X

No-knead Bread

Makes 1 loaf (1 1/2 pounds)
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours, plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. 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. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

4 Responses to No-knead Bread


  1. I watch the recipe on YouTube and Sara moulton Instructions were different then when I looked up the recipe the firstRecipe on YouTube it could be made in like five or six hours but on the recipe when I looked it up it needs to rise for 12 to 18 hours is that a totally different recipe. Thanks

  2. Shirley Chandler says:

    I sent a email earlier. I made the bread dough but it never got stickie or shaggy so I added more water almost 5/8 more to get it shaggy and stickie . I do live in the mountains so maybe that’s is a issue. I do know we use less yeast and more liquid . I’m hoping more water was the issue .
    Regards
    Shirley Chandler .
    I made challah from Susan g. Purdy pie in the sky and it was perfectly baked.

    • moulton says:

      Shirley,
      I wonder did you weigh or measure the flour? Weighing is much better since we all measure differently. Your 1 cup flour might actually weigh more than my 1 cup flour which means it might need more water.
      Susan Purdy’s book is fantastic. I am glad you have it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*  
  

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.