Oh my, how I love that sound....

[Mare749]

18 hour no-knead bread fresh out of the oven and crackling!
Is everyone else still making this? Any new variations out there?

[firechef]

What is it??? I can't bake a bread to save my life...

[farnfam]

Oh I bet you could make this one. Here's my version of the bread, I think from Jean:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. kosher salt (Do not use regular table salt -- or your bread may become too salty.)
1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm (not hot) water

Combine the dry ingredients together in a large plastic or glass bowl. Pour in the water and stir just until mixed. A shaggy dough should form. Cover the bowl loosely (I use a very large Tupperware bowl) and allow it to sit on the counter for about 18 hours. The dough is ready when it becomes covered in bubbles and when you can see the strands of gluten forming when you tip the bowl. Your dough will be very wet and sticky. That is how it should be.

Sprinkle the work surface (I like to use my Silpat so that the dough doesn't stick) with a mixture of about 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1/4 cup cornmeal. Scrape dough out onto the floured surface and fold it four times like you would a letter-once from 3 and 9 towards the middle and once from 6 and 12. Place dough back into the bowl seam-side down and cover again, allowing it to rest for another 2 hours.

(I actually just left mine on my Silpat mat and covered it with plastic wrap, but allowed enough space for it to rise. The Silpat made it easy to turn out the dough into the pan after the final rise. If you are using a plastic bowl, be sure not to touch your plastic bowl onto the hot pan or you will melt it.)

Midway through the final rise, preheat your oven as well as the 3 to 4-quart pot and lid to 450 degrees for 1 hour. After the dough has risen for about 2 hours, remove the hot pan and lid from the oven and quickly dump the dough into it. It should now be seam-side up. Replace the lid on the pot and bake the dough covered, for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and continue to bake it for 15 to 20 minutes longer. Be sure to check it after 15 minutes to ensure it isn't burning.

Notes from author:
Now comes the most difficult part. Remove the bread from the oven and turn it out onto a cooling rack. It will be smelling divine and beckoning you with its golden brown colour and crackling crust as it cools. You MUST allow it to cool fully! Do not give into temptation and cut into it early. It is best to give it at least an hour before stealing your first slice.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you need to plan ahead. The dough needs to be able to sit for 18 hours. It then gets folded and allowed to rest and rise for another 2 hours, with baking and cooling taking another couple of hours. I usually stir my ingredients together around supper time the day before I need it so that by the following afternoon the dough is ready for me to finish off and bake, providing us with a home filled with the wonderful aroma of fresh-baked bread just in time for supper.

The other important key to this recipe is the pot. You will need a heavy bottomed 3 to 4 quart pot that is heat resistant up to 450 degrees. Be sure to remove any plastic knobs from lids that may not be able to withstand temperatures this high. Most people find success with pots from Le Creuset (removing the knob before baking) or a cast iron dutch oven. The pot should be deep enough that the bread will not rise up to touch the lid when it is baking.

The following amounts and method are what I have found work for me. I encourage you to read through some of the links above if you are interested in reading what has worked for other people including substituting whole wheat flour and the lengths of times they let the dough rest, etc. Overall, it is a very forgiving recipe and one that I hope you will find success with as much as I have.

[luvnit]

Here is the original recipe for No-Knead (18-hour) Bread. Now ANYONE can bake bread!

Recipe: No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Baked in a 450 degree oven and the crust crackles when it cools! This stuff is fabulous!

[firechef]

Why thanks for sharing. I will have to give it a shot. What "kind" of bread are we dealing with? Holly loves cheese filled, pepperoni and cheese filled and garlic breads...would this be usable as something like those?

[luvnit]

This bread has large holes and moist on the inside, but crispy crust on the outside. Perhaps best either plain or with different herbs, flour combinations or even roasted garlic mixed into the batter.

With the long rising time on the counter, adding perishable would probably not be recommended.

But you could probably add safely: dried fruits, nuts and seeds, wheat germ (I do this a lot), herbs and sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic.

[firechef]

I just found Jean's comments on adding roasted garlic and possibly trying cheese and jalapenos to what I believe is the same bread recipe....

Any more insight Jean?

Thank you all for this one. I may just become a baker...well I wouldn't count on it for a living.

[cjs]

I now have a "traveling" copy to use - The roasted garlic is wonderful in it - but, I usually end up just doing the basic recipe and then topping slices if we want to go in that direction. It's so good!! I'm with you, Maryann, love the cracklin' when it's just out of the oven!

I'm still making it about every other week - can't do it anymore often than that, it's too good.

* Exported from MasterCook *

18 HOUR BREAD - TRAVEL COPY

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 Tsps kosher salt
1/2 tsp. active dry yeast (at some point I increased from 1/4 tsp. and can't remember why or when)
1 1/2 cups warm (not hot) water

1. mix the ingredients together:

2. cover & let sit on counter 18 hours

3. in the bowl, sprinkle lightly w/flour and fold over 4 times.

4. Recover (in same bowl) and let rise two hours.

5. 1 hour into rise, turn oven to 450 and put a cast iron skillet or dutch oven and the lid in oven to heat.

6. Working quickly, dump bread dough in hot pan, cover and return to oven for 30 min. If not dark & crust enough return to the oven for 15 min. with out lid.

[Mare749]

firechef, I'm not a great baker either, but this bread is foolproof as long as your yeast isn't old. I've also used 1/4 c. sourdough starter in place of the yeast. To see how easy it is to make this bread and also to get some tasty variations, go to www.breadtopia.com and watch the videos. They aren't real long and are very helpful.

[Lorraine]

Geez, folks, I'm trying to cut down on my bread and butter consumption.