No Knead Crusty Bread

It all started with the pot. A friend in our little town put on FB that she had this pot for sale, well, my friend Heidi jumped on it first. The pot is beautiful, it's blue and it's hers. So I borrowed it from her to make this bread. You need a pot with a good lid. So now the problem is, should I give her back the pot? Hey don't get me wrong, I already made her a loaf of bread in her pot. So now I am trying out my Cast Iron pan with a lid to see how it turns out. Now the problem is I have never used the lid in the oven before. It's in there now with the lid on at over 400 degrees. I have my fingers crossed. If it works out for me, I will give Heidi back her beautiful blue pot. Maybe, or just give her more bread.

The pot looks like it was never used, it's so pretty. I have pot envy.

The bread does not even stick at all to the pot. No need for greasing at all.

So easy, just mix together Flour, Yeast, Salt and Water. But use a fork not a whisk like I did. Fork is much easier to clean. Mix in and cover with plastic wrap and let set over night. Now make toast for breakfast.

This is how it will look in the morning. Holes and bubbles = nice holes in your bread. I love all the holes. Makes me happy.

This is a very sticky dough. I put lots of flour on my hands to get it out of the bowl. Make sure you put lots of flour on the board also. And for sure use a floured bench scraper to move the dough around and move more flour under the dough. Now let it set while you heat up the oven.

This is how it will look after you let it set for 30 minutes to rest. Now use the bench scraped and lift it into the very hot pot. I put the hot pot on top of the stove and put this board next to it. This way you won't have far to go. Just lift and carefully plop it into the hot pot. Cover and bake.

Because I want to make sure my bread is done in the middle, I take it's temperature. It should be at 190 for this bread I got mine a little high. 200 for bread with milk and eggs in it. Mine was just fine.

Now that's what I'm talking about. Where's the butter?

Here is the bread that I made in my Cast Iron Pan. It turned out just fine with the lid. Funny thing is the lid, where the little black handle is has a screw in it and that is what made the black spot on top of my bread. The screw got so hot I guess it burnt a tiny dot on top.

Makes 1 loaf

3 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup warm water

I put a little course salt on top of the bread before baking.

In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, salt and yeast together. Add water and stir with fork until a shaggy mixture forms. The mixture will be sticky and loose. This is good. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let set on your counter for 12 to 18 hours. Make in the afternoon and bake in the morning for some great toast.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with the pot and lid in the oven. Heat for 30 minutes. While the oven is heating up flour a board with lots of flour , make sure you flour your hands to. Pour the sticky beautiful dough onto the floured board and pat into a mound. Let set while the oven heats up.

Carefully remove the pot and lid from the oven and using your bench scraper ( flour it to ) to help you, drop the dough into the very hot pot. Put lid on and put in the oven for 30 minutes. At the end of the 30 minutes, take the lid off and cook for 15 minutes more or until golden brown and temp. of bread is 190 degrees. Carefully remove the loaf from the pot and let cool if you can before you add butter and eat. Adapted from so many sites I will name the one I found last and the one I used. http://www.alaskafromscratch.com/2012/07/27/dutch-oven-crusty-bread/