super easy and relatively quick bread recipe

found this on my favorite website, made it, it rocks.

there's a loaf in the oven right now! as soon as it is done i'm going to slather a slice with the apple butter i made in the crockpot last week and stuff it in my face. yummmm.

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Easy, No-Knead Yeast Bread

This recipe produces a large quantity of dough, which can be portioned out and baked over a period of two weeks. It's a great solution for people who love homemade bread but don't have a day to devote to baking, or who have a small household and can better use small quantities of fresh bread.

3c warm water
1.5 Tbsp yeast
1.5 Tbsp salt (preferably sea salt)
6.5c flour (white, wheat, whatever. Experiment!)

In a really big bowl, mix the warm water (I use hot tapwater but don't make it so hot it kills the yeastie boys) with the yeast and salt. Don't worry about dissolving all the yeast clumps; lumpy is fine.

Stir in the flour. The dough should be wet enough to conform to the bowl. Cover and let sit at room temperature for at least two hours (overnight is fine too). The bowl's cover should not be airtight - the yeast will exhale CO2. During this period, the dough will roughly double in volume. Then refrigerate the dough, still covered. The dough will keep in your fridge for about two weeks.

When you want some bread, remove the dough from the fridge. Cut off a quarter or a third of it and scoop it out, forming a ball. Flour your hands heavily, and keep the outside of the dough ball floury so you can handle it. Stretch the top of the dough underneath so that the boule will sit on the loose ends. Sprinkle cornmeal or flour on a baking sheet or baking stone and place the dough ball on the cornmeal. Set your timer for 20 minutes and let the dough rest at room temp. Refrigerate the unused dough.

When your timer goes off, turn the oven on to 450, and slice a few expansion slits in the top of the loaf with a serrated knife. Place an empty oven-safe pan on the bottom rack of your oven to hold the water you'll add later. Set your timer to 20 minutes again.

When your timer goes off the second time, add a cup or two of water to the pan in the lower rack - it should steam. Quickly put the baking sheet & dough in the oven and close the door, trapping the steam inside. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

This recipe yields 3-4 small boules (6-8") you can put the dough in a greased loaf pan for sandwich bread. Different flours and yeasts produce different results, but generally you'll get a dense bread with a great chewy crust. If you do this regularly, don't wash your bread bowl between batches; you'll start trapping local yeasts that can produce a native sourdough. I use a large covered plastic bowl like the big one in this kit; Sterilite makes it and I've seen them for sale at Target.

Feel free to MeFi mail me for more info.
posted by workerant at 5:10 PM on January 11, 2009 [7 favorites]