in the kitchen: no knead bread!

crusty bread... yep, it was as delicious as it looks!

this weekend i had a great time making several new recipes, but my favorite discovery was a no knead bread recipe!  i love to make homemade bread... it taste sooooo good and makes the house smell delicious, too.  Mmmmm.  i found this recipe on pinterest, and then checked out the blog it came from as well.  janet at simply so good has great pictures & directions which are so easy to follow.  definitely check out her blog.

the bread is baked in a Le Creuset dutch oven... which i do not have, but i did get a cheaper, just as good, version at world market.  it was way cheaper than the Le Creuset's.  also someone in the comments on her blog said they used the inside liner of their crockpot and it worked great.  so, you have some options.

you mix the ingredients (flour, salt, yeast, water) the night before and just let it sit for 12-18 hours.  now, that is what i consider pretty easy-peasy. 

just mix together 3 cups flour, 1 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp yeast...

then stir in 1 1/2 cups water...

until it is a sticky mess like this.

once it is mixed in a large bowl... just cover it with plastic wrap and leave it be for about 12-18 hours.  i waited about 14 hours or so. 

heat your oven to 450 degrees, then put in the empty dutch oven pot thingy and lid for 30 minutes to let it get good and hot.  while that is heating, take your dough and put it on a heavily floured surface, shape it into a ball (although mine was too soft to stay in a ball), sprinkle with some flour on top, and cover with that plastic wrap you were using on the bowl.   when the pot is heated up, carefully take it out of the oven and plop that ball of dough right down into that hot pot.  the pot does not need any thing in it to keep it from sticking... mine fell right out when it was done.  OK, now put the lid back on the pot and put it back in the oven for 30 minutes. 

this is after 30 minutes with the lid on!  looking good, huh?

now, take the lid off and leave it for 15 more minutes.  remove it from the oven and place the bread on a rack to cool.

oh, happiness. 

i was curious if it would turn out like all the reviews had said... and it did!  so delicious.  i plan to make it again this week using some asiago cheese!  hey, panera... watch out! 

happy wednesday!

~ julie

ps... sorry this is late... my fridge decided to quit working, so i spent the last two days purging melted freezer food, fridge food that wouldn't hold up in coolers, cleaning out the fridge & freezer, getting a repair guy to fix it, and then neatly putting what survived back in the fridge.  all is clean and sparkling now... and it could be fixed which was very fabulous news.  yay!

so clean and organized... and kinda empty.