No-Knead Bread Loaf
It’s funny how everyone turned into a baker once Covid started. After toilet paper and sanitizer flew off the shelves, then came the entire baking aisle - flour, sugar, yeast and more. I have a friend down the street who was trying his hand using sourdough starters and baking these beautiful loaves. I wanted to try my hand at making some fresh loaves of bread but wasn’t ready to commit to the whole sourdough starter process, so I started searching for no-knead bread recipes.
I found this amazingly simple, straight-forward recipe that filled my house with the aroma of fresh bread and a gorgeous loaf that was eaten up entirely in one sitting. We also used the bread in our crab toast, smothering that fresh warm loaf with your tasty crab mixture and decadent sauce and then used the slices to soak up the sauce from our amazing mussels in white wine sauce. If you’re looking for a straight-forward simple recipe for an intro to the bread baking world, this recipe is for you!
MAKING YOUR NO-KNEAD BREAD LOAF
Makes: 1 Loaf of No-Knead Bread
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours
Baking Time: 40 minutes
Total: 2 hours 50 minutes
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (too hot and it will kill the yeast)
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 teaspoon maple syrup (or honey or sugar)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
INSTRUCTIONS
MAKE THE DOUGH
1. Whisk warm water, yeast and maple syrup together in a bowl. Set aside until bubbles appear on the surface. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Combine water mix and flour mix and stir until combined (it will look clumpy and messy).
REST
2. Cover the bowl with a clean dishtowel and let it rise in a room temperature/warm spot for about 2 hours, or until puffy in size.
PREP
3. Once the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 445°F. Place an 8-9 inch dutch oven in the oven while it preheats. Once the oven and dutch oven are super hot, carefully remove the dutch oven to a heat-proof service. Remove the lid and carefully line with baking parchment (be careful because the dutch oven is very hot).
BAKE
4. Pour the dough into the lined dutch oven and cover with the lid. Bake for 25 minutes and then carefully remove the lid and finish baking for 10 minutes until golden brown, crusty and baked through.
5. Remove from dutch oven and place on a rack to cool.
