No Knead Bread

When I bought my Le Creuset pot the sales lady mentioned making “No Knead Bread” in the pot. My interest was piqued so I did a Google search for “no knead bread recipes” and I clicked on the first link as it read “No Knead Bread: so easy a 4-yr old can make it!”

The article chronicled how her 4-year-old son makes the bread. It looked so easy. I knew I couldn’t mess it up.

I didn’t grab my camera at the beginning, but you know how to measure flour, yeast, salt and water.

Pour the following ingredients into a large bowl

  • 3 cups bread flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Organic Unbleached White Flour, I know “white four” isn’t good for you. But Hubby likes white bread. Maybe next time Whole Wheat.)
  • 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
  • 3/4 tablespoon kosher* salt
  • 1 1/2 cups warm water (mine was 80 degrees Fahrenheit)

Do you know the differences between the different kinds of salt? Admittedly, I didn’t until I read this.
*1 teaspoon table salt has more salt than 1 tablespoon of kosher salt

Mix these ingredients with a wooden spoon. You’ll get a big lump of dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for 12-20 hours.

We had some stuff come up and I wasn’t able to get back to it for 36 hours.

After sitting for hours, the dough will be bubbly.
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You’re supposed to put flour on the counter/mat and fold the ends in and then let it rest for another 2 hours… and other stuff, but I deviated from the recipe because I just didn’t want to wait and I thought… it rested for an extra 16 hours… what’s the harm… so I went for it…

I put my pot with lid in the oven and preheated both to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Again, I deviated… Recipe said to let oven and pot preheat for 30 minutes or longer… I didn’t wait. When oven beeped it was hot, I scrapped it into my Pam sprayed pot… (note: scrapping deflated it – I knew this would happen but didn’t care at this point).
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I then put the lid on the pot and baked covered for 30 minutes. Then I removed pot from oven and took lid off and snapped this quick photo. It was flatter than it was supposed to be … but I deviated so I didn’t care.

The smell was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! (I teased my friend Rafael about how good it smelled… he wanted me to “FedEx” it him. I said, “No.”)

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Then put it back into oven for 15 minutes uncovered. I checked the internal temp and it was 205 in the middle. The recipe said it should be 210, so I put it back in for another 5 minutes. At this point it was 210 and here’s what it looked like. (FYI.. that’s not a hair on it… it was on the camera lens.)
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I then moved it to a cooling rack​.​
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Didn’t wait very long (not sure how long…) I couldn’t wait… smell was really getting to me… So I cut into it…

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Then enjoyed it…
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From what I could tell… all my deviations didn’t matter. It was GREAT!It tasted as good as it smelled… Hubby and The Offspring loved it. YIPPEEE!

Next time, I will follow the directions and see how different it is. I will post the results. Then at a later date I will make it with whole wheat flour and report back.

The Offspring has requested I put whole garlic cloves in it… sounds like a plan! Rafael suggested rosemary… yet more good ideas..

Have you ever made “No Knead Bread”? If so, please share your results.

SteamyKitchen’s original recipe can be found here.