No-Knead Italian Bread

I was certain that a loaf of bread this easy to put together wouldn't turn out okay. Maybe it wouldn't rise or it would burn or it would be dense or surely something would go wrong. Bread making is supposed to be hard work! But as I pulled it out of the oven, I was truly amazed—and felt like some sort of artisan-bread-making rock star. It looked perfect. Exactly like what you buy in the bakery. And tasted every bit as good. Crispy crust with a light delicate crumb. With only 10 minutes of effort, I may never knead bread again. Mixing the ingredients together initially took 30 seconds, and resulted in a thick, shaggy mixture. I let rest for 16 hours, after which there were little bubbles over the dough as described. The dough was very easy to work with during the remaining steps. I used a 3-quart ceramic-coated Dutch oven to bake the bread. This was probably the minimum size you could use as my loaf had just touched the lid as I pulled it off after 30 minutes baking. An additional 10 minutes of baking was perfect to yield a lightly browned loaf.

My very first thought when I took this no-knead Italian bread out of the oven was, “Wow, I made this bread from scratch!” Sounds silly. But the exact same thought reverberated through my mind when I tasted it a few minutes later. How incredibly awesome is it to have a recipe for a no-knead bread that tastes like you just brought it home from an Italian market. No joke—this no-knead bread has the crust of a ciabatta and the inside of a sliced white bread you would actually enjoy with olive oil at the start of an Italian meal at your favorite trattoria. I have to admit, it seemed very hard in texture when I took it out the pan from the oven to let it rest, but when I cut into it after it rested, it was perfectly crusty on the outside and tender on the inside. The best part?! I already had all of its ingredients in-house...and the fact that this tasty bread only has 5 total ingredients makes me happy as well. So on to the recipe itself. I formed my loaf into a round, similar to a Tuscan boule. In place of the 00 flour, I used King Arthur Cake Flour, organic/unbleached A/P flour, and Bob's Red Mill Semolina flour. In lieu of instant yeast, I used active dry yeast. (Note that instant yeast is different than active dry yeast. Use the same proportion as instant but it needs to be dissolved in the lukewarm water and allow it to sit before adding it to the flour mixture directly.) In Step 2, I actually ran a large rubber spatula around the bowl to deflate the dough, and used the same spatula to fold the dough over itself. The pan I used for the bread was my trusty enameled-cast iron Dutch oven, size was 6-quart. I really recommend using the semolina flour if you can find it—in the dough initially and as the extra flour used to sprinkle on the bread. It really gives an incredible coating or crunch on the bread itself. Believe me, I’ll be making this no-knead Italian bread again and again…I might even try adding seeds next time to the coating. Perhaps a blend of flax, poppy, and sunflower. Oh the possibilities! Buon appetito.

I have made no-knead bread many times before, but I have never used the "00" flour or semolina in the recipe. I think the addition of these flours helps to create that chewy and delicious loaf. It's perfect to dip in some rich olive oil or to use for your morning toast. The only thing I might change would be to add another 1/2 teaspoon salt.

This is a super easy no-knead Italian bread that makes a nice-size loaf that won't go stale before you eat it like many large loaves do. It's pretty hands off with only a few tricky steps, including the shaping and folding, because it's a soft sticky dough, and placing the dough in the hot pan or Dutch oven. But once you have those figured out, it's a cinch. A great bread for beginner bakers. I used whole wheat flour instead of semolina flour. I needed to add an extra 1/4 cup of water to my dough as it was very dry and not all the flour was incorporated. The dough was super tricky to shape into a ball (so sticky!) and I ended up just patting it into a shape and leaving it in the clean tea towel. It's a bit challenging to put the dough into the very hot pot—I held the dough in the palm of my hand (still in its tea towel) and wrapped the dangling ends of the cloth around my wrist and held it there with my other hand, then kind of placed the dough in the hot pot. Worked perfectly.

There’s nothing like the smell of bread baking in the oven, but making bread can be a daunting task, even for longtime bakers. So the idea of making bread that’s nearly as simple as using a bread machine is inviting, but would it really produce a delicious loaf? Yes, indeed! This bread recipe couldn't be simpler and the fact that there’s flexibility in how long you let it rise makes it that much easier to work into a busy schedule. After the first rise (I did 16 hours), it was pretty sticky when I took it out of the bowl and so folding it in thirds was kind of tricky. The added semolina on the towel and on top took care of that. It did kind of plop into the clay cooker I used, but that wasn't a big deal. I thought using the clay cooker might lead to a less-than-crispy crust if the steam wasn't allowed to escape. My fear was misplaced, however, as it produced the crunchiest crust I've ever had on homemade bread. And the inside was perfect. I didn’t braid the bread but those directions say to add flour to eliminate the stickiness of the dough, so that's good to keep in mind when using this recipe for pizza or focaccia. This will be my go-to Italian bread recipe. Once you make Italian bread using this recipe, there’s no way you’ll want to eat Italian bread made any other way.

This no-knead Italian bread had a thick, golden crust that was lightly dusted with semolina. The crumb inside was chewy and closely grained without being dense. It was the perfect bread to accompany a quick pasta dinner or any other meal. The recipe required just a few minutes of hands-on time and the rest of the time was totally hands-off. I make bread often but I haven’t used my clay baker for anything but chicken. Now that I’ve tried it once, I will be using my clay pot to bake bread often, both with this recipe and with some of my old favorites. I was unsure about shaping after deflating the dough—it was very wet. After the 15-minute rest it was a little firmer. I used my Romertopf clay baker to bake the loaf. I wasn’t sure if I should soak the baker or not. The original directions were to soak the baker before using it, so I soaked top and bottom in cold water for 30 minutes before putting it in the cold oven to preheat.

This is a great bread to start out with if you’re a little afraid of yeast and baking bread. It’s quite easy to make and most of the time is inactive while the dough is doing all the work. It took some planning to figure out a schedule that would work for me, but I found it easiest to make the dough in the evening the day before baking so it could rise overnight while I was sleeping. Then in the morning, I shaped the dough and baked it before we went out to do our weekly errands. It had a lovely crumb with large air pockets and a crisp exterior crust. We enjoyed it with a lentil soup that was made in the slow cooker. All in all, it was a very easy loaf of bread to make and I am likely to make it again. My husband suggested doubling the ingredients for a larger-size loaf, but this bread didn’t have great keeping qualities. It went stale fairly quickly so it’s probably better to make the amount of the recipe so it is eaten while it is still at its best.