No Knead French Bread

My friend Janice was over this weekend for baking fun. Whenever we get together, the day tends to spiral into carb-sugar-dairy-filled madness. In five hours we baked 5 different breads/cakes, one of which was a no-knead recipe from honey and jam.

I started the bread before she arrived, since the first rise takes close to 3 hours. I halved the recipe, added lots of sage, crushed black pepper and garlic. After a second 40 minute rise, the bread went in the oven for 35 minutes, after which we were treated with two loaves like this:

 

Noms.

The loaf above lasted about 30 seconds before we cut into it, steam burnt hands and all. I think we gobbled the whole thing within five minutes, so I guess it was pretty successful. The crust is awesome and crispy, and holds up well over time too. I put the whole thing into a ziploc bag and it's still nice and soft.

The recipe is below; I halved the original and it still made two decent sized loaves. We wanted to eat the loaf right away but it's possible to make the day before and let the dough rise in the fridge overnight.

No Knead French Bread

• 1 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 tbs active dry yeast
• 3/4 tbs salt
• 3 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tbs sugar

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix warm water, yeast, salt and sugar. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2. After 10 minutes, put all the flour at once into the bowl and stir to combine completely with a spatula.
3. Cover bowl with plastic and let sit at room temperature until doubled in size, about 3 hours. Or let sit in fridge overnight.
4. When ready to bake, shape pieces of dough into balls about the size of grapefruit with smooth surface. Let sit for another 40 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 400, put a pan half filled with water at the bottom
6. Bake bread on pizza stone or cookie sheet until crust is golden, about 30-35 minutes.
7. Cool and serve