No Knead Bread - My Metric Weight Version

I've been making this bread for a couple of years now and have made some adaptations to the original method but basically it is the same loaf with the same wonderful results.

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour,(I use 450g) more for dusting
1 5/8 cups of tepid water
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed (I use flour).

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, (I now use up to 420g)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 degrees F.

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 F. 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.

I have enjoyed all of the loves that I have made using this method but I have had a problem with consistency so I have been working on a using weights for the flour and water instead of volume measures. After several tries I've settled on 450g of Flour and 375g of water. I'm also finding that I get a much better loaf using unbleached flour. The finished product is 680 g loaf.

This collage shows the various steps that I go through to make my loaf. If you click on the photo it will take you to my flickr account and you can read the notes on the photo by mousing over the different photos in the collage.



I hope you try it for yourself at first it might seems a bit complicated but it really is very simple and fail proof. Happy Baking. PS: I have made the loaf with half white and half multi-grain floour which is great too. The one drawback being the heavier the flour you use the less rise you get in the loaf.