Recipe: No-Knead Bread

If you love bread, you must try this recipe!  It is incredible.  The texture of this bread is perfect -- not too light, not too dense; the crust is crunchy, and well, perfect.

Amazingly easy, no need to knead the dough, and it only requires 4 ingredients.  My friend's dad made this recipe, and I literally wanted to eat the entire loaf (and I'm not even a huge bread person).  As you can see from the photo, we ate half the loaf last night. 

Tips:

• Make sure you use instant yeast.
• Plan ahead.  If you want the bread for dinner, you'll need to start the bread 20 hours in advance.  Here is an example timeline:
• Start making the bread @ 10 pm
• Tend to the dough 18 hours later @ 4 pm
• Tend to the dough again 15 minutes later @ 4:15 pm
• Start baking the bread after 2 hours @ 6:15 pm
• Bake the bread for 45 minutes; it'll be done @ 7 pm
• Note:  At the end of the recipe, we only needed to bake it an additional 15 minutes, not 30.

The recipe was printed in The New York Times back in 2006, and I'm so glad it's still posted online!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=0
I just watched the 5 min video (at the link above) where The New York Times' Mark Bittman talks to Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery about his recipe.  Jim provides a faster version of this recipe that involves adding red wine vinegar and using hot water so that the dough only needs 4 hours to rise instead of 18 hours.  I may try this next time!