowl until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, rough mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on the countertop.

The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula or hand, dump the dough on a floured surface. Knead quickly and tenderly only 4 or 5 times, smoothing the texture and nudging it into a ball.

Place a sheet of parchment paper on counter. Plop the dough onto parchment paper. Lift parchment paper up with dough and place into a large bowl. Cover bowl with a towel. Let it rest for 2 more hours. At the hour and a half mark, place the Dutch oven into the oven and preheat to 450°F.

Remove pot from oven. Grab the ends of the parchment paper and lift it and the entire wobbly dough blob out of bowl and into the Dutch oven.

Bake 30 minutes, covered. Then uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden and sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from pot and let cool on wired rack.

Note: With one test loaf I didn’t want to wait the 12-20 hours for the first rise to complete, so I doubled the quantity of yeast and waited only 7, and it was perfect.

Rye Raisin
1 3/4 cups AP flour
3/4 cup Rye flour
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 teaspoon yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup raisins

Follow the instructions above