So, I’m never making no-knead bread again. Too many steps, too messy, and too much time. I’m now hooked on ‘Artisan Bread in Five Minutes’. The real recipe is here, but I cut it by two-thirds so I can make it in the plastic coffee cans that keep getting donated to the CDC. This is awesome! You mix together (for the coffee can) 2 cups of warmish water (not hot), a packet of yeast, 1 tablespoon of kosher salt (2 1/4 teaspoons of regular salt), and four cups of flour. Mix until the flour is wet, cover loosely with something (not a cat) and set it somewhere warm for 2 – 5 hours to rise. Then you put the lid on, toss it in your fridge and cut off hunks when you want to bake a loaf.
You quickly mold it into a ball, let it rest on a cornmeal-covered board for 40 minutes and bake it in a hot oven on a pizza stone (I use a stoneware cake pan). If you throw a cup of water in a metal pan in the oven it makes a rockin’ crust!
I’ve had two batches going in the fridge. The one on the left is all white flour, the one on the right has some wheat flour. The dough improves with age, and the wheat bread was better the second time I baked some.
I love crusty bread with butter!!!! Warm from the oven, my life is complete. If you want to see a You Tube demonstration, click here. I love you, bread.