No-Knead Crusty Artisan Bread

I've thought long and hard about what the first official recipe should be for this blog and given that I'm a baker/chef-wanna-be,
with aspirations of a full-service bakery one day,
I decided it needed to be baked (rather than cooked).
And, something we make a lot of in our little shop is bread. 

Bread for sandwiches, bread for Panini's, bread for soup,
croutons & bread crumbs ... if it's bread, we're trying to make it.

Fresh bread can take an ordinary turkey sandwich
and make it extraordinary! 
 We are all about delicious and SIMPLE.
And, simple is key in an operation as small as ours. 

We found our regular sandwich bread made pretty bland Panini's
and we needed something easy and flavorful.
So we searched the internet and came up with 

No-Knead, Crusty, Artisan Bread 

... with a tinge of sourdough flavor.  

You'll need anywhere from 5-24 hours for this bread, from start to finish.  The longer you let it sit, the stronger the 'sourdough' flavor will be.  If you're not much of a sourdough fan, then 5 hours is perfectly sufficient. 

We start out like this:

And we end up like this:

This is truly the easiest bread in the world.

First, gather your 4 ingredients ... yes only FOUR ingredients:

1.5 Cups tepid/lukewarm water

1/2 Tablespoon Salt (I prefer Kosher)

1 1/2 teaspoons of Yeast (1 packet)

3 Cups All-purpose Flour

This recipe doubles very nicely, if you'd like to make two loaves at once.

Now you're going to toss it all in your favorite mixing bowl
and give it a good, old fashioned, by-hand mixing.

After all the ingredients are incorporated and you've scraped down the sides, you are left with a ball of thick, pasty, floury goo ... either cover it with plastic wrap or put a lid on it (only securing 3 of the 4 sides - it needs some breathing room) and then let it sit.  

All day.  

All night.  

As long as you're happy with.  

5 hours.  

20 hours.  

It's good.  

When you're ready, pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees.  If you have a lovely, heavy, enamaled Dutch Oven, you can use it instead,
but if you're cheap like me or your dutch oven is otherwise occupied,
you can just put a huge pan of water on the bottom rack of the oven,
so it properly steams the dough and makes a wonderful, crusty outer layer.

Give a quick mix to your doughy mess and
plop it onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it into a ball shape.

Lay your dough ball out on a parchment lined baking sheet.
For added fun, you can dust your parchment with cornmeal.

Let sit for 30 minutes.

Slice the top with a sharp knife in a criss-cross to let the steam escape.
Slicing is actually optional - if you don't, it will split on its own
and create its own lovely design.

Place in the preheated, steamy oven (be careful) and cook for 35 minutes.
Remove from oven, place on a cooling rack and slice when ready.

Voila!

Pretty darn incredible, huh?
Look at all those lovely holes to catch all the butter!