Rustic Boule

Every day I receive a friendly email from the New York Times announcing what to cook this week.  There are soups, salads, entrees, sides and more.  This week one of the messages featured.good - and easy - stuff to bake.

No-Knead Bread

 Yield 1 big loaf

Time 45 minutes, plus 4 1/2 hours' rising

The original recipe for no-knead bread, which Mark Bittman learned from the baker Jim Lahey, was immediately and wildly popular. How many novices it attracted to bread baking is anyone’s guess. But certainly there were plenty of existing bread bakers who excitedly tried it, liked it and immediately set about trying to improve it. This is an attempt to cut the start-to-finish time down to a few hours, rather than the original 14 to 20 hours' rising time. The solution is simple: use more yeast.

Ingredients

    3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

    1 packet instant yeast

    1 ½ teaspoons salt

    Oil as needed

Preparation

Step 1 - Combine flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups water and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

Step 2 - Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 minutes more.

Step 3 - At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. 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 dough and put it into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Step 4 - 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.

The result is a very nice rustic Boule.  Easy-peasy too....