Easy No Knead Bread

Before I had my son I enjoyed making fresh homemade bread. Homemade bread is not only delicious, but also more cost effective than buying artisan bread at the store. Let's face it, the days of having time to knead bread are long gone. Don't worry, making homemade bread is still achievable. I was super excited when I happened upon the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

It is a no knead method that delivers wonderful fresh bread. The concept is to make all the dough at once and refrigerate. When you are ready for fresh bread simply remove a grapefruit-size amount of dough and bake.  Here is the basic recipe for the Boule (Artisan Free-Form Loaf).

Makes four 1 pound loaves. Dough can be stored in a lidded (not airtight container) for up to 14 days.

Ingredients
3 cups lukewarm water (about 100 degrees)
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast (2 packets)
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher/coarse salt
6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, measured with the scoop-and-sweep method
cornmeal for pizza peel

Mixing and Storing the Dough
1. Add the yeast and salt to the warm water in a five quart bowl or, preferably in a resealable (not airtight) plastic food container/food grade bucket.

2. Mix in the flour. Remember no kneading is necessary. Add all the flour at once. Measure flour with dry ingredient measuring cups, by scooping the flour, then sweeping the top level with a knife.Mix with a wooden spoon, high capacity (14 cups or larger) food processor with the dough attachment, or my preferred method in a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.

3. Cover with a lid (not airtight) and allow to rise at room temperature, until it begins to collapse. Approximately two hours. You can use the dough at any point after this step, but it is easier to handle if you refrigerate dough for at least three hours before shaping a loaf.

On Baking Day
4. Prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent your loaf from sticking when you slide it into the oven. I don't have a pizza peel, so I just use a smooth cutting board. Sprinkle the surface of your refrigerated dough with flour. Pull up and with a serrated knife cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough. Add a little more flour as needed so the dough doesn't stick to your hands. Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all side. Continue and rotate the ball 1/4 inch as you go. This "cloaking" of the dough should take 30-60 seconds.

5. Rest the loaf on the prepared pizza peel and let rise for 40 minutes.

6. Twenty minutes into the rise preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone (Pampered Chef sells one for $28) or cookie sheet placed on the middle rack. Place an empty broiler tray for holding water on the bottom rack.

7. Dust the top of the loaf liberally with flour and slash with a serrated knife through the dough making 1/4 inch deep cross, scallop, or tic-tac-toe pattern.

8.Slide the loaf off of the pizza peel on to the preheated baking stone/cookie sheet. Quickly pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door to trap in the steam. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is browned. Cool completely on a metal drying rack.