Have you tried making your own bread yet?

If you haven't, what's your biggest reason?  Too difficult?  Too tricky?  Too time consuming?

This particular recipe dispels all those concerns.

I don't make bread often, but love homemade bread when I can get it.  There's just something about the feeling of accomplishment when you pull out a loaf from the oven, hot and crackly, nicely bronzed and smelling like perfection.  Homemade bread doesn't always yield perfect results, especially in smaller, home ovens, but with a few techniques, you can get closer to that thick, crispy crust encasing fluffy, soft bread.  It's also a huge savings over store bought bread.  I haven't personally done the math, but I know that 6 cups bread flour costs less than $1, and yeast is probably $.10 when purchased in bulk (if not, it's still about 1/5 of a packet).  That's less than $1 total for a huge loaf that would likely cost $5 in a bakery or even grocery store. 

I saw this recipe on Pinterest, and tried it over the long weekend.  It worked well, and was easy and maintenance free.  Love that!  I am linking to the original pinned site.  To see all I've pinned, click here!

No-Knead Artisan Bread
adapted from Jim Lahey

6 cups bread flour (recommended) or all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
1/2 t. instant or active-dry yeast
2 1/2 t. salt
2 2/3 c. cool water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until all the ingredients are well incorporated; the dough should be wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest 12-18 hours on the counter at room temperature. When surface of the risen dough has darkened slightly, smells yeasty, and is dotted with bubbles, it is ready.

Lightly flour your hands and a work surface. Place dough on work surface and sprinkle with more flour. Fold the dough over on itself once or twice and, using floured fingers, tuck the dough underneath to form a rough ball.

Generously dust a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with enough flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel as it rises; place dough seam side down on the towel and dust with more flour, cornmeal, or wheat bran. Cover with the edges or a second cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until it has doubled in size.

After about 1 1/2 hours, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot, such as a cast-iron Dutch oven, in the oven as it heats. When the dough has fully risen, carefully remove pot from oven. Remove top towel from dough and slide your hand under the bottom towel; flip the dough over into pot, seam side up. Shake pan once or twice if dough looks unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for 10-15 more minutes, until the crust is a deep chestnut brown. The internal temperature of the bread should be around 200 degrees. You can check this with a meat thermometer, if desired.

Remove the bread from the pot and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Notes

• I used the stretch and fold method a little on the dough after the initial rise, but am not sure that I really needed to. 
• This was such a huge loaf!  I cut it into four wedges and froze 3/4 of it. 
• This technique of using a dutch oven will likely work with any round loaf you want to try.  Pizza stones are also great!
• Bread flour is a very high protein flour and is pretty widely available, but if you don't want to purchase bread flour, just add 2 Tb per cup more flour.  So, for 6 cups of bread flour, you'd use 6 cups of all purpose flour plus 12 Tb (or 3/4 cup).