Recipe: No-Knead Faux-Sourdough Bread

Makes one small, dense, delicious loaf.


I adore this recipe. I could theoretically come home drunk at midnight, mix up a batch of dough, then not have to mess with it till any hangover is gone the next afternoon. Fresh bread with dinner! Yum!

If you wanted bread rolls you would gently shape them at step two.
This recipe is easily adapted to fruit 'n nut bread with cinnamon or any other bready variation you desire. 



3 cups of flour**
1 5/8 cups water
1/3 tsp active instant yeast (keep remainder of pack in freezer)
2 tsp salt


1. Mix it all up in a bowl, should be a wet dough but still hold together.
Let it sit for at least 12 hrs, ideally 16, no more than 18 hrs. The dough should look like a big wet mess with holes in the top from bubbles.


2. When time is up use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to scrape the dough into a ball in the bowl. Shake flour all over the dough and spatula to help loosen it. Shaking the bowl in circles helps too. It should get a lot smaller again and end up as a really soft flour coated ball. No need to knead.
Let sit in bowl for two more hours - should almost double in size again. Dough is ready when it doesn't quickly spring back when you poke it.


3. Preheat oven to to 230*C. Coat loaf pan*** with flour. Carefully loosen dough in bowl using floured spatula then flop gently into pan. Try to not deflate the bubbles too much.
If you want a chewier crust you can brush with soy milk. If you want you could stick sesame seeds on on top or poppy seeds or maybe sprinkle some more salt.
Put the cover on*** (this is important! Don't forget!) and put into the oven. Immediately turn the oven down to 200*C. Bake for somewhere between half an hour and an hour - mine goes for around 40 minutes. Bread is done when top is browned and sounds slightly hollow when knocked.


4. YUM TIME.


**flour - ideally use "bread flour", plain flour is fine too. If using any wholemeal you need a bit more water. I usually only use up to 1.5 cups of wholemeal (or spelt or whatever) and the other 1.5 cups plain bread flour.


***pan - use anything that you can put a lid on. I use a silicon loaf pan so it doesn't stick and a cake tin upside down on top of it so there's a big space inside. The steam makes a lovely crust and stops the top burning.


[I don't have a specific source for this one - other people's versions are all over the internet so have a look at a few. No-Knead bread is all over flickr and youtube and everything.]