Crusty Bread
This amazing no-knead bread is absolutely wonderful. It uses only 4 ingredients, making it a very economical Artisan bread. This delicious bread is great for any occasion and ferments on your counter for up to 12-18 hours. Crusty Bread is vegan.
Ingredients
- 3 cups UNBLEACHED all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt or sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. Fleishmann’s active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 cups water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.
- Add water and mix until a rough mixture forms.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-18 hours.
- Heat oven to 450°.
- When the oven has reached 450° place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let the dough set while the pot is heating. Carefully remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.
- Cover with lid and return pot to oven for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.
- Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.
Notes
NOTE: I buttered the top and sides of the bread with butter to prevent the crust from getting too hard. If you're vegan, eliminate this step or use coconut oil instead.
Other Bread Combinations: Pepper jack cheese, Jalapeno cheddar, Raisin walnut cinnamon, Pumpkin sunflower poppy seed, Sharp cheddar, Rosemary lemon Gruyere, Lemon thyme Asiago, Asiago, Mixed herb with rosemary, chives and thyme, plain, cranberry orange almond.
NOTE: This does work with wheat flour if you add vital wheat gluten. See my Whole Wheat No Knead Bread recipe.
Other Possible Combinations: Quartered pepperoni slices, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese; pepperjack cheese, diced jalapenos or green chilies, and cilantro; sun-roasted tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese; dill, cottage cheese or ricotta cheese, and sliced green onions; bacon, cheddar cheese, and thyme or rosemary; as you can see the sky is the limit with this bread. Make it fun and be creative.
NOTE: You are not supposed to have to bake the bread with oil in the pan. Cast iron, enameled cast-iron and glass baking dishes that can take a 450 degree temperature work well for this recipe.
NOTE: all-purpose flour does not contain the necessary gluten to bond the ingredients together as well as bread flour. The bread may turn out crumbly. For best results use bread flour.
NOTE: I recommend using Fleischmann's yeast or bread machine yeast in any yeast bread recipe. Red Star yeast just doesn't work as well.
Recipe adapted from Simply So Good; source: Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery via the New York Times.
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