No-Knead Bread

This recipe is adapted from Jim Lahey via Mark Bittman at the New York Times, with a few minor changes of my own. Some folks may have seen it floating around the Internet already. With some local wheat on hand to go into it, I thought I'd share. I make this pretty regularly through the winter, when I can't get bread from El Jardin bakery at the farmers market. If you're looking for something to put your caramelized onions and goat cheese on, this is great. You can play with the ratio of flours--the amounts listed below are what I like, but it's pretty flexible.

The wheat I bought from Crabapple Farm was not ground, but I have a flour mill. I have found that freshly ground grains add wonderful flavor to breads and other baked goods.

To bake this bread, you will need a good sized covered casserole pot, preferably ceramic or cast iron (I use a cast iron dutch oven). Glass is okay but not as good. Be sure the pot and lid are oven proof at high temperatures.

Overnight version
3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour OR 1 cup whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup millet flour (my favorite)
1/4 tsp yeast
2-3 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups lukewarm water

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. The dough will be very wet. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 15-18 hours (this is flexible: can be less, especially if the room is warm, or can be as much as 24 hours if you forget about it accidentally).

Liberally flour a work surface. Scrape the dough out of the bowl. Using well-floured hands and maybe a dough scraper, form the dough into a ball. You will need to keep sprinkling it with flour as you do this, until it is not sticky to the touch.

Sprinkle cornmeal onto a dish towel (not a fuzzy one!). Place the dough on the cornmeal and sprinkle more cornmeal over it. Cover with another towel and let rise for 2 hours.

After 1 1/2 hours or so, put your pot and lid in the oven and preheat to 450 degrees. When the oven is hot and the bread is done rising, take the pot out of the oven and put the dough into it. Bake covered for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Cook on rack.

Quicker version
This is not quite as good as the overnight version, but it's close. What I like about the overnight version is that it develops a faint sourdough flavor from sitting out so long rising.

Use 1 Tbsp yeast intead of 1/4 tsp. After combining all ingredients in the bowl, cover and let rise for about 4 hours. Follow the same procedure as above with the flour and cornmeal for the second rising, but rise only one more hour. Follow procedure above for preheating and baking.