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SubscribeMonday, September 10, 2007
No Knead Bread: so easy a 4-yr old can make it!
It’s been almost a year since NY Times unveiled the secret to the revolutionary No-Knead Bread. And while fads come and go, this certainly is a recipe that has transcended the fickleness of foodies. It’s time to revisit the bread…. as many of us have been brainwashed by this summer’s ice cream! We’ve made close to 60 loaves since last November and I’ve got to tell you, it is still one of our family’s favorite things to eat.
I firmly believe that every person should bake a loaf of bread at least once in their lifetime. Granted, it’s easy to just drive to your local bakery to pick up a loaf, but have you ever experienced the intense joy of smelling freshly baked bread coming from your very own oven?! Foodgasmic eyes-roll-to-back-of-head, soul softly moaning as you tug a piece of warm, pillowy mound gently with your teeth. In case you’ve not heard of No Knead Bread….let me tell you about it. Baking bread does sound intimidating…all that kneading and loaf-shaping business is best left to pros. But what if I told you that you don’t even have to knead or shape, that it is so easy my little son makes it.
No Knead Bread recipe so insanely brilliant – no sticky fingers, no doughy mess, no intricate measuring, no complicated kneading. Totally hands-off. The crust is thin, crisp and snaps as you cut into the loaf. The interior of the bread holey, chewy, airy and light. If bread could sing, this would be an angelic choir. In Dolby digital surround sound. Now, with that, how could you not try No Knead Bread? It only takes 3 minutes to mix and a wooden spoon. You can’t even boil spaghetti in 3 minutes!
So, without further blabbering, I’ve pimped out my son to demonstrate that baking No Knead Bread is so simple a 4-year old can do it.
Of course I had to bribe him with 2 temporary tattoos. Cheap labor. 10 cents apiece. There is nothing that says, “I’m a kick-ass no knead bread baker” more than a tattoo of a killer whale. Move over Bourdain, here comes someone cuter…
So, let’s start. 3 cups of bread flour in a big bowl.
secret: I sometimes use 1/2c whole wheat flour + 2 1/2c bread flour
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast:
1 teaspoon of table salt
(secret: I use 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt. Why the difference?)
Add 1-1/2 cups of lukewarm water. Sorry no pic – he dumped water before I could pick up camera. But you know what “dumping water” looks like! Stir. Use those muscles, boy. Stir like a badass-baker with whale tattoos would stir!
See? This is what it is supposed to look like…a shaggy, goopy mess.
Wrap up the no knead bread dough
Give it a kiss good night and let the no knead bread dough sleep for 12-20 hours on counter or in a nice, warm, cozy place.
secret: I’ve let it sit for as little as 8 hours and it still tastes great! I did knead with wet hands just a little tiny bit to make up for the time OR you can add a touch more yeast.
After sleeping, the no knead bread dough should look like this: (better than what I look like in the morning.)
Dump out on floured surface:
Wet your hands. This will prevent the very sticky dough from sticking to your hands. If you find dough sticking to your hands, wet again. Why not flour your hands? You could, but you want to keep the flour: water ratio pretty even. Since we are adding flour to the surface, I balance it out by wetting my hands. It is the high water content that makes this bread so deliciously light and the crust very crisp. With wet hands, grab the dough and fold over all ends towards the middle. Turn dough blob over so that you get a nice, smooth, tight surface. Try to tuck the dough ends under to get that taut surface.
Gently move dough onto a floured towel. Cover. Let nap for 2 hours. It should puff up nicely and double in size.
secret: When I run out of time, I sometimes let it sit only for 1 hour! If you let it nap in a tall, narrow bowl (pictured below), the dough rises nice and tall, about 6″ high. If you leave it out on the counter – that is fine too, the dough will rise up and also out….making a flatter No Knead Bread loaf, about 3″-4″ high.They will both taste the same, just looks a little different.
A half hour before the nap ends, we will need to begin preheating your baking vessel. Slip a covered pot into the oven. Crank up the heat to 450F. Let it pre-heat for 30 minutes or longer.
The perfect pot for No Knead Bread
Let’s talk about the pot. So, you know you’re going to put the pot into a very very hot oven. Make sure that the pot can withstand 450F. Generally, if the pot is cheap, flimsy, has plastic handles and a remnant from your poor college days, it’s probably not going to be safe to use in that hot of an oven. Use a 5-qt or larger cast iron, ceramic, Pyrex, stainless steel or enamel pot.
Just check your pot collection – look for large, heavy, no plastic.
Round, oblong – doesn’t matter. Should be at least 4″ tall. I use my Le Creuset emameled cast-iron. Yes, my cover has a thick plastic knob – but I did call Le Creuset’s customer service and they said while their literature says safe to 400F, it is still fine at 450F. Now, I don’t know whether the gal who talked with me really had the authority to tell me such a thing….but after over 30 loaves, my pot is still unblemished. After pre-heating, remove the hot pot from oven. Now plop this wobbly dough into the hot pot. Doesn’t matter how it lands – actually, the messier it lands, the more “rustic” it looks. Shake pot a bit to even out the dough.
secret: if you aren’t using a well-seasoned cast iron pan, you can put a piece of parchment paper in the pot first so that the No Knead Bread won’t stick to the bottom.
“It looks like a belly button!“ ~Andrew
Cover and put back into the oven. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Photo below is peeking through oven door after 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake further for 15-20 minutes. To check – you can either tap the bread (should sound low, hollow, like a drum) or take its temperature (should be 210F in middle).
Here is No Knead Bread just after baking. See? I told you that “messy” turns out “rustic!” Kids- don’t you DARE tell me that your toy room looks “rustic!!!” GO CLEAN YOUR ROOM!
Remove and let cool. The No Knead Bread really does sing – the crust crackles as it cools. Listen to it!
secret: Because the bread has such high water content- the crust will not stay crisp forever. If you aren’t eating soon, you can re-crisp the crust by re-heating it in a 350F oven for 10 minutes.
Thats it! You will be rewarded with a thin, crunchy brown crust, large, open holes. The bread is slightly chewy, flavorful and perfect texture. Making your own bread is deeply soul satisfying, it makes me feel like I am so close to the earth. Eat with good butter – like Kerrygold or Lurpak – splurge on your butter for this loaf!
Just a little story for you: The first time Andrew and I made this bread together, I let him mix all the ingredients together the night before. We watched it bake together. When it came out of the oven, Andrew wanted to cut into it immediately. But we had to wait until it cooled. Then it was time. As I placed the tip of my knife into the bread and moved down through the crust, the snap and crunch of the crust gave way to tender, spongy body. I knew even without tasting it, that it was the most perfect loaf of bread that I have ever made. Andrew and I slathered butter on our slices. We sat on the kitchen floor, my hands still with traces of flour, and had a wonderful moment of just enjoying bread that we made together. Just like his Po-Po, Andrew loves bread. Each time, he would come ask, More bread please with arms outstretched. I would place a warm buttered slice in his small hands – he cradled it so gently, carefully ran to the stairs, never taking his eyes off the prize. He sat on the third step and ate his bread, wiggling his toes between bites. Three times he did this. Yes, this is my son. Perhaps one day when he is older, he will read this recipe and story and remember how his Mommy taught him how to eat homemade bread – with lots of butter and with eyes closed, totally savoring every single bite.
No Knead Bread Recipe
No Knead Bread Recipe is adapted from Mark Bittman of NY Times who got it from Sullivan Street Bakery. When the recipe first came out, it was the blogging community who took the bread to new heights, especially Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of The Bread Bible. I followed Rose's experiments through the weeks and learned from her recipe adjustments and the why's of how this bread works.
Ingredients:
3 cups bread flour (I like Harvest King bread flour)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon fine table salt (or 3/4 tablespoon of kosher salt)
1 1/2 cups warm waterCovered pot (five-quart or larger cast iron, Pyrex, ceramic, enamel...something that can go into a 450F oven.)Directions:
1. Mix dough: The night before, combine all ingredients in a big bowl with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. It will be a shaggy, doughy mess. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 12-20 hours on countertop.
2. Shape & preheat: The dough will now be wet, sticky and bubbly. With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. Fold ends of dough over a few times with the spatula and nudge it into a ball shape. You can use your hands if you like, just keep your hands wet so that the dough does not stick. Generously dust a cotton towel (not terrycloth) with flour. Set dough seam side down on top of towel. Fold towel over the dough. Let it nap for 2 hours. When you've got about a half hour left, slip your covered pot into the oven and preheat to 450F.
3. Bake: Your dough should have doubled in size. Remove pot from oven. Holding towel, turn over and dump wobbly dough into pot, using your hands to get the dough off the towel. Doesn't matter which way it lands. Shake to even dough out. Cover. Bake 30 minutes. Uncover, bake another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is beautifully golden and middle of loaf is 210F. Remove and let cool on wired rack. If not eating right away, you can re-crisp crust in 350F oven for 10 minutes. Best way to eat it? Smear a warm slice with some good butter (Kerrygold and Lurpac are both found in your grocery stores, usually on top shelf)
See the kids make German Oven Pancakes 
Also try: 
Dip bread in Olive Oil and Dukkah
Dip in Bagna Cauda
Sop up juices in Killer Cajun Shrimp
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Help!!!
As an incurable bread lover, I went out and bought an expensive Le Creuset pot to create the spectacular European-style boule described in the Times, but I have failed every time. Step 1 (combine flour, yeast and salt, 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until shaggy and sticky) is a breeze. Then nothing seems to go right.
First, the bread doesn’t get hard enough during the 18-hour resting period to fold it over on itself for the fifteen minute resting period.
Second, it doesn’t get hard enough to shape it into a ball for the two-hour resting period.
Third, it doesn’t double in size during the two-hour rising period, and in fact it does not increase at all.
Not having any good options, I then put the too-soft, liquidy, unrisen dough in the hot Le Creuset in the oven for 45 minutes (30+15), where it bakes and browns beautifully–but what comes out is what you would expect if you crossed a boule and a matzoh. Really great crust, but barely an inch of bread.
This is very embarrassing because, based on assurances that even a kid could do this successfully, I have promised any number of people loaves of greatb read.
I would be indebted to anyone who can help me overcome my embarrassment!
Thanks very much!
I have the same problem with the dough not getting hard enough to fold it over on itself or hard enough for the ball, but it does double in size at the end because I put it in the towel, and then put the whole thing in a small 2 quart bowl for the last rising. Then I make sure I put it in a small enough covered pot for the baking so that it does rise enough for it to look like a loaf, not a pizza crust. I’m thinking of using a 1/2 teaspoon of yeast instead of a 1/4 because maybe I’m not using the right kind of yeast.
I took Jaden’s advice and threw away my old yeast and went out and bought new ones to bake again. The bread rose beautifully, this was my second attempt to bake bread you see, I was excited! It was also solid enough to fold over and the only different thing I did from the last time was change the yeast. Stuck it in the oven and I got a loaf that looked exactly like Jaden’s! Anyways, for the dough sticking to the kitchen towel part, I lined the towel with parchment before the 2nd resting phase.Problem solved. I will be baking this bread a lot more.
Bread has been my big sis’ specialty. One that I’ve observed to be too complicated to be bothered with. But this has convinced me to venture into. #1, because your son is too cute #2, because I want to be loved by my boyfriend Mr. G, forever and ever and ever like the way he loves his bread. (Hey, didn’t they say the way to a man’s heart is through his guts?).
Thank you for making it so easy for me.
Monkee
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I am making this bread this morning after seeing the recipe in the W&S catalog. It’s rising on the counter getting ready to go into the oven and I thought I would look it up on the internet….then I found your site. First, your son is adorable!! Your pictures of making the bread sure helped because so far so good. Only question I have is W&S tells you to use a 2 3/4 qt. dutch oven. I invested in such pan and now everyone tells me it’s not going to be big enough. I don’t want to have an I Love Lucy moment….what is the minimum size pan you reccomend?
Wow! Awesome photos!
Hi, I tried the recipe a couple of times and I always have the problem with the rising.
In winter I have barely 70F in the kitchen, so I thought that was the problem. Yesterday I started a new batch. I started a new package of dry yeast. I had at least 75F in the kitchen. The dough seemed to rise well and looked according recipe last night. This morning after abt. 20 hours later I tried the second step. However when I took it out of the pot, the dough was very wet on the bottom and everything collapsed. It was very sticky and shaping was not possible.
Was it that the temperature was too low at night, or is it the all purpose whole wheat flour?
Bread tastes great but the slices look more like biscotti than real bread slices.
Any ideas?
Hi,
Great recipe!!! I am so sick of paying over $4(nz) for a loaf of pretty bad bread!! And have to say that Id never seen myself making my own- but you have changed my life…… This bread ROCKS!!!!
I linked to your site from mine- hope you dont mind….?
KatG
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This bread is amazing, it is so easy! Thank you! I love your pics, and your son is adorable. I bet he is a lot bigger now!
Here’s the loaf I made:
http://hellagranola.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/homemade-bread/
made 4 loft all great, in Oklahoma it rise more than double in 5 hours in a room without a/c great and so good
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Wow I make this recipe all the time ,I add 1 teaspoon vingar in the dough, the bread stay crisp,a long time.
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Miss Steamy-
I have been making this for some time and it’s true- a four year old can make this…and as soon as she gets here….
Anyway, I’ve been using 2 tablespoons of sugar and it is even more wonderful.
michael
Miss Steamy (Hot)-
I’ve been using the inner, removable liner from my slow-cooker. I make two batches at a time (conserves energy) and I usually mix several batches of the dry stuff, put them in zip-lock freezer bags to speed up the next baking. I haven’t tried going to the next step of mixing the water in and then freezing the whole thing. I’ll keep you posted.
Warmly
michael
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OK – I have been properly humiliated by your son into making this bread! LOL Seriously, I think I can do it now. I tried one other time and rushed it – didn’t work at all!!!! Thank you.
…yep, made it several times. it’s so easy, takes no time to pull it together. my way is using 1 teaspoon yeast, just not yeasty enough for me without. also I put in 1 Tablespoon of sugar too, don’t know where I got that idea, thought it was posted somewhere but maybe not. also I pump up the salt as to us, bread without the addition of enough salt is bland and flat.
this bread’s a winner for sure, loved your photo’s with the little guy…thanks for sharing…
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Would it be possible to make this bread into dinner rolls.
Yes.
I haven’t made them but there are a ton of google search results for No Knead Dinner Rolls!
Awwwww…..your son is so precious! I loved the photos more than the recipe — no offense, but no bread can compete with that handsome little fella! My son is 21 now, but I sure do remember all the “kitchen experiments” (or “ditchin spearmin” in 2 yr old speak) we shared when he was a little guy. He loved it up to about age 6 or so, at which point he decided it wasn’t as cool or fun as playing with his buds — shooting up the joint with nerf darts and such.
I tell ya, give kids a big ol’ bowl, some baking soda, vinegar, flour, food color, cereal, pasta shapes, sprinkles and the like, and they can have so much fun. Of course, he didn’t actually make anything edible the majority of the time — I would just set out bowls, poons, plastic knives, pots and pans, all kinds of little measuring implements, and lots of ingredients…and let my son and niece go at it. They had little chef aprons and caps and would stand on stools to reach the counter. They were so darling!
Of course, they helped with “real” recipes, too (they loved to help mix up mini-cupcakes and have little bowls of icing and decorations for them), but the most fun they had was making a great big mess and showing off their creations afterward. I can’t believe I’m getting a little misty-eyed telling about such a simple little thing, but seeing your little guy sure brought back some treasured memories.
If you have little ones, folks, let them play with food ingredients (the baking soda/vinegar bubbly action gets ‘em excited every time). It really is every bit as much a constructive creative outlet as coloring or building with blocks. And it makes lots of fun memories (especially these days with cameras and video recorders ever at the ready).
More adorable kid pictures, please! Thanks for sharing! (Oh, and thanks for sharing the recipe, too!)
Ummm…that’d be “spoons” — I gave them spoons, not poons!
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can the no knead bread recipe be doubled to make more than one loaf at a time?
Thanks to your precious son and the wonderful pics showing how really ez it is, I will now attempt to make homemade bread, something I never thought I could ever do. Thank you. And thank you, Andrew.
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I tried this recipe today, it was delicious! Your version of the recipe was really fun to read and easy to follow. I linked you on my blog, too! I hope that is ok, the recipe was just too good not to be shared!
This was very tasty. We really loved it.
However, I’ve made it twice in two days and despite how much flour I use on the non-terry cloth kitchen towel, the dough sticks to it badly. Any ideas?
http://roxanne-rr.blogspot.com/2008/09/as-it-should-be.html
Roxanne,
Try using just parchment and then lift the entire parchment into the hot pot. You can bake with the parchment.
So Cute! Both those boys are dolls. I just had to try the bread–and I must bow down to the killer whale Prince, who made way better bread than me! (Had to put a link on my blog, too!) Thank you!
Keep this bread out of the refrigerator! It will ruin the crust. Keep it cut side down covered with a piece of paper or a towel. That keeps the moisture in but does not ruin the crust.
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hennry
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Hi! I’m a budding homemaker (20 y/o and counting)…anyhoo….my fiancee has been pretty impressed with my cooking (thanks SO MUCH to you). So, this past weekend I decided to make a cheddar and broccoli soup in a bread bowl (I know, fancy, right?) and used this recipe. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS (if I don’t say so myself). My fiancee and his daughter are very picky eaters and will NOT eat ANYTHING that looks like it MIGHT be good for them (hence, why I had to puree the broccoli in my soup) but they ate the soup, the bread, and TRIED to lick the plate!
I divided the dough into 3 smaller rounds after the 20 hr rest and then let them nap for the 2 hrs in separate containers….I actually used 3 small metal pots to bake them in and they came out fabulous. I cut off the tops, spooned out the middle and glazed them with butter….mmmmm….DELICIOUS!
I made more on Sunday and am eating it at work as I type….my coworkers are SEETHING with jealousy!
So, thanks!!!! This blog is MUCH appreciated
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i just made my first version of this bread -and my first successful bread ever!
Jaden this is a lovely site, thanks.
after about 16 hours of rising i took my dough and “jelly-rolled” fresh rosemary, garlic and grated asiago into the middle, then let rise some more and tucked-n-baked as directed. lord it’s tasty
though the pictorial with your son is awesome (Bourdain does need to watch out, in a few years, lol) if any visitors haven’t seen the NYT youtube of Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery demo-ing it here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU
also check out the ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY site:
http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/
p.s. in the Lahey vid he notes that not just a 6 year old, “even a 4 year old”, can make this bread -perhaps referencing your son?
I just found this site when looking up variations of the no knead bread and I actually got a little misty thinking of you and your boy making bread together. I love seeing children enjoying cross gender work. It will give him an appreciation of women’s world and as he grows into a man he will honor and respect our contribution whether he chooses more traditional pursuits or not.
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This may be a simple question, but.. why the floured towel instead of just a bowl?
I’ve got a batch rising tonight, I’ll probably try it with a bowl instead of a towel (just to be difficult) in the morning. Unless, of course, someone gives me some great reason between now and then
Bill- Easier to lift and release into your baking vessel without deflating or deforming the “blob” of dough. The risen dough is pretty delicate and wobbly.
Jaden – Thanks!
I have created a web page to better illustrate the tools and techniques of baking this bread at http://www.aresrocket.com/bread – illustrated and very detailed.