pictoral exploration of no knead bread

A few days ago I posted that I was going to make some no knead bread. I finally did so 2 nights ago and here's some pictures of the process:

First off you gather the dry ingredients like so...


then you add some water, in this case 1.5 cups and then stir them together so they look like this


after that you put the dough into a warm place for an overnight incubation. I started this at midnight and it only took about 5 minutes to mix the flour, yeast, salt, and water together and place them in the microwave. No zapping! I only used the microwave because it was an easy place to store the bowl with the dough.


After 18 hours the dough had almost doubled in size. It was on the small size due to the house not being very warm.


I then dumped the dough, which was quite sticky, onto a well floured surface. In this case it was a silicon baking sheet on my cutting board. The silicon sheet worked quite well.


You then fold the edges up onto the middle. You're not supposed to punch it down but I couldn't resist. There's just something about CO2 filled bread dough that just makes me want to punch it. After the folding you leave the dough to rest for 1 - 2 hours, I went for 2 hours due to the cool temperature in my house.


I helped the yeast a little by putting a warm mat under the silicon baking sheet.


After the two hours rest the dough had doubled in size and was ready for baking.


30 minutes before you bake the bread you want to start the oven to preheating. Set the oven at 475f with the baking vessel in the oven. I used the casserole dish from my crock pot.


When the dough has rested long enough to double in size and the oven is preheated you can toss the dough into the dish. Remember, that dish is gonna be VERY HOT. Be careful. After adding the dough cover the dish and put back into the oven. I used the cookie sheet that you can see in the picture above to cover the dish.


Since the oven is so hot the baking time is short. You want to go for 30 minutes with the cover in place, then remove the cover and go for 20 minutes longer. Keep the oven at 475f the entire time. This is what my bread looked like when I removed the cover.


And this is the bread 20 minutes later when I took it out of the oven.


And when I removed it from the casserole dish. It didn't stick at all--just popped right out. After you take the bread out of the oven you need to wait one hour before cutting it open.


And this is what the inside of the bread looked like when the hour was up and I was able to cut it open. It had a nice firm texture with a nice taste. I put together the ingredients for a second loaf of this bread tonight and I'll be baking it when I get home from work on Thursday. This time I think I'll add a little olive oil to the top and some kosher salt.