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On Friday I found an article in the New York Times about Sullivan Street Bakery in Manhattan, whose owner had figured out a way to make bread without kneading it.  I’m not much of a baker personally, but I do like good bread, and I am lazy, so I was pretty interested.  The article claims that you can make bread as good as the bakery with nothing more than water, flour, salt, yeast, and a dutch oven… and of course, no kneading.

So I was a bit skeptical, and for that reason I decided to give this thing a shot.  I picked up some whole wheat flour and a pack of active dry yeast.  I later found out is not the same as instant yeast… I should have gotten RapidRise yeast instead, but I digress.  You can tell that I’m a baking newbie.

Anyway, it literally took two minutes to measure and mix the ingredients on Saturday afternoon.  I let it sit overnight (about 18 hours) then shaped it and let it rise again for a while.  At this point we’re up to a grand total of about 5 minutes of work.  After that, I just had to throw it into a blazing hot cast iron pan in the oven, put the lid on, and set a timer.  Thirty minutes later the lid came off, and 20 minutes after that I had a fresh loaf of whole wheat bread on the cooling rack.

It was kind of flat compared to the loaves pictured in the article (or the one pictured to the right), but I think I can mark that up to the yeast and maybe using whole wheat instead of bread flour.  Anyway, it still tasted great.  The crust was that good crackly kind you thought you could only get in a store, and the texture was just right.  I was impressed, and for five minutes of actual work, I think I’ll be having fresh bread every week now. 

If you’re thinking about trying this yourself, make sure you watch the video on the NYT site.  It definitely helps you understand the little work that is involved.  And if you love bread… I mean looooove it… check out Sullivan Street Bakery’s bread porn.  Mmmmmmm….

Read on for the 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.?