Oh, So Easy Artisan Bread

A while back, I spoke of an easy to make recipe for hard, crusty artisan bread - the No Knead Bread method made popular by Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey, and published by the New York Times.

So I tried it - and it is easy, and it tastes like artisan bread should. Crunchy crust, soft crumb, mild, nutty aroma, and perfect for guests.

How is good bread made without kneading? It's all in the timing and the patience, and there is literally no kneading kneaded (pun intended). Once mixed, the dough sits for 18 hours, which creates great gluten on it's own. You'll see as I show how it's done below.

The original recipe calls for baking the bread in an enamel dutch oven, which I don't have, but a glass pyrex pie dish works just fine.

The key to simple but great artisan bread is steam. It's steam that creates the hard, crispy crust. The easiest way to create steam inside your own oven is to let the bread do the work. No need to throw extra water on a hot cooking sheet when the oven is hot, it's just the bread, the baking pan and a lid - nothing else.

So here's the recipe, adapted from Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery, with my additional notes.

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour - (I use 2 cups white, 1 cup wheat)
• ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
• 1¼ teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 to 1 5/8 cup water
• Cornmeal, or wheat bran as needed. (I used additional flour)

Combine all dry ingredients and give it a good stir to mix the flour, yeast and salt. Add the water and mix the dough just until the dough comes together, not until it's smooth and well mixed. Leave it a bit shaggy, as Jim Lehey would say.

Dough just mixed - a bit shaggy.


Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter at about 70 degrees (21 celsius) for the next 18 hours or so. During that time, the 1/4 tsp of yeast will begin to react with the water and flour, and begin to create gases and alcohol, which create the air pockets we like to see in artisan breads.

Dough after 18 hrs rising. Notice the air pockets.

After 18 hours or so, take the dough and pour it out onto a floured counter and gently fold the dough in towards itself a few times. Again, no kneading, just folding. The dough will be wet enough that it will mold easily into itself again.

Heavily flour an old, clean dish towl, place the folded dough onto the flour, cover the dough and let the dough rise another two hours or so. Here's where I made a couple of changes. Instead of the floured towel, I used another floured, glass pie dish. This method is less messy, and I can see the dough rise a bit easier.

Folded dough ready to rise again.

After the two hours are up, heat up your oven to 450 degrees (232 celsius). Artisan breads require higher temperatures, which also helps create the needed steam as the bread bakes. Set your dutch oven, or in my case, a second glass pie dish inside the oven to heat up as the oven temperature rises.

It's important that the dutch oven or pie dish be very hot when you place the dough into the oven. This will help ceate steam quickly as the bread begins to bake.

A short tutorial on steam in the oven - Most commercial bakerys will have steam injected ovens. This makes it easy to push steam into the oven as the baker begins to bake hard crusted sourdoughs, baguettes, ciabatta, and other artisan breads. You won't be able to inject steam into your oven at home, so we create our own steam by the amount of water that is already in the bread dough.

---

When the oven reaches 450 degrees (232 celsius), and your cooking pan or pie dish is also heated, take out the dish, add some flour, cornmeal or wheat bran to the bottom, and place the dough into the cooking dish. Sprinkle some additional flour over the top of the dough (optional) and place a lid on the cooking dish.

Important - the lid traps the steam created by the water content in the dough. The steam creates the hard, crisp crust. Without the steam you only get a regular brown crust, just as you would for a sandwich loaf.

Bread in oven with lid.

Jim Lehey mentions that the steam needs to be working for 70 % of the cooking time to create the hard, crispy crust. I've tried it a number of ways, and he's right. I bake the bread for 45 minutes, and for the first 3o minutes, I keep the lid on the bread. The steam does it's work, and after 30 minutes, take the lid off, admire the light brown crust, and continue baking for 10-15 minutes to finish the crust to a deep golden brown.

After 30 minutes in oven, remove lid.

After 40-45 minutes in oven - bread is done.

Once the bread is done, place it on a cooling rack, resist the urge to cut it too soon, and let it cool at least 30 minutes.

Cooling on the rack.

Half loaf - nice air pockets.

The bread looks beautiful. Your kitchen smells like a bakery, and your family will think they have died and gone to bread heaven.

Bread is a wonderful thing. Everyday.

gh-