Family, Frugality 'n Food: Roxanne was right

Ok Roxanne was totally right. I made the recipe that she suggested for No-Knead Bread and I tell you it's so easy and it tastes GREAT!

Here's the recipe link for anyone that missed it.

My gosh the stuff is just evil I tell you....

For you non bakers out there here's how it's done... Just try it, I swear you will LOVE it, and it is super easy to make.

1. Start by taking 3 Cups of All-Purpose flour and put it into a mixing bowl. (I haven't perfected my whole wheat version yet so I"ll let you know when I get the perfect loaf on that.)
2. Add 1/4 tsp rapid rise yeast to the flour. (You can use regular yeast - just use more like 1/2 tsp to 3/4 tsp)
3. Add 1 1/4 tsp salt to the flour.
4. Mix together until blended then make a well in the center and add just a little bit shy of 2 cups water. Mix it all up. You may need to add more water.... What you want to end up with is something that resembles a really thick pancake batter (see photo below).

I did the above steps on Christmas afternoon.

5. Now what you do is cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 12 to 18 hours. It is ready to move to the next step when the top is all bubbly (see next two photos since I did two batches).

6. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.

7. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

(Now I'm going to honestly tell you that I have omitted the turning it over on itself and cover with plastic wrap step and just moved on to the next one below. It turned out fine and because the dough is so sticky and tacky it's a lot less messier.)

This next step is a deviation from the original recipe. Roxanne found the suggestion online and it's much easier and works great.

8. Line a bowl with parchment paper.

9. Pick up the dough off the counter and put into lined bowl (or if you are skipping the counter part just dump the dough into the lined bowl)

10. Cover loosely with a cotton towel.

11. Let rise until double in size - About 2 hours.

11. About 30 minutes before baking time put your dutch oven or any other pot (with a lid) that can go up to 500 degrees into your oven and turn it on to 450 degrees f.

12. Once the dough has risen and your pot, lid & oven are 450 degrees F, pick up the parchment paper with the dough inside gently and put it into the hot pot.