+1! Totally awesome. Tried this about 5 or 6 times so far and each time the bread comes out great. Made a rye last week - You can change the recipe to 2.25C white flour and 3/4C Rye, up the yeast a tiny bit. Trying to figure out how to get my bread to rise a bit more, but I think it may just be too cold in my house.

I've been making almost all our bread for the past two years, using a variation that I developed on the no-knead recipe. The only problem I've found with the Lahey/Bittman recipe is that the timing is a little awkward: to get the best flavor you really need to stick to the 18-hour rise (which was arrived at through much trial and error, it's the magic number of hours that yields the most fully developed flavor while still allowing the yeast enough oompf to create an acceptably high loaf). Eighteen hours works out to be somewhat inconvenient unless you're working at home or make your bread only on weekends, as it usually requires a bit of tending in the afternoon.

The variation I came up below with borrows the best elements of the Lahey/Bittman no-knead bread and the best features of the Hertzberg method (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). The result is a very simple-to-make bread, requiring about 5 minutes to set up and another 5 minutes or so of attention before baking, and it makes two loaves instead of one. You can do it all in one evening and have great bread for the next day. It keeps well and in my experience doesn't start tasting stale until 3 or 4 days later (it's rare for one of these loaves to last that long; the bread is so tasty that it gets eaten long before that).

Bread made with all whole wheat won't develop a hard crust, but tastes great. I usually use a mix of flours, mostly whole-wheat with some regular bread flour mxed in; if I want a classic French boule I use regular red-wheat bread flour and no whole wheat. Some people put seeds and nuts in to "jazz up" the recipe, but I feel this misses the point: if you follow the recipe exactly, the bread is so delicious on its own that it doesn't need anything else. I've tried making this with kamut and other alternative flours as an experiment, and it doesn't work for me: you really need the gluten in wheat to hold the dough together and produce an acceptable loaf.

I live with a French woman, who has pronounced this bread as good or better than anything she's eaten in France or anywhere else for that matter. We have excellent artisanal bakeries in my city, but we've stopped buying bread from them except when I need a break -- which is only rarely because this bread is so easy to make.

Here's my recipe:

6.5 cups of flour
1.5 tablespoons instant yeast
1.5 tablespoons salt
3 cups lukewarm water

Mix the flour, yeast, and salt together well in a big bowl or pot, then pour in the 3 cups of lukewarm water and stir until there aren't any more dry spots. The dough will be ragged and sticky. Cover the bowl or pot but not airtight (ie, don't cover it with plastic wrap) and let it sit for 2 hours or as long as 5 hours.

Divide the dough in half (just pull it apart with your hands, it'll be really wet and sticky), and keep half in the refrigerator for your next loaf of bread -- it'll keep for a week or so.

Put a cast-iron pot with a lid into the oven and turn the heat to 450 Fahrenheit. (Note: if you're using a Le Creuset pot or something similar with a bakelite handle on the lid, remove the handle as it will melt at that temperature. If you remove the handle, keep the screw in the hole so the cover is airtight).

Sprinkle some flour on the half of the dough you're using now and shape it roughly into a ball. Put it on a floured surface (I use cornmeal) and let it sit to rise while the oven warms. Don't let it rise more than 25-30 minutes, otherwise it will spread out and you'll end up with a fairly flat loaf of bread

When the oven reaches 450 degrees, take the pot and its lid out of the oven and put the dough into the pot. Put the lid on the pot and put the pot back in the oven for 30 minutes with the lid on, still at 450.

After 30 minutes, take off the lid and let it bake another 15-18 minutes with the lid off, this gives it a beautiful dark brown color. Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.

I reckon I've made about 300 of these loaves by now; they're very impressive looking and delicous. It's hard to believe something with such a full, complex flavor can come out of so few ingredients and so little effort.

Here's another lazy person's approach, as suggested in the Kingsolver book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" (http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/about%20the%20book.html):

Dig out that dusty unused bread machine and use it just to knead your preferred recipe (I like whole wheat), then dump the machine-kneaded dough onto your counter, punch it down, put it in a bread pan or shape into a round loaf, let rise and bake.

Don't have a bread machine in the back of some cupboard? Pick one up at a yard sale.

I lived in NYC when Lahey still ran the original Sullivan Street Bakery. My dearest Gopod, his bread was unbelievably good. Since I lived in Washington Heights, I would track to the bakery from Wall St. after work once a week and take home 2 of the really large loaves in the large paper flour sacks they had laying around. My, oh, my. I get good bread here in Spain where I live now but nothing like that.

A 4.5 hour bread - Start with 3 cups of flour. Add 1/2t of kosher salt. Add 1/2t of yeast. Add 1 cup of warm water. Mix well. Add 1/2 cup of warm water. Mix. The dough should be jaggy. Cover with towel. Place in dark place. Four hours later, heat oven to 450. Cover bread with foil. Place in oven. Uncover after 30 minutes. Take bread out over another 5 minutes. Wait 10 minute to cool. Eat.

Recently I have been taking the same recipe but dividing the dough into six parts to make rolls.

One thing about bread machines, loaf pans, etc:

The point of the original (Lahey) no-knead bread isn't really the lack of kneading: it's the long rise, the wet dough, and cooking in a covered pot.

The long rise with no kneading develops complex flavor. You can't really achieve the same result with standard bread that you may make in a bread machine or through traditional kneaded recipes (except for those that use very little yeast and require a long rise).

The wet loaf ensures that the dough will produce steam when cooked at a high temperature inside the lidded cast-iron pot. This produces a perfect, shattering crust. No bread machine that I've encountered is capable of that kind of crust.

I've eaten plenty of good bread-machine bread; it's a lot better than Wonder Bread, but not in the same league as this stuff.

A dutch oven for $50? Thankfully my in-laws get alot of their entertainment from going to garage sales on the weekends. Our dutch oven cost $5.

This method does yield the tastiest and easiest bread imaginable. I just made it a week ago with the very same Lodge dutch oven mentioned. One would have to go to an artesian bakery to get stuff that tastes like this. It also makes fabulous toast the next day if there's any left over.

LapsedUnitarian having experience with both your method and this one, I believe that this one is still easier. Give it a try and I think you will be amazed. I too love the NYT No-Knead Bread recipe and make it often. I am still absolutely stunned that it took humanity so long to come up with this. I can't believe we all thought for so long that bread dough had to be kneaded.

I have also tried one of the even faster no-knead recipes (http://www.instructables.com/id/4-Hour-No-Knead-bread/) when I had an *emergency* need to make the Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken and Bread Salad and was surprised at how good it was.

I still do use my bread machine on occasion, but only when there are not enough waking hours - i.e. when my bread-for-breakfast-loving husband says at 11 PM "Hey honey, are we out of bread?" (the answer is always "yes"). But, I find that it takes no more work to make no-knead bread. Yes - with the No-Knead, you do have to take a minute to stir the dough, but because the recipe I use for my bread machine uses more ingredients, it takes more hands-on time.

I'm something of a foodie and I've somehow missed this whole thing up until now! Thanks all for the comments.

I've been making the no-knead bread from the NYT recipe for just over a year now. I recently added Mr. Lahey's book, My Bread, to my bookshelf. I have to say that this book has taken my bread making to the next level.

The book contains the original recipe plus many variations as well as instructions for some amazing sandwiches and pizzas (with recipes to make many of the fixings from scratch). The book also discusses the science behind bread making and Mr. Lahey's history with bread. It's a great book and has turned me from a once-a-week baker to an every-day bread machine.

No need to buy a baking stone or even a Dutch oven. Do you have a cast iron pan? You can use it either upright or flipped upside down to present a flat surface. Need a peel? Use any thin, flat cookie sheet or cake pan lid... or just set the rising loaf on a piece of aluminum foil and set the whole thing in the oven directly on whatever you use for a pre-heated mass.

The real key to these recipes is that gluten develops without kneading IF the dough is moist enough.

@brad: Thanks for the wonderful directions. Since this is cool tools, does the size of the pot matter?

Is a dutch oven really necessary if it is only for steam? Does sealing it in foil do the same job?

Jim Lahey has published a great book on his method too, and makes an incredible gift. So many people say that they want to make bread. Lahey's book is well-illustrated and very carefully written.

http://www.amazon.com/My-Bread-Revolutionary-No-Work-No-Knead/dp/0393066304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263841055&sr=8-1-catcorr

I was going to try this recipe last year when I heard of any even easier method. The authors of "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/ came up with a method that doesn't use a dutch oven. You also make a batch that keeps up to two weeks. You pull out as much as you need and have a ready supply on hand. It's pretty versatile. I've made boules (crusty loaves), baguettes, rolls, pizza, calzones, and pita bread with the same recipe. For me, the recipe has always worked. Their technique is almost effortless. I stopped buying crusty bread from the store.

They've just published another book, "Health Bread in 5..." I've made my first whole wheat loaf. It turned out great.

Regarding Kevin Kelly's question (and other questions about using foil instead of a Dutch oven):

1. I've found that with the original no-knead bread recipe the size of the pot does matter, because if the pot's too big it allows the dough to spread out and you can end up with a loaf that's only an inch or two high after it's cooked. The dough is so wet that it doesn't hold its shape very well.

So in my experience a relatively small-bottomed pot works best for the original recipe; it constrains the dough's footprint and encourages it to expand upward instead of outward.

In the recipe I wrote out above, the dough is slightly drier and tends to hold its shape more, and in that case I've found the size of the pot isn't as important.

2. As for sealing in foil, I guess that would work as long you remember that the bread is going to rise while cooking. So just wrapping the dough in foil doesn't work. You need to put it in some sort of airtight ovenproof container with enough room for the dough to rise. The bread puffs up quite a bit while cooking.

Here's a link to a photo of one of my own loaves:

http://idisk.mac.com:80//bhurley/Public/bread.jpg

Didn't care for the recipe (thought it lacked depth of flavor) but the technique of using a dutch oven (yes it's necessary for high heat retention and steam containment) to make a good crust on the bread and to achieve that good rise and cracked seam across the top. Substantially improved my bread making -- never will go back to a regular bread pan. Also, I use parchment paper as a sling to easily move risen dough into pot and finished bread out.

+1 for Artisan Bread in Five -- and new Healthy Bread in Five. Both master recipes available on their blog. I find both need extra salt, but otherwise make for yummy bread.

I've been baking these for some time now. Lessons:

$50 dutch oven? Not needed for me in last 100 loaves. My vessel of choice is the 18" Roasting Pan with lid from Granite Ware, $19.99 (amazon). Simply slide dough onto parchment (as mentioned above) and into the pre-heated roasting pan. Bake for 25-30 mins @ 450, remove lid, then bake for 20 mins (ish) more. Perfect, crusty loaf every time.

And, the 18" roaster is long enough for small baguette shaped dough into addition to boule. (prefer baguette me-self).

Finally: you will need a good bread knife to make the most of your own artisan bread. Pure Komachi @ $9.95 (amazon) is the bees-knees.

Happy baking!

Can't believe no one's mentioned beer bread. No knead, no yeast, no waiting; you get real bread in the oven 5 minutes after you start: 3 cups self-rising flour (or 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1T baking powder and 1tsp salt), 1/4 cup sugar and 12 oz of beer. Mix together, pour into a loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50 minutes. It's fundamentally a bisquit recipe; but takes the yeasty flavor from the beer. It is astonishingly good for what it is.

The brand of beer changes the flavor, but even Budweiser makes amazing bread. Feel free to substitute flours, sweeteners, and beers; it's nearly impossible to screw this up. Been making it with tiny children for 40 years; it has never failed.

I make all sorts of breads by hand. I tried this one and found it produced a very nice crust. Good one.

Been making my own bread for years; the long rise times are not really practical without refrigeration, so it hasn't been that long, only about a century for the secret to become public. Healthy Bread in 5 ++, if you need a starting place.

@htom (comment #21): Right, the long rise is nothing new (I've been making bread for 30 years now and have tried some of the long-rise recipes in the past); what's new is that Lahey figured out that if you drastically reduce the amount of yeast, don't knead, and use a moist dough you can get a long rise time without having to refrigerate.

His original recipe calls for just 1/4 tsp of yeast compared with a traditional recipe that would use closer to a tablespoon for this amount of flour.

Search motherearthnews.com for "no knead" or bread or something and you'll come up with lots of variations on the theme. There's kind of a summary at http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx that gives basic guidelines and lots of links for more detail.

I adapted a few different approaches and ended up making a whole wheat bread at least 2 or 3 times a week. The important thing is that this is a very forgiving process, unlike traditional methods. It requires a hot oven, a heavy closed container, and some rising time. I do the refrigerated method to make a batch enough for a week or more. 11 cups flour (10 whole wheat, 1 unbleached white), about 5.5 cups warm water, 1 tsp dry yeast, 2 tsp salt.

You can vary the whole wheat/white ratio as you prefer. Actual amount of water may need slight adjustment to make a wet, soft dough that's heavier than pancake batter, but slumps to the shape of the container fairly quickly. I mix by hand in a large mixing bowl, cover with a plate, let sit at room temp for 6-10 hours or so, then stick the whole thing in the refrigerator. No towels, which just make a mess, just a bowl and plate. Because of the refrigeration, you can get in on the action no matter what kind of schedule you keep.

After the dough is chilled, or the next day, put the baking pot in the oven and preheat at about 495. Meantime, cut off a chunk about grapefruit-size, let it warm up for 10 minutes or so, sprinkle a saucer with coarse cornmeal, lightly shape the dough and set it seam-side up on the saucer. Sprinkle with decorations like seeds, rolled oats, etc if you want. When the oven quits preheating, drop the dough in the pan and cover. I turn the heat down to 485 and bake for about 32 minutes, then take off the cover, turn it down again to 475 and bake another 10 or 12 minutes.

Let it sit for half an hour or more before cutting if you can.

I use a "CorningWare French White 2 Piece 4-Quart Covered Oval Roaster" that I got on sale for under $25. It works fine and I like the glass lid, but a dutch oven is fine, too, if you have one, and I imagine a cast iron pot would be excellent, too. But you do need something that holds the heat. Foil won't do. If you check the Mother Earth News site you'll also find variations on the theme that use a baking stone and a pan of hot water. Seems too much trouble to me, but might fit somebody's needs.

Once you've got the dough you can use it for quick rolls, focaccia, pizza, breadsticks, even pecan rolls. After years of trying and giving up on tedious and disappointing kneaded bread, bread machines, mixers, etc., I'm finally regularly making better bread than I can buy. So jump in, experiment, don't be nervous -- this is the most forgiving process for bread I've ever seen. My only regret is that I didn't think of submitting it here.

No covered dish for me. I use a pizza stone and a small pan of hot water on the bottom of the oven to provide the steam. Works great, hard crusty loaf with soft center.

This is interesting, I'll have to give it a try.

Although, it being such a wet dough, it sounds like it would be a very soft bread. I tend to be a fan of firmer, chewier types of bread. I'm not sure that much gluten could form without kneading. If that's the case, this would be a good bread for breakfast type things, maybe not so much for hearty sandwiches.

The NYT bread is not soft. The inside is moister than most breads with a nice gluten texture and large holes throughout. I've been making it since the recipe came out a few years ago. It's great, but I make it less and less because:

(A) It's so unusually moist
(B) It doesn't rise much at all, no matter what I do.
(C) The crust is great, but almost overkill in terms of hardness.
(D) A finer texture would be nice from time to time.

http://tinyurl.com/6ndspu
links to an interesting page on the "Breadtopia" site mentioned above. It cites a Cook's Illustrated variant which apparently addresses all these points. I am anxious to try it.

@James (comment #25): Try it and you'll see that it produces a dense, chewy loaf with a hard crust. Use bread flour if you can -- I've tried it with unbleached all-purpose white and even that's pretty good, but obviously you're going to get a lot more flavor and better texture with standard red-wheat bread flour, whole wheat, or a mix of those two. You won't get a hard crust with 100% whole wheat, so if I want crusty bread I either use all bread flour or 80% bread flour to 20% whole wheat.

I can't get at it now, but last season or so, America's Test Kitchen ran a combination of Lahey's recipe and the beer approach. I haven't tried it yet, but I imagine it's as foolproof as everything else they've done.

I tried the Lahey approach, and probably due to too much water and no cast iron pot, the dough was more "blobby" than "shaggy," and spread far too wide to be useful.

I like the roasting pan idea, by the way.

Hi. There is a video & recipe for the The Cook's Illustrated / America's Test Kitchen method on breadtopia.

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

I can heartily backup the poster who mentioned the book "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day". It is a no-knead method, but can create a bucket of dough you can use over a two week period. I've made many loaves this way. I created two loaves that I contributed to a charity bake-off and came up with the highest bid for both loaves ($50/each). They are that pretty and the dough really is that good. The dough can be used in many types of bread.

Recommended.

I have repeatedly used the TestKitchen/CooksIllustrated recipe with beer for about 2 years now and it produces a very flavorful, crunchy, firm loaf. It only replaces 3 oz of the 10oz total liquid with beer. I've played with that total going up to 5oz and it seems to slightly mess with how high it rises but does add even a bit more flavor to the bread.

Plus I still have enough beer left over to kick back with. :)

Add me to the votes for "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day".

Fantastic book. Fantastic method. Fantastic bread. Much less thinking ahead, much less effort. I've had great luck cooking in a regular ceramic casserole dish, so no new equipment required.

I find this recipe makes a bread with a nice crust and texture, but the flavor is too yeasty. I prefer kneading my bread--it's more work but the results are superior, as well as potentially much quicker.

I have been making a sourdough version of No-Knead bread for the last two years. I follow the standard directions with the exception of weighing the ingredients. I usually let it go for the full 18 hour fermentation. Here's my recipe:

100g 100% hydration starter
295g spring water
8g kosher salt
25g stone ground whole wheat flour
25g stone ground rye flour
330g bread flour

This is seriously the best bread I have ever had. I have occasionally played with the recipe, but always come back to this one. The only variation I make regularly is to add 50g of raisins, 50g of halved walnuts, and an extra 30g of spring water. It makes amazing toast.

I tried the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book and found that the flavor is not as good as the No-Knead bread. The loaves look nicer sometimes, but that is mostly because the No-Knead loaves are baked seam side up so that you don't have to score them. I have baked them seam side down and scored them with excellent results, but it is an extra step and doesn't add anything to the flavor, so I leave it out.

If you can't seem to get your bread to rise as much as you would like, straight gluten by the bag can be had. I found it at the local natural(ish) food outlet.