No-Knead Bread, 10 Years Later.

I was sitting at my desk at the Times 10 years ago when Jim Lahey – whom I knew only by reputation – emailed me: “I have a new method of making bread that requires no kneading and can give you professional results at home.”

I started baking bread in 1970, and, when my friend Charlie Van Over developed what I still believe is the best food processor method there is, I adopted that and never looked back. But Lahey’s invitation was intriguing.

It was a period during which the Times was experimenting with video, and I was one of the lucky guinea pigs. So on a bright November day (Jim insists it was election day 2006; I have no recollection), I walked over with two video people, we watched Jim do his thing, I wrote it up, the video people edited, and ….
It became one of the most popular stories in the history of the Times.

That level of popularity was a peculiar confluence of events, but that bread recipe (which I used yesterday, and will tomorrow, barely unchanged from the original), has legs. That original description by Jim remains true, and literally millions of people now make bread according to Jim’s instructions.

A few weeks ago, just before election day 2016, I met two video people from Food & Wine at Sullivan Street (which hasn’t changed much) and we taped a reunion, with Jim commenting on and critiquing my technique (which evidently isn’t bad).
You can watch (the extremely abridged version) here.
As you can tell – we had fun.









Tested and Proven - delicious!
So new recipe (12-06-2016):

2 2/3 Cup white flour
1 1/3 Cup whole wheat flour (Whole-wheat flour - in the US or wholemeal flour in the UK)
2 teasp salt
1/2 teasp yeast
2 Cup water

12 hour first rise
fold three times on floured surface
for 2-hour second rise

Bake 30 min at 500F/260C in covered dutch oven
Bake 15 minutes uncovered

AND old recipe (2015):
3 cups - 400 grams all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) instant yeast
1+1/4 teaspoons (8 grams) salt
1 5/8 cups (1+1/3 - 300 grams in book) water.

How to Make No-Knead Bread.

- How to Make No-Knead Bread | Food & Wine: video!
These days I usually use:
1 cup of whole wheat,
2 cups of unbleached white bread flour,
handfuls of pumpkin, sunflower, poppy and sesame seed, and
one heaping half tsp of instant yeast.

And more: - Five Seed Bread – lovinghomemade:

No-Knead Bread.

No-Knead Bread Recipe - NYT Cooking: 2015.
YIELD: One 680 Gram loaf.
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

- In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt.
Add 1 5/8 - 1.5 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap.
Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 21C.

- Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.
Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

- Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.
Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.
Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours.
When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

- At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 230C-260C.
Put a 6- to 8-Liters 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 towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K.
Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.
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.