No-Knead Bread

Ingredients

• 3 c flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1.25/4 tsp active dry yeast
• 1.5 cups warm water
• oven-safe pan

Method

Mix 375g flour with 7g salt. Stir 0.25 teaspoon instant yeast into 300ml lukewarm water, let it sit for a minute, then combine wet and dry. You want a shaggy, slack dough — wetter than you'd knead by hand. Stir until no dry flour remains. The high bread-hydration (80%) does the mechanical work kneading normally would; time replaces muscle.

Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature for 12 hours minimum. The bread-fermentation is slow because the yeast quantity is deliberately minimal — this long, cool rise builds flavour compounds (organic acids and alcohols) that a fast commercial fermentation can't develop. After 12 hours, the dough will have risen noticeably and smell faintly vinegared. You can refrigerate it here for up to 48 hours; cold fermentation intensifies sourness if that's your preference.

Two hours before baking, remove the dough from the fridge if chilled, and let it come to room temperature. It should feel puffy and jiggly. Preheat your oven and a cast iron dutch-oven or heavy covered baking vessel to 230°C for 45 minutes — the vessel must reach full heat or bread-oven-spring will be weak and the crust uneven. The dough won't look tightly shaped; don't worry. Dust the work surface with flour, fold the dough over itself once or twice to gather surface tension, then carefully lift it into the pre-heated pot.

Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. The sealed environment traps steam, which gelatinises the starch on the crust's surface and forces bread-steam-in-baking into the crumb. After 30 minutes, remove the lid. The loaf will look pale and dense. Bake uncovered for a further 20–25 minutes until the surface is deep mahogany brown — this Maillard reaction develops the crust's nutty depth and crunch.

Turn the loaf onto a wire rack immediately. The residual heat continues cooking the interior for several minutes. Slice only after the loaf has cooled completely; cutting warm bread tears the crumb apart. A serrated knife helps. The crumb should be open and irregular, never tight or gummy.