So I am a little late to this parade. I had heard about it years ago when it came out but I didn’t have the urge or tools to do it. Fast forward 8 years and I finally have a 5qt cast iron casserole to make the famous Jim Lahey No Knead Bread!
A quick bit of background – Lahey is the owner of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC and he has this fantastic recipe for bread that really took off. A la in the spirit of Ratatouille, it showed that “anyone can cook!” or rather, “anyone can make bread!”
The thing with bread is that it tends to take a lot of time and work. A lot of kneading, watching, rising, proofing, shaping, and baking. Heck, I am exhausted just typing that. But Lahey’s recipe asks you to quickly pull together 4 ingredients and let it sit. For 12 – 18 hours. Yes, you read that right – HOURS. So a quick loaf for dinner, this is not. But it is easy. After the extended fermentation time, it’s shaped, left to rise for another 2 hours and then baked in a covered casserole. By covering the casserole you’re mimicking a steam oven and at an even higher temperature (enclosed space). The results is a beautifully golden and crackly bread!
My rough timeline: prepped dough on a Friday at 3pm. Finished fermenting at 9am. Shaped and second rise until 11am. (started preheating the oven & casserole at 10am) Into the oven at 11am, baked for about 50minutes (lid on and off) and voila! Fresh bread for lunch sandwiches!
It’s been super warm around these parts and I haven’t made it again – but I anticipate a fresh loaf next week! I am going to try putting in a handful of dried cranberries and hazelnuts too! (in the first step)
So here’s the recipe – http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html
Try it out!
BA in Vancouver 
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