No-Knead Peasant Bread

Step 1

Mix all of the dry ingredients together: flour, salt, sugar and yeast.  Pour in your warm water. Stir until all the flour is incorporated and behold the shaggy mess. Don’t stress. Cover it and let it sit someplace warm until it is double in size.  It should definitely look wet and full of bubbles at this point.

Step 2

Preheat your oven to 425 F.  Generously butter two standard size loaf pans all the way to the top and make sure you hit the rim too--this bread rises dramatically. Then take two forks, and separate and deflate your dough. Spill/lift a half of the dough into each loaf pan. The dough has a very high water content, so it will be quite sticky. I find it easiest to lift the dough and plop it into the pans. Don’t worry that it looks lumpy.  Let it sit in the pans for about 20 minutes, till it rises about even with the top/slightly over.  Put your dough into the oven for about 15 minutes, then turn down the oven to 375 F, and bake for about 15-20 minutes more.

Step 3

You want a golden brown top, and a crazy good aroma coming from your oven. If you take the loaf out and tilt the pan on its side till the bread falls out, you can thump lightly on the bottom and it sounds hollowish. There, it is done. You can put the bread to cool on a rack, out of the pan. BUT, don’t you dare eat it yet! Nope. You can’t. Sorry. This baby needs to rest for about 30 minutes at least. Warm bread is amazing. Hot bread is a mess. Trust me on this one.