No-Knead Bread

My sister, Kelli, suggested that I try this recipe from the blog, Steamy Kitchen.  It was pretty easy and the end result was quite tasty.  To start out, I pulled together the ingredients.  It always surprises me that you can make something as substantial, enjoyable and comforting with so few ingredients.

For this recipe, you'll need just flour, water, yeast and salt. Mix it all together with a spoon until all the flour is moistened.

It doesn't look very pretty, but soon it will start to come alive with bubbles.  Just cover it with plastic wrap and set it on the counter.

See?  Bubbles! This was about 5 hours after mixing together the ingredients.

And more bubbles.  This was after about 10 hours.

Next it gets a good mixing together with the spatula (kind of like kneading, but not really).

Then it gets formed into a loaf.  In between these two steps, I turned the dough out onto the counter and tried to shape it.  I intended to take a picture of this, but my hands were a mess and I was a bit frustrated, so there is no picture.  My dough was so wet, that it just didn't want to form into anything except a puddle.  So, I did the best I could and just dumped it into the plastic wrap and cooking spray lined bowl to rise for a few hours. 

I baked it in a dutch oven, as directed in the recipe.  Unfortunately, my loaf does not look like the rustic, artisan loaf on Steamy Kitchen, but it was tasty.  I'm hoping to try this again sometime in the future.  I may use slightly more flour/less water so that my dough isn't quite so difficult to work with.

Almost forgot to take a picture of the crumb.  At this point, this is all that is left of the loaf.  It was great slathered with butter and served alongside a salad and lasagna. Yum!