I was encouraged by an e-mail from one of the readers to try my hand at no-knead bread. In 2006, food columnist Mark Bittman did a piece on this method of making crusty bread that many people were unaware of. After that, making this bread that takes very little work but a whole lot of time, was all the rage with foodies.

 

That was three years ago, and there is a new crop of foodies, myself included, who missed this phenomena the first time around. I decided to give it a try.

 

What secret ingredient goes into this no knead bread? None. It doesn’t get simpler than this. Flour, salt, yeast and water.

 

The results? Look at the pictures. I ended up with a bread that was crusty on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. A great bread to serve with a meal or to dip in olive oil. You’ll notice that the edges of my bread are a little too crispy. Don’t blame the recipe. That’s the result of me needing to be outside on this past beautiful Saturday instead of being in the kitchen watching the bread at the end of its baking. I let the time get away from me and the bread spent a little extra time in the oven.

 

Still, most of the bread didn’t make it until dinner that night. Every time someone walked through the kitchen, another small piece got sliced off and eaten.

 

I didn’t end up with the perfect loaf of bread, but I did end up with a darn good loaf, and I’ll be making this again (and again and again). Not only was it easy, it was so inexpensive. Look at these ingredients — it’s maybe 75 cents worth of basics.

 

 

Prep time: 15 min, plus 18 hours to set, and 2 hours to rise  

Cook time: 25 min  

Total time: 40 min  

 

 

 

Yields one loaf of bread

 

More details about the instructions such as type of pot and more precise baking instructions can be found here.