The internet has a bunch of 'no knead' bread recipes but this version is my favorite so I'm going to capture it for easy reference in case it disappears or I can't remember where to find it again.
I've been a bread maker for a long time. When I was in my 30's, I baked at least 2 loaves a week. I'd test every recipe that looked appealing and had every kind of flour I could get my hands on at the time. Today, there are so many more options.
However, for all of the lovely fresh wonderful brown, seeded, molasses breads that I made, that crusty Italian rustic bread was elusive. It never got crusty or had the dense aroma. Some of my aunts and uncles would swear that you needed water from fresh mountain streams with some mysterious mineral to get crusty bread. With nothing else to go on, I started believing this might be the reason. I think the real reason was that even my talented aunts and uncles couldn't ever replicate good bread. They had to blame it on something outside of their control.
Fortunately, wonderful professional bakers started sharing secrets and revealed that it wasn't the water or the kneading or the flour.......it was just pre-planning and patience. The version of Italian rustic bread that follows is as good as it gets and so easy that I can't believe I've wasted hours and hours and hours kneading my heart out to try to achieve something only 1/10th as good as one that isn't kneaded at all.
This recipe is based on Jim Lahey's no knead recipe that he featured in his book...."My Bread".
I've only adapted this recipe slightly. I don't usually have fast rise yeast in the house so I made it with regular active yeast. I'm also very particular about my flours because I can have gluten intolerance issues with normal all purpose flours. When I'm in Italy, I find that I can eat bread without having issues. At first, I thought it was just the wine consumption that neutralized the impact...but that was wishful thinking. I then stumbled on an article revealing that most flour in Italy is made with heritage grains that aren't genetically modified. Almost all of the wheat grown and used in US flour brands are genetically modified. This is where I get to do a shout out to Wegmans in Rochester. Danny Wegman, the CEO, has decided to start growing heritage wheats in upstate New York so that he can make better breads and pastas. Can't wait for that to be easily available. In the interim, I buy Caputo flour from Italy. Since I can't get it locally, I just buy it on-line by the case to make sure I always have it on hand. It comes in small 2 pound packages and is easy to store. I haven't made this bread with anything other than Caputo but I can definitely say that Caputo gives it a more earthy off-white color. I'm not sure if it alters the taste or texture but it looks more wholesome and tastes out of this world. However, the original recipe uses plain old all purpose flour so I doubt there's a huge difference in the results.
So....for future reference, here's the easiest best crusty rustic bread you'll ever make!
Ingredients
3 cups (400 grams) flour, plus more for work surface
1/4 teaspoon yeast (1 gram) (either regular active or instant. If you use regular, just add a pinch more)
1 1/4 teaspoons (8 grams) salt
1 1/3 cup (300 grams) cool to tepid water
Dump everything into a bowl and stir. I generally stir until it holds together and then I give it a few turns with my hands to just incorporate every bit of flour in the bowl...20-30 seconds of working this dough. It's a little stickier than most doughs....this is the way it should be.
Cover the bowl with a towel, lid or plastic wrap and put it aside for 12-18 hours. If your house is colder than 72 degrees, you can just let it keep rising up to 24 hours or until you see bubbles forming on the top of the bread. This shows that it's fermenting. I've almost always made the bread in the afternoon or evening and then cooked it the following morning or afternoon. I rarely go beyond 18 hours and I keep our temp in the house at a cool 67 degrees all year. On occasion, I've let it go 24 hours but it doesn't really change much of anything. Here's a picture of the dough after the first rise with bubbles forming on top. You can actually see the darker earthier color of the dough from the Caputo flour.
After the first 12-24 hour rise, lightly flour a work surfaceand then take a scraper and dump the sticky dough onto this floured surface. The dough is pretty stringy and moist. The long rise gives the dough great flavor and the moist stickiness helps give it a great crust. Don't knead the dough or punch it down! Just pretty it up a little by bringing the edges towards the center and forming a ball shape. Carefully lift it up and put it on a floured linen towel or piece of parchment with the seam side down. Cover it again with a lightly floured linen towel and let it rise for another 2 hours.
About 30 minutes before the end of this two hour period, put a lidded cast iron 3 1/2 or 4 quart dutch oven on the lower third rack of your oven and turn the temperature to 475 degrees. While the oven heats up, the cast iron will also heat up. If you don't have cast iron....you're out of luck. That's what gives this bread the wonderful crust. Go borrow one or invest in one!
After 30 minutes, take your cast iron dutch oven out of your oven, remove the lid and careful dump your dough into the pan without burning yourself. I do this by lifting the parchment paper or towel up and flipping the dough into the pan. The seam side is now up and facing you. It might look a little ugly at this point but it self-heals in the oven. Put the lid back on the pan and put it in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take the lid off and give it another 15-30 minutes in the oven without the lid. You'll want a nice deep brown crust forming on the top.....DONE!
Take it out of the oven and carefully turn your cast iron pan over to dump out the loaf of bread or be really careful and use a metal spatula to coax it out. It won't (or shouldn't) stick to the bottom because the heat of the pan when you threw the raw dough into it seared it pretty quickly. It should sound nice and hollow when tapped on the bottom. Let it cool for an hour or more before you try to cut it. It's really hard to do that but the flavor is even better when you haven't burnt your taste buds. Patience!
That's it. It's a perfect loaf of bread that will impress everyone.. The hardest thing about making this bread is respecting that hot pan that you're using.....just take care when getting the bread in and out of it. The next hardest thing is not eating it in one sitting by yourself.
Buona Mangiata!
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