Artisan Bread for the Home Cook

My title is presumptuous. I don't mean to take away from the amazing craftspeople who create true Artisan loaves; but, after you taste your bread, I think you'll be with me on this one. If you haven't heard of Jim Lahey's No-Knead bread, made popular by the NY Times article by Mark Bittman, it's time you did. In the past, home cooks have had a difficult time making Artisan-style bread. I'm talking about the kind you get at a great bakery, with a crusty exterior and light, chewy interior. The problem was always in the baking. Without an industrial oven, the home cook couldn't get the heat and steam necessary to produce a distinctive loaf. I grew up with soft-crusted rectangular loves of homemade bread, and I love it. But there's a time and a place people... a time and a place.

Enter a genius named Jim Lahey. He figured out that you could produce aforementioned industrial oven cooking environment by preheating a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid. The bread goes into a steam-filled pot and cooks for 25 minutes, then the lid is removed for the last 15. Cast iron works well. I use a Calphalon pot or a Le Creuset. I bet a Lodge would work well. If you do a little web search, there are lots of ideas for different cooking vehicles, just make sure your lid's handle can withstand 450 degree temps (Le Creuset sells stainless replacement lids that can get that hot for about $13). And please, don't forget to use your oven mitts when opening and closing the pot. :)

To add to the beauty of this innovation, the bread recipe he uses is very simple. It requires only salt, flour, yeast and water. You use a small amount of yeast and let it very slowly grow. Reading through the recipe and doing it once always takes a bit of time, but by the second time, you're going to love the ease of this!

No-Knead Bread (adapted from Jim Lahey)

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal, flour, or wheat bran for dusting

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water (I use 11 ounces if you live in a humid area, 12 if you live in a dry), 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 (go for the 18), at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Sprinkle dough lightly with flour and fold it over itself in the bowl a few times (I do this with a book wooden spoon). Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Cut two pieces of parchment paper about 16 inches by 16 inches. This isn't an exact science, but that's how big I like mine. Generously coat the bottom of one with flour at least as big as a 12 inch circle. When the 15 minutes is up, flip your dough out onto the floured parchment, and shape into a round. This doesn't need to be perfect, and almost always I just leave it how it flips. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a generous coating of flour and gently/lightly lay the other parchment on the top, allowing the parchment to curl down around it. 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) with lid on in oven as it heats so that the pot gets very hot. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Open pot with a gloved hand and set lid down. Quickly remove oven mitts and pick up bread by sliding your hand under the parchment and turning/flipping dough over into pot, so that the bottom becomes the top of the loaf. It may look like a mess, but that is o.k. With gloved hands, shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover pot and if you don't have the gloves on yet, put them on and put covered pot in over. Bake 25 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Sorry about all the glove/mitt stuff, but you really burn yourself when you touch a 450 degree pot. Ya really do.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.