No-knead bread

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose or bread flour (I use 1 cup rye & 3 cups bakers flour)

1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

2 teaspoons salt

Semolina (or cornmeal or wheat bran) for dusting

Method

Combine the flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Add 2 cups water and stir until blended. You’ll have a shaggy, sticky dough; add a little more water if it seems dry.

Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and let the dough rest for about 8-18 hours at room temperature. The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.

Once the dough is ready, lightly flour a work surface. Transfer the dough to it and fold it in three like a piece of paper. Once dusted with flour, it will be soft but not too sticky. 

Using just enough additional flour to keep the dough from sticking, gently and quickly shape the dough into a ball. 

Tear off a piece of baking paper that will entirely cover the base and sides of your cooking pot. 

Place dough into the mixing bowl and let it sit for another 2 hours, lightly covered with the original cling film. When it’s ready, the dough will be more than doubled in size and won’t spring back readily when poked with your finger.

At least a half-hour before the dough is ready, heat the oven to 250°C, or your maximum temp. Put a cast-iron pot with the lid in the oven as it heats.

When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Holding the edges of the baking paper, lift the dough out of the bowl and into the pot. Sprinkle with semolina or cornmeal and make three one-centimetre-deep slashes across the top of the bread.

Cover with the lid and bake for 25 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 15 minutes, until the loaf is browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the base.

Remove and cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing. (I NEVER DO THIS).

Original recipe: Mark Bittman No-Knead Bread