I miss the breads from the local bakeries in my home state in MI. Panera was one of my favorite places to go to get fresh bread and even better than that was a market I frequented for the fresh artisan bread made daily- Nino Salvaggios. They have these rolls that I have been trying to figure out to make for years, the recipe STILL eludes me, but I have had a small victory recently in the bread making department when I stumbled upon a recipe for no-knead bread. Because I make most of the bread for our family, I am always looking for easy recipes and this is certainly easy! The kicker for me though is that this recipe produces the chewy crusty bread like at Nino’s for a fraction of the cost and in the comfort of your own home! It takes a little time for the dough to do it’s magic, but trust me- so worth it!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour- some say bread flour is the best, I used all-purpose

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

cast-iron pot, enameled is nice- or another kind of pot that can go in an oven at 450 degrees

Cornmeal for sprinkling

Directions:

1. mix all first four ingredients together in a bowl with a wooden spoon- dough will be wet and sticky.
2. cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for 12-18 hours- yes, HOURS. Because of the size of my family, I usually do about three of these now in three separate bowls.
3. After the hours are put it, your dough will be airy and stringy with lots of ‘bubbles’ in it.
4. turn dough out onto floured surface, this is the fun part- take the spoon and fold the dough gently from the bottom up on each side with the spoon, not your hands- no-kneading- using the spoon to fold from the bottom up so that eventually the whole ball of dough is covered in flour. Pinch the top ends of the dough together.
5. Gently place the dough onto a bread cloth sprinkled with cornmeal, wrap and allow to rise for a few hours.
6. place pot in oven preheated to 450 degrees
7. once pot is heated turn the dough into the hot pot and bake the dough until it is golden brown and hollow sounding when tapped.
8. cool on rack, slice and serve with butter. My family loves it warm and fresh from the oven, so as soon as it is cool enough to handle they are usually cutting into it!

If you are confused about any of the steps, this is a great tutorial on YouTube: No-Knead Bread