5 Minute No-Knead Bread

So this was my first attempt at an "artisan" loaf. I was pretty intimidated by it but it turned out to be quite easy! And it tasted delicious! Ben even ate slice after slice....again, that's saying something! I substituted whole wheat flour for part of the white flour and I made four small loaves instead of two big ones, so they didn't need to cook nearly as long. I cooked two loaves at a time on my pizza stone for about twenty minutes. I had read that this bread isn't nearly as good the second day so we ate one loaf the night I made it and I froze the other three loaves. They taste great thawed from the freezer. Like many of the bread recipes I use, this one came from http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com.


5 Minute No-Knead Bread


1 1/2 Tb yeast
1 1/2 Tb Kosher salt
3 cups lukewarm water
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (you can use 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour & 4 cups white if you wish)


Stir together all ingredients until you have a nice, thick dough. Make sure you stir it enough that there are no dry pockets of flour left anywhere in the dough. Cover well and let rise for 2 hours on the counter.

Sprinkle just a little flour over the dough and divide into 4 parts (or you can make 2 large loaves). Sprinkle with a little more flour to keep you hands from sticking and form into a ball. Place seam side down on parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal. Allow loaves to sit for 40 minutes (longer for the larger loaves).

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with a baking stone inside of oven to preheat as well. Also, place a shallow pan full of warm water on the bottom shelf of oven to make steam during baking. This creates a crusty exterior to the bread. Sprinkle loaves with flour again. Using a serrated knife, make several slices (criss-cross or straight) across the top of the bread to allow for expansion. Lift parchment paper with loaves on top and place directly on hot stone. Place baking stone on middle shelf of oven and bake for approximately 40 minutes. (Watch them - mine didn't take nearly this long.) Eat bread hot out of the oven with butter! This bread also tastes great cold with cold butter.

**Dough can sit in frig for up to 2 weeks. If you are using dough from the frig it has already done the first 2-hour rise. Shape your loaves and let sit on counter like previous instructions, however, allow longer time because dough will be cold. You can even allow shaped loaves to rise in the frig for up to 14 hours. The dough will spread slightly but don't panic, it should still have a good spring to it once baked. For "refrigerator rise" bake at 475 for approx 30 minutes.

Update 2/6/13:  Pour the water in the bowl first.  Then sprinkle the yeast and then salt on top of the water.  Mix with a wooden spoon.  Next add the flour and mix in.  It seems to work better if you do it in this order rather than dumping everything in at once.  Also, I used regular salt last time and only 1 Tbsp of it and the bread was great.  I also poured the water in the pan right after I put the bread in, instead of earlier.  This created steam for better crustiness on the outside of the bread.