No-Knead Bread

This bread is a miracle. You get an outstanding loaf for nothing more than the price of some flour, salt, and yeast. And as the recipe says, you don't have to knead the dough. The only catch is that you have to plan in advance to accommodate the 18-hour rise time. Well worth it.



Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
1/3 teaspoon active dry yeast, or 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Instructions
Mix the flour, sea salt, and yeast in a large bowl. Add 1 and 5/8 cups room temperature spring water. Mix with a spatula until a shaggy ball forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 8-18 hours. You know it is ready when bubbles form on the surface.

Dust your countertop and hands with flour. Move the dough to the counter and fold over on itself a couple of times. Place the dough, folded side down, on a cotton towel dusted with plenty of flour. Then place another floured towel over the other side. Make sure the towels aren't terry cloth, and that you use a lot of flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Let rise another 2 hours.

Half an hour before the two hours has passed, heat your oven to 450 degrees fahrenheit with a 3-8 quart heavy covered pot inside. We used a cast-iron dutch oven coated with porcelain, but an enamel, pyrex, or ceramic pot should work too. When heated, remove the pot from the oven and gently place the loaf in the pot, folded side down. Cover and bake 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake 15-30 minutes more, until a nicely browned crust forms (15 minutes was enough for us).

This is the dutch oven we used (anything from 3 to 6 quarts is fine):


**The New York Times No Knead Bread Recipe called for rapid rise yeast, but dry active yeast works well if you use more.