No-knead, no problem

Well, that's not entirely true.

I found this recipe in the New York Times a couple weeks ago for a no-knead bread. I'm not about to tell you that I don't like to knead. However, I am about to tell you that it's the perfect solution for people like me with limited counter space, and for people like me who hate scraping up crusty flour and ending up with flour over everything. And for people like me who, lately, have burned nearly everything they've put in their unreliable oven and need a little pick me up, something to remind them that they are still okay at baking.

So you combine the 4 ingredients - flour, yeast, salt and water (it never ceases to amaze me that this simple combo makes delicious bread) - and I love that the author/baker noted that the dough should be shaggy. Because that's where I always feel like I always start to go downill, if a dough is not starting to look uniform and smooth after a good few minutes of working with it. I don't have a bread hook, people; I have no fancy Kitchen Aid mixer. And while I'm at it, I feel that I should also complain about the fact that too many cooking shows and cookbooks rely on the fact that people have food processors. I am suspicious of these cooks, and yes, that means that I am wary of even my favorite ones, because I am left to wonder if their food would turn out as good without their gadgets.

Anyway, shaggy dough. It took me about 30 seconds to get there. And then you just leave it alone for the rest of the afternoon.

When I came back to it, it had risen as it was supposed to. You turn it onto a greased surface a couple times and let it rest again. In the meantime, you have to find a 3-6 qt. ovenproof pot with a lid. That's because you bake the bread in it, half of the time with the lid on, half with it off.

This is where I ran into some trouble.

I thought I was being really smart by pulling out my crockpot pot. It was the perfect size and had a lid, and it was definitely oven proof because those things get pretty darn hot. So you put it in the oven as it heats to 450. I did this. Then about 15 minutes later, I started smelling something not unlike that time I set a hot curling iron on a suitcase. Duh, the handle of the lid of this thing is plastic. Oops. I quickly took it out before damage was done, and found a glass lid from one of my corningware containers. It didn't totally fit, but it rested snugly inside the pot toward the top. Again, I applauded my own genius and quick thinking skills.

It was time to take the hot pot out of the oven and stick the dough inside. Unfortunately, the glass lid had sealed itself inside the pot. No amount of pulling or leveraging was going to get it off. I was so frustrated. Finally, I came up with plan C - an oval corningware dish with a lid. Why I didn't just start out this way is beyond me, but nothing that starts out simple ends simply, you know?

Anyway, it worked. When I took the bread out of the oven, it looked like this, reading the NY Times, of course:

 

Complete with a beautiful shattering crust, as promised by the article. Not to mention the fact that it tasted delicious and nearly half was consumed the same night. I am already thinking about future loaves - rosemary, garlic, etc.