Break Bread

I may as well go put on an apron, move to a prairie, and call myself Siri Plain And Tall because I just BAKED THE BEST BREAD. The No-Knead method by Jim Lahey is BRILLIANT and FOOL PROOF. It took about 21.5 hours to pull off, but it's no fuss and well worth it. Trust in me. I summarized his recipe but I highly suggest picking up his cookbook. Remember the Peanut Butter and Jelly bread? Buy the book. All you need is...

3 cups bread flour
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cup cool water
Flour and cornmeal or wheat bran

I would be impressed with this bread if I was eating it in a nice Italian restaurant. But I'm not eating it in a nice Italian restaurant because I MADE IT. Sure, it took me just under 24 hours to do that, but at least 20 of those hours were spent doing other things like icing my son's nose after he smashed it against his father's shin.

Yesterday, I made the dough by combining the first 4 ingredients. This is after the dough hath risen for 18 hours...


Folded into a circle...


Placed seam side down onto a cloth towel dusted with cornmeal, wrapped up, and left alone to rise for 2 more hours...


Placed into a hot pot that has been sitting in a 475 degree oven for 30 minutes...


Baked for 30 minutes covered...


And another 10-15 minutes uncovered, left to cool...


In my belly.