No-Knead Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp instant or bread machine yeast
• 1/2 Tbsp salt
• 1.5 to 1.75 cup water

Directions

1. The day before you plan to bake, add the flour, yeast, and salt to a large bowl and mix them together thoroughly. Pour in about 1.5 to 1.75 cups room temperature water, stirring until the dough comes together into a shaggy, sticky mass and you do not see dry flour hiding at the bottom. Drape the bowl loosely with plastic and leave it at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
2. When it is time to bake, dust the top of the risen dough with a little flour, then coax it out of the bowl. By now it should look airy, bubbly, and soft. Flour your hands well, gently gather the dough into a ball, and set it on a piece of parchment paper. Leave it to rise for 30-60 minutes.
3. As the dough rises, heat the oven to 425ºF, or to the highest temperature your parchment paper packaging says is safe. Put the Dutch oven in the oven while it warms, and let it stay in the fully heated oven for at least 15 minutes before the bread goes in.
4. After the dough has risen and the Dutch oven is thoroughly hot, carefully take the Dutch oven out of the oven, because it will be seriously hot. Use the parchment to lower the dough straight into the Dutch oven, then put the lid on.
5. Set the covered Dutch oven back in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Take off the lid carefully, then continue baking for another 15-20 minutes, until the crust turns a deep golden brown. Pull the Dutch oven from the oven, lift out the loaf using the parchment paper, and let the bread cool before you slice and serve it.