No Knead Bread

Found a recipe for this easy to make bread a while back and I finally got around to trying it out. Bread making the easy way. You make it up the night before you bake it.

The recipe calls for:

3 cups of regular flour
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast
1 & 1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 & 3/4 cups of water.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the water mix up cover with a kitchen towel  and let sit at room temp for 18 to 20 hours. It will rise and triple in size. Dump it out on a floured counter and then flatten a bit and fold on itself a couple or three times. Pull the underside tight so you have a smooth top on it and set on a piece of parchment paper on a bread peel o a rimless cookie sheet. Put a couple of slashes across the top with a  very sharp knife and paint up with a bit of olive oil. Invert the bowl over it and let it rise for an hour and a half at room temp. In the mean time warm up your pizza stone in the oven to 450 deg F. If you don't have a pizza stone. You can buy a large granite flooring tile for a couple of bucks at your local home improvement center and use that. Alternatively a large cast iron pan or dutch oven will also work. what wee need here is a big mass that can be heated and cook the bread from underneath.
This is what the bread looks like right before it goes in the oven after it has risen for about an hour and a half under the inverted bowl.

Pop it on your hot stone in the oven and 450 deg F and don't forget to put a pan of hot water on the lower rack as the steam will make for the nice crunchy crust on the bread.

30 to 35 minutes later. . . . . .

now the most difficult part. . . . . let it rest for 30 minutes at least before you cut in to it. . . . . . if you put your ear to it you can hear it sing.

then the best part.

I like mine with a bit of butter and a sprinkle of salt.