no-knead bread
Last night, I made some awesome no-knead bread. Inspired by Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, I noticed that many commenters were refering to the NYT no-knead bread recipe. I bookmarked it with the intention of trying it someday, until I spotted a similar recipe Sunday night in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Since I would happily jump off a cliff if only Mark Bittman was showing me how, I mixed up a batch and gave it a whopping 28 hours at about 70 deg. Baking was easy-peasy. I followed Bittman’s (and Lahey’s) advice on baking inside a Dutch oven, something that other no-knead recipes were missing. The idea is that moisture in the form of steam is what creates that amazing crispy crust and spraying your loaves or putting a tray of water in the oven just doesn’t cut it. The Dutch oven traps in the steam from the super-moist dough and the results are amazing.
