No Knead Bread
==============

These are some recipes that I learned from:

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread

http://breadtopia.com/cooks-illustrated-almost-no-knead/

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-baguettes-recipe

I sort of skip the annoying steps. The ny times recipe talks about
using cloths and folding the dough a couple of times on a work
surface, and preheating the baking container. I don't bother with that
(too much cleanup). The Cooks Illustrated one adds beer and vinegar
but I don't use beer. The key from the Cooks recipe is they use a
covered baking container. That makes a big difference -- the crust is
much less hard. Both recipes also say to preheat the container before
putting the dough in, but that's super annoying and not really
necessary.

My variation:

Mix 2.5 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon yeast, 1 teaspoon salt in a bowl. Add
1 cup warm water with 1 teaspoon vinegar. Mix the dough with a
spoon. Cover with a sheet of plastic wrap (I use a rubber band to hold
it on the bowl). Leave it in a warm place overnight (I put it in the
cold oven, but with the light on to warm it up a little).

In the morning, check the dough, it should have risen a lot. (If not,
find a warmer place and give it more time, or just bake it and eat a
dense, hard loaf.)

Take a baking dish with a lid. (I use a small cast iron Le Crueset,
but I've used a cheap enamel dish in the past too.) Put a little bit
of olive oil in the bottom and spread it around the bottom and sides
with a rubber spatula (this helps prevent the loaf from getting stuck
to the pan). Use the rubber spatula to get the blob of dough into the
baking dish. Flop the dough over in the disk once or twice to cover it
with oil and make it roughly even.

Put the lid on the container and let the dough rise for another hour
or so. Preheat the oven to 450F. Bake for 35 minutes with the lid on,
then remove the lid and keep baking for another 10 minutes. Done!

Baguettes
---------

You can make other things with this dough (e.g. pizza), and also
baguettes. For bagettes, after the dough has risen and is puffy,
scrape it onto a floured surface and knead it a few times. Then split
in two. With each piece, fold it in half and press it together,
stretching it out lengthwise a bit. Repeat this a few times until it's
16 inches long or so.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and lay the baguettes
seam-side down on the paper. Oil a piece of plastic wrap and cover the
sheet and let the loaves rise again (an hour or two) until they're
starting to look puffy.

Put a cast-iron pan in the bottom rack or bottom of the oven, and heat
to 450F. Boil 1.5 cups of water. Uncover the loaves, and (optionally)
put some cuts in the top. Put the sheet in the oven, and carefully
pour the boiling water into the hot cast-iron pan. There will be a
burst of steam so keep your hands and face clear if possible. Close
the oven door as quickly as you can. The steam helps the rise and the
crust.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Crust should be deep brown.