it took a few months of tinkering to perfect this recipe, but for the past two years, I pretty much bake a loaf of this bread every week. in its basic form it’s fairly neutral in flavor, which means it serves equally well as breakfast toast (slathered in peanut butter) lunchtime sandwich loaf (wrapped around turkey or egg salad), or a dinner companion (dipped in olive oil or butter and garlic).

the chief recipe sources were Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, and Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. (let’s be clear — i love kneading bread and staying home all weekend to bake a loaf of something from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s excellent Bread Bible, but for most of us that’s hobbiest bread, not daily bread).

time required:
10 min to mix dough followed by 4-8 hours for the first rise
refrigerate for up to 10 days
90 minutes for second rise/heat oven followed by 45 min to bake
15 minutes to cool before cutting, 8 hours before wrapping in plastic

supplies required:
– a ceramic or cast-iron casserole dish /dutch oven with lid – round or oval. Ben gave me a beautiful Emile Henry dutch oven for my birthday last year. It’s 4L, which is just a bit too big for a 900g/2lb loaf — but whatever you have will work, you can just adjust the size of the loaf up or down as necessary. it just has to have a lid and be able to withstand 450 degrees. (my last ceramic casserole dish, a hand-me-down from my mother’s kitchen, was never intended for high-heat baking. still, it held up admirably for a good year before it cracked in half).
– large mixing bowl or dough bucket with at least 4qt/4L capacity
– wooden spoon
– wire whisk
– food scale that can measure in grams – they are inexpensive and the best kitchen tool ever. trust me and just go get one.
– a smooth floured surface. it can be a clean counter or a pastry mat or a large cutting board. i’m a germ freak so i favor the pastry mat over the direct-counter approach (also, i have cats who run around on the counters whenever my back is turned).
– optional: a food thermometer

ingredients for two loaves (you can always cut this in half if you don’t think you’ll bake two loaves within a week)
– 360 g wheat or white wheat flour (i recommend King Arthur brand flours whenever possible)
– 595 g bread flour (again, KAF if possible)
– 17 5 vital wheat gluten (you can find it at Whole Foods in the bulk bins, also Bob’s Red Mill makes it)
– 15-30 g salt (depending on your taste, i like to use the higher amount)
– 14 g instant yeast (SAF brand is great, and don’t buy it in those silly tiny packets, get a jar and store in the fridge or freezer)
– 787 g luke-warm water (approx 85 degrees, should feel neither warm nor cold against your skin). some bakers say that the chlorine in tap water can inhibit yeast growth, and/or some tap water has a strong taste that can affect the bread; i usually keep a jug of distilled water around for bread baking. you can also just set tap water out on the counter to set overnight and most of the chlorine will evaporate that way.
– anything you want to add in, like herbs, nuts or seeds.

speed tip: I measure the ingredients out by putting the dough bucket right on the food scale, zero out the weight of the container, and then just pour in the ingredients, zeroing out the scale again after each item. that way no extraneous dishes or measuring cups have to get dirty.

mix all ingredients except water in the mixing bowl or dough bucket. use the wire whisk to stir them (i find that a whisk works better than a spoon to fully sift the dry ingredients together). add the water, and use the wooden spoon to mix until all the flour is fully incorporated (but you don’t need to knead it ). cover the bowl lightly with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel and leave somewhere warmish to rise. I usually use the turned-off oven, because the pilot light keeps it a bit warmer than the rest of the kitchen. but a cooler room will still work, it’ll just take longer.

let the dough rise at least 4 hours; overnight is okay too. it should double in volume. after at least 4 hours, move it to the fridge and use any time in the next 10 days (it’s best for regular bread in the first 4 days, after that i like it better for pizza dough or stuff that doesn’t have to rise as much).

when you’re ready to bake, take out the dough bucket, flour your hands and dig in. remove approximately half the dough (around 900 g; i place the dough bucket lid on the food scale and pile the dough on there to check the weight). quickly shape the loaf into a round by tucking the edges under while turning it 1/4 turn at a time. you’ll end up with a smooth top surface and all the wrinkles will be tucked under the bottom.

leave on a floured surface to rise for 90 minutes, lightly covered so it doesn’t dry out (instead of using up plastic wrap, i often just upend the empty dough bucket over the top of it. After 45 minutes or rising time, turn the oven on to 450 degrees and put the pot and lid inside to heat. (it’s crucial that the pot must be fully up to 450-degree temp before you start baking, that’s why the long pre-heat). continue to rise/heat for another 45 min (90 total since pulling the dough from the fridge).

side note: if you want to use the dough right after rising, skipping the fridge step, you can shape the loaf and just let it rise for 45 min while the oven heats, rather than the full 90. but this is a very wet (ie, sticky) dough and it is easier to work with when it is cold, so i recommend using it cold at least the first time.

after 90 minutes of rising/45 minutes of oven heating, remove the pot from the oven, transfer the dough to the pot. if you want to add any toppings, like sea salt or herbs or cornmeal, now is the time to do it. shake the pot slightly to get it evenly distributed, put the lid on and return to the oven. bake at 450 for 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake 15 minutes more.

if you want to check with a food thermometer, the loaf should be at or above 205 degrees in the center. but this step isn’t absolutely necessary if you don’t have a thermometer – there’s no health risk in undercooked bread, it’s just a little disappointing.

turn the loaf out of the pot and let cook on a wire rack for at least 15-30 minutes. it’s tempting to cut into the hot bread and eat it right away, but technically it keeps baking inside for a while after coming out of the oven, and if you cut into it too soon the heat escapes and the bread winds up underdone.

after initial cooling, wrap loosely in a dish towel and allow it to cool fully, at least 8 hours. after that store it in a gallon ziplock bag.

that’s it! i wish you many happy loaves.

for further reading: a google search turned up this 1920’s tract on bread-baking. what’s interesting is how little has changed in terms of the ingredients and techniques in the past 90 years (through their advice to rise bread by placing an oil lamp inside a wooden box does seem a bit of a fire hazard to this modern gal).

Among people who are not highly civilized, bread forms the chief article of food and often almost the entire diet, even at the present time; but as man progresses in civilization he seems to require a greater variety of food, and he accordingly devises means of getting it. However, it still makes up a sufficient proportion of the food of every family to warrant such careful and extensive study, as well as such mastery of the processes involved, that the housewife may present to her family only the best quality of this food. There is possibly nothing in the whole range of domestic life that so disturbs the welfare of the entire family as an inferior quality of this food.

there you have it: the key to domestic felicity is good homemade bread. and so i stand behind my decision to skip aikido this evening in order to tinker with my sandwich loaf recipe.