No Knead Bread

I thought I would document the no knead bread that I have been making since we moved away from our fabulous bakery/coop. Its a pretty simple recipe and open to alot of adjustments. I showed daddy how to make it when they visited us a while ago and he could probably also chime in with ideas.

Time: 31/2 hours (10 minutes of work)
Makes: 1 loaf.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups Water
  
• 2 tsp Yeast
• 2 tsp Salt
• 3 1/2 Cups Flour (I usually use 2 of WW and 1 1/2 of White but you can mix and match)

1. Mix the water, yeast and salt. Don't worry about proofing it or anything.
2. Stir in the flour. You don't need to worry much about this step just get it all wet. It could be that if you stir it alot now it will make a more holey/crusty/chewy bread and less sandwichy but I am not sure. The dough should still be pretty wet and sticky after mixing. You might need to add water or flour.
   
3. Rise it in the bowl for 2 hours or so. It should not spring back when you poke it. I usually rise it in the microwave since that stays warm and isn't drafty. If you want to accelerate the rise you can turn it on for a minute at the start.
4. Make the loaf. This is the only tricky part so I made a video. Basically get your hands wet and stretch the "skin" of the loaf a bit to make the crust. Technically, I believe this is called cloaking. I think the less you disturb it at this point the airier the bread will be. If you want you can also slash the loaf to make it pretty. Use a sharp knife or a pair of kitchen scissors.
5. Let the loaf rise again. After 20 minutes turn on the oven to 400 or so. When it is hot put in the bread and bake for 35 minutes. When it is done it will sound hollow when you tap it.

Thats it. Basically all the bread we eat these days is made this way. The recipe seems to be very forgiving to sloppy measuring and experimentation. We have made oat bread by leaving out a little flour and adding a cup of oats. Sunflower seed bread by adding sunflour seeds at the start. Change the character by how much you stir and or cloak the dough. Adjust the temperature for different crusts. Put a pan of water in the oven for a crunchier crust.