omg bread

bread (or anything involving yeast, really) has been my greatest cooking fear which i have never tackled until now. maybe it's that there's living things involved, there's "chemistry." so much seems left up to chance, and it's scary. taking this out of the oven and realizing it worked, i felt like a proud momma.

even though this bread requires almost no hands-on work, i still plan on making it regularly and taking full credit for it. it seemed almost miraculous. after first cutting into it, aside from being shocked by how wonderful it is--the perfectly crusty crust, without being too hard; soft, flavorful insides--i suddenly wondered if it would all get eaten before it went stale. i needn't have worried: max, laura and i demolished the entire loaf in a few hours with nothing more than butter or olive oil. it's that good, and when it's fresh out of the oven, it's unbelievable (maybe i'm biased, having eaten nothing but whole wheat sandwich bread all year, and, you know, having made this myself). if i could have this for breakfast every morning, i would.

my dough was very, very sticky, to the point of even being wet. i had a pretty hard time getting it to resemble anything like a "ball" or folding it over onto itself, as it sort of just oozed out of whatever shape i put it in, and there were no "seams" to be found anywhere. i had to scrape it off the towel into the pot with a spatula, and even then there was a lot of dough stuck to the towel, even though i was dusting with what felt like far too much flour. i was worried this meant i had done something wrong, that it wasn't going to work-- but it did, so don't worry if you run into this.

also, i don't have a dutch oven or a large stock pot, so i just used the biggest cast iron pot i had (probably about 3 qts) and it worked beautifully. as long as your pot is all metal (no plastic on it) it will probably be oven safe.

no-knead bread
adapted from jim lahey, sullivan street bakery
yield: a 1½ lb. loaf

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
• ¼ tsp instant yeast*
• 1¼ tsp salt
• cornmeal or wheat bran as needed
  

*if using active dry yeast, use 1/3 tsp, as instant yeast is finer than active dry and therefore denser.

in a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. add 1 5/8 cups water, 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, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees (i gave it about 14 1/2).

dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. cover with another cotton towel and 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.

at least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450°F. put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. when dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is okay. shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. cool on a rack.