I know you have probably heard of Mark Bittman’s No-Knead Bread recipe. It makes a great loaf, and for many people, the recipe revolutionized their beliefs about the quality of bread they could produce at home. With one loaf, they understood that they too, the home baker, could make beautifully crusted bread with an open crumb, at home, in their own oven. I love it.
This process is an adaptation of his loaf.
There is nothing wrong with his loaf, and it should be made as he makes it. However, I ran into a problem. The bread eating monster in the house doesn’t enjoy that beautiful thick crust you get using the dutch oven process. He fancies a thinner more delicate crust. Hence, this adaption.
Ingredients
4 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more as needed
Scant 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups of water (around 70 degrees)
Cornmeal for dusting
Directions
Step 1.
In a large bowl add your flour. Then, dump your yeast on one side of the bowl and your salt on the other. Use a whisk, mix the salt with the flour, and the yeast with the flour on each of their own sides of the bowl. Once the individual ingredients are well coated with flour, thoroughly whisk everything together.
Step 2.
Pour the water into the bowl and mix together. I use my hands. The dough should be quite shaggy. Don’t overmix, just make sure the ingredients are completely incorporated.
Step 3.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 18 hours.
Step 4.
Lightly flour a work surface, and encourage your dough out of the bowl. It will be quite a loose kinda sticky lump. With a well-floured hand, gently pull at the left and right sides of the dough lifting and folding it on top of itself. This will transform your roundish lump into sorta a log shape. Try to make it roughly into the shape of your bread pan. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and leave to sit for 15 minutes.
Step 5.
Generously dust your bread pan with cornmeal and gently transfer your dough into the pan.
Step 6.
Make a tent around your bread pan with plastic wrap (or put it inside an extra-large plastic bag) and leave to rest for two hours.
Step 7.
When your bread has 20 more minutes of resting left, go ahead and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Step 8.
When the bread has finished resting for the two hour period, put it in the oven. Bake for around 25-35 minutes, until the internal temperature of the bread is above 200 degrees.
Step 9.
Pull the bread out of the oven. Leave it in the pan for a minute or two and then take the bread out, transferring it to a wire rack. Let the bread cool for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy.
I really hope you enjoy this adaptation. It is pretty incredible how with the same ingredients, you can produce such a different result. I also encourage you to try it Mark Bittman’s way. He has his recipe up on his website. Go check it out.
Mark Bittman’s No-Knead Bread