No-Knead Bread - World Bread Day

The No-knead bread caused such a stir when Mark Bittman, aka the Minimalist, shared this recipe on the New York Times. As soon as I started reading reviews and blogs with this recipe, I ran to the kitchen to make my own loaf and I lost count of how many times I have baked this magnificent bread! The secret to making this recipe work? Time and patience! The amount of yeast is minimal, and only four ingredients (flour, salt, yeast and water) make a delicious loaf, with an italian shape and flavor, somehow rustic, with crispy crust and yet chewy. The magic recipe has name and address widely known, and it belongs to a bakery in New York city, the Sullivan Street Bakery.

My recipe goes to the World Bread Day, an event created by UIB International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners to provide an opportunity to talk about bread and bakers, to find out about their history, their importance as well as their future.

How to participate:

• Bake or buy a bread, take pictures (if possible) and blog about it on Tuesday, 16th October 2007.
• Please link back to this announcement in your post, and eventually to the roundup.
• Send an email to worldbreadday(at)gmail(dot)com including
- your name
- your blog's name and your blog's URL
- the recipe name and the post's URL
- your location (region and country)
• Submissions can only be accepted until Wednesday, October 17.

To make things easier, before start making the bread, watch the Minimalist video here: New York Times (free registration may be required).

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, no need to sift, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups water

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 1/2 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 70°F/21°C.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 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.

Update: The World Bread Day '07 round up is online! Please take some time to visit 183 posts from all over the world!