We Made Bread!

I think I need an entire post for this bread that my youngest son and I made this morning! Let me first say that I think breadmaking is absolute magic! When you look at the ingredients you start with and then see what you end up with, it's breathtaking! And this simple masterpiece has been sustaining humans for thousands of years... I have Jim Lahey's book, My Bread, and I love it (and he has another book out now called The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook that I definitely need to check out!) Anyways, my son has recently been asking a lot of questions about where different food comes from (we're related) and I remembered this fantastic recipe. It's stupidly easy and incredibly satisfying - you just need a bit of time. So start it this afternoon or this evening and you can have fresh baked bread for lunch tomorrow. Do it!
P.S. The original recipe calls for bread flour which I did not have on hand and which I'm sure makes this even more delicious!

No-Knead Bread (adapted from Jim Lahey) 

Makes 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS

3 cups flour, plus additional for dusting

1 1/4 t. salt

1/4 t. yeast

1 1/3 cups cool water

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, stir flour, salt, and yeast together. Add the water and mix with a wooden spoon until a sticky dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 12-18 hours.

2. Dust a cutting board with flour and use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough onto the board in one piece. Tuck the edges of the dough under to make a round. Generously flour a tea towel or large cloth napkin (not terry cloth - too bumpy) and gently place the dough round in the center, seam side down. Dust the surface of the dough with flour and loosely cover with the ends of the towel. Let the dough rise for another 1-2 hours until almost doubled in size and a 1/4 inch deep finger poke holds its shape.

4. Place a large oven proof pot with a lid in the oven. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Using potholders, carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Quickly and gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up. Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove bread from pot and let cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour.