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My No Knead Bread - A Work in Progress

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Ingredients
  

  • 4 cups flour bread flour is best, all-purpose can work nearly as well
  • 1/2 tsp active dry yeast or instant yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 cups water room temp/warm

Instructions
 

  • Add all the dry ingredients to a big bowl. Use a wire whisk or your hand to get the ingredients evenly distributed. (I use my Pyrex casserole dish).
  • Add room temperature water/liquid. Stir everything together with your hands or spatula/rubber scraper.
  • Cover this with plastic wrap or some other tight cover and let it sit in a room temperature spot for about 4-18 hours.
  • Use the handle of a wooden spoon or similar utensil to push down the dough, then stir it into a ball in the bowl. If the dough is still very wet, you may need to sprinkle a bit of flour on the dough to help it form. Alternatively: Scrape the dough out of the bowl and onto a well floured surface. Flatten the dough out with your hands into a rough a square and then fold it over itself a few times, than tuck the ends under forming a loose ball.
  • Clean the bowl/dish just used, line with parchment paper and lay this ball, seam side down, into the bowl. Top with seeds, etc if desired at this point.
  • Loosely cover this with a dry, clean, lint-free towel. Let it rise for about 2 hours.
  • After about 90 minutes, put the Dutch Oven, without lid, in oven and turn on to 450. Let heat for 30 minutes.
  • Lift parchment paper, if using, from bowl and set in Dutch Oven. If not using parchment paper, turn dough from bowl into Dutch Oven. Slice/cut the top as desired.
  • Cover with lid and bake for 30 minutes, remove lid and bake for 15 more minutes.
  • Remove from oven, remove from Dutch Oven and let sit for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Notes

  • You can add 3/4-1 cup of whatever add-ins you would like to mix in. Keep the volume on the lower end if your add-ins are particularly wet or greasy (pat everything as dry as possible), keeping all bits 1/4-inch or smaller.
    • Try things such as seeds, nuts, chopped garlic, chopped pepperoni or salami, peppers, cheese, chopped olives, dried fruits, etc. Add items to dry ingredients and stir to coat before adding liquid.
  • If you are not using bread flour, try adding 1 tbsp of vital wheat gluten per cup of flour, or in particular if you are using a whole wheat flour and/or dense add-ins. It will help with the rise and crust of those breads.
  • Try substituting 12 oz of beer for the same amount of the water, or add up to 2/3 cup of powdered milk (or use milk instead of water) to the dry ingredients.
  • If you are not using a Dutch Oven or other covered container, put a metal pan with at least 2 inch walls (an 8x8 baking pan works well) on the bottom rack of the oven while heating your baking pan. Just before putting the dough in the oven pour approximately 3 cups of water in the metal pan. This will provide steam, similar to when baking in a covered container.
    • A cast-iron skillet, pie pans, ceramic dishes or even standard loaf pans work well using this method.