Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread

Recipe Name: Jim Lahey's No-Knead Bread

Story: I've always loved to cook, but I really started to hone my skills while in college. I regularly visited my local farmers market, started following lots of food blogs and food columns, and experimented with new foods and recipes. My mom and I would often share recipes and tips with one another. Around 2008, my mom shared a no-knead bread recipe featured on Mark Bittman's "The Minimalist" in New York Times. I immediately became obsessed with Bittman's column and corresponding cooking videos and I would anxiously wait for a new video to air so I could learn to make something new. Occasionally, Mark would interview chefs and bakers and highlight a specific recipe from them. One of the most popular segments was (and continues to to be) with Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery, where Jim shared his no-knead bread recipe and gave viewers a tour of his bakery. I was intrigued from the start, but it wasn't until I received a dutch oven for Christmas of 2009, that I actually made the bread. I had learned to make bread earlier that year from an eccentric British gardener in Long Island (his community garden was next to the farm I worked on). I enjoyed making bread, but as soon as I received the dutch oven, I immediately switched to making the no-knead bread. In 2010 when I was managing farmers markets, I made a loaf (or two) of this bread every week to go with whatever local produce I brought home from the market. I don't make the bread as regularly anymore, but it is still a great go-to recipe. You just need a little bit of time and patience. I hope you enjoy as much as I do!

Years you've been making it: Since 2009

Author / Creator: Jim Lahey, https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread

Submitted by: Chelsea

Ingredients:
Yield: 1.5 pound loaf
Time: 1.5 hours, plus about 20 hours' resting time

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

Directions:
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 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.
Step 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.

Notes:
Unlike most of my cooking, I follow this recipe pretty closely. I usually let the dough rest closer to 18 hours. You'll definitely want to generously coat a cotton towel with cornmeal so the dough won't stick. Or you can use a flexible cutting board on the bottom of the dough - I find this makes it easier to transfer the dough to the hot pot. And of course, I use my favorite dutch oven for this! The organization I work for is one of the pioneers in the local grain movement (https://www.grownyc.org/grains), so I am very lucky to have access to different flours. I've tried using these other types of flours for this recipe with varied success. If you decide to change the flour, you'll definitely need to make some adjustments to water, yeast, and/or rise time and be aware that the density might change as well.