As much as I adore bread and baked goods, the idea of making yeast bread has always seemed too fussy to me. Actually, anything that requires me to flour a surface and [gasp] touch the dough with my bare hands just seems wrong. I don't like having sticky dough all over my hands. Nasty. So last year when all of the food & cooking blogs started talking about No Knead Bread, I thought, "Hooray! A bread for the rest of us!"
Well ... here's the thing. At one point in this recipe, you do have to dump the dough on a floured work surface. And you do have to touch it with your bare hands. But ya know what? It wasn't so bad! It was a lot neater and easier than my previous experiences with doughs that require actual kneading and rolling.
Yes, that's right. I touched that. And it wasn't messy. The key: wet hands! But I'm getting ahead of myself.
This recipe really delivers. It's easy and yummy and costs oodles less than if you'd bought it at the store. The only draw-backs:
1. You need a big pot with a heavy lid
2. You need to let the dough sit for 12 to 20 hours. Yes. Really.
The good news:
1a. You spend less than 5 minutes actually fiddling with the dough, total.
1b.You don't have to do anything to the dough during that long resting period. It just sits there on your countertop.
2. Four ingredients: flour, yeast, salt, water. I like it when I can easily pronounce the ingredients in my food.
3. Fresh baked bread smells fabulous.
4. It tastes lovely, too. Especially if you eat it warm with a bit of butter.
Want to make some for yourself? Here's a great step-by-step tutorial: SteamyKitchen's Tutorial. This person had her 4 year old son make the dough for her. It's honestly that simple.
Note to Le Creuset: You seriously need to made a rectangular pot with a lid so that people can make sandwich bread with this recipe. Please! I'll be your friend forever!
3 comments:
hey that's a nice looking loaf of bread!
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to eat anything that sat on my counter for 12-20 hours. Cats, you know. Fur. Shudder. That is assuming the dough was still ON the counter, and not rolled into some corner like a large, blobby cat toy. Hee.
SK, thanks! You were truly my inspiration. :)
Liz, that's hilarious! Not to worry - The dough actually sits in a bowl with plastic wrap over it for those long hours. Guess I should have been more clear about that! Of course, if you think your cats might be tempted to sit on that bowl, you could always store it in a cupboard or in the microwave (The bowl of dough, I mean. Not the cat.).
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