As many of you know…I’m not much of a baker.  It’s not really my thing because it’s normally quite precise, exact and requires patience….pretty much 3 things that contradict my entire being.  Well…I came across a few recipes on line recently for no knead or magic bread that assured me it would be simple so I put on an apron and decided to see what the hype was about.

Apparently, a guy named Jim Lahey who runs the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York pretty much blew up the internet with  his no knead bread technique, claiming it was so simple even a 6 year old could do it.  The fact that this required absolutely no skill and the guy who invented it has the same name as one of my favourite trailer park boys characters, meant that this was right up my alley.

Okay so here goes.  I threw this dough together like 10 minutes before I was heading out for the night.  I got a large bowl, flour, instant yeast, salt and water and mixed it together in the bowl.  It didn’t look promising but I was warned about this.  So I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it overnight.

The next morning…after about 18 hours, it doubled in size and was nice and puffy in the bowl.

Next I took my beautiful cast iron le creuset pot and put it in a 450 degree oven to warm up.  It is important that you use a cast iron pot with a lid for this recipe.  Right before I was about to take the pot out and bake the bread, I removed the plastic wrap and gently scraped the dough out of the bowl on to my floured countertop and shaped it in to a round disc/round ball and placed it on to some parchment paper.  *I also decided to sprinkle a little dried thyme on top just cuz I wanted to be all fancy pants about it.  I mean come on, tra la la, just wearing an apron and making my own bread …I can do what I want.

Now remove the pot from the oven VERY CAREFULLY!!  This pot will be majorly hot, like molten lava hot so seriously be careful.  I lifted up the parchment paper with the bread dough on it and dropped it in the hot cast iron pot.  The parchment will act like a protective layer and will allow the bread to crisp up.

Place the lid back on top of the pot and put in the oven for 30 minutes to bake.  After 30 minutes, remove the lid.  The pic below is what it will look like.  As you can see, you want it to crisp up more and be nice and crusty so you will need to put it back in the oven for another 10-15 minutes without the lid in order to get that nice caramel colour.

This is what it looks like as soon as you take the lid off.  I wanted a lot more colour so baking it for another 10-15 minutes with the lid off will give it a gorgeous colour

After about 13 minutes, this is what it looked like.  Gorgeous.  I am seriously so flipping impressed with this.  Like I might actually make bread on a regular basis moving forward.  It really was super duper simple and i’m going to be a dinner hero when I pull this bad boy out with dinner tonight!!

Here is the recipe:

No Knead Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp of instant yeast
• 1.5 cups of water (at room temperature)
• 1 tsp dried thyme (optional)

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the first 3 ingredients together until fully mixed together
2. Add in the water and stir until a chunky dough forms.  (It won’t look pretty but if it’s mixed together…trust the process, trust the moody little kitchen)
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 12-18 hours.  Overnight is awesome because then it doesn’t feel like you are waiting.
4. The dough will have doubled in size after 12-18 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and place your cast iron pot with lid in to the oven for 30 minutes to warm up.
6. Remove plastic wrap from bowl and gently scrape the dough out on to a floured surface and form in to a ball.
7. Place dough on to parchment paper.
8. Remove pot from oven.  Holding the parchment paper with dough on it, place it carefully in to the pot.  Place the lid on the pot and bake for 30 minutes.
9. Remove lid from pot and allow the bread to bake for an additional 10-15 minutes or until it crisps up and turns in to a nice golden caramel colour.
10. Enjoy the fruits of no labour cuz this literally required minimal effort for this masterpiece.

Seriously, I think Lahey was right…a 6 year old probably could make this bread.  It was super simple and used very simple ingredients.  Even though I threw some thyme on top, the basics really make this work.  Flour, Yeast, Salt and water….nothing fancy pants about it yet it makes delicious bread.  Hope you all enjoy this!!