No-Knead Bread

Here's probably the simples thng you will ever make in your kitchen apart from throwing a frozen supermarket meal into the microwave. No-knead bread. I know, many people have made it before and there's nothing new in this recipe. It's the same old recipe from NY-Times. Except I have now made it so many times that I will just try once more to convince you to make it yourself. It's so easy that anyone can make it. No tricks apart from the chemistry of nature. But hey, don't worry about that, just make this simplest of breads. The idea is that instead of adding a lot of yeast and kneading the hell out of the dough to create long, strong glutens, adding just a tiny bit and then leaving it to a slow overnight rise will have pretty much the same, if not better result.

Ingredients:
1 l. of flour. You can mix in some whole grain if you like.
1 1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp of yeast in any shape or form (I use dry yeast).
1/2 l. of luke warm water

Mix the flour with the yeast and salt.

Pour in the water. Make sure it's not too hot or it will kill the yeast.

Scrape it all together. It'll look like too wet at first, then it will get very dry. And then, voila! it'll be quite sticky and might seem a bit strange. But that's it. No-kneading! Normally the kneading is necesary to develope the gluten (stringy, elastic molecules that make the flour bind and is necesary for the formation of airbubbles when the bread rises). Here, time will develop the gluten for you.

Cover it with tinfoil. Leave it 16-18 hours! That's right. A long slow rise hence the small amount of yeast. Leave it at room temperature, not too hot though or it will rise too fast. If it's colder, leave to rise longer.

After 18 hours it's bubblely and slightly fermented. But just look at how stringy and glutonous it has become. Fold it with the spatula once or twice to deflate it a bit. This helps redistributing the airbubbles.

Here's a little trick I learnt from Chef John on foodwishes.com. Spray a bit of water on a kitchen table. Place a piece of cling film on top. The water stops the cling film from moving. Sprinkle plenty of flour on top and pour out you sticky dough. The flour will prevent the dough from clinging on to the cling film. Put some flour on your fingers and shape it as you like. I'm making a ciabatta. At other times I've used a heavy pot and cooked a round loaf in that.

Sprinkle more flour or corn flour on a baking tray. By lifting up the bread by the corners of the cling film, flip the bread over on the tray. Cover with a dry kitchen towel and leave to rise a further 2 hours and it'll look like this. It'll still be quite flat but fret not. Bake in 230º oven for 35-45 minutes.

Leave to cool off on a oven rack. Don't cut into it before it has cooled for at least 15 minutes. I know it's hard to wait, but trust me. Patience is the best ingredients.

Crunchy crust, perfect crumb. Go make a portion right now. You'll see how easy it is.