Miracle Bread

Crusty, chewy, delicious European bakery-quality bread from your very own kitchen, with hardly any work—this is miracle bread indeed! I first read about this bread in an article by Jeffrey Steingarten in Vogue magazine about 5 years ago, though it has also been extensively written about by Mark Bittman in the New York Times. Even though I love Bitty, I side with Jeffrey Steingarten when it comes to this bread as his was the recipe I first used. (As an aside - I find Jeffrey to be endlessly entertaining - his article on how we are all making ice the wrong way is one of my particular favourites! I don't know where to find his old articles. In the Vogue archives maybe? Check it out if you can find it.)

The inventor of this bread, Jim Lahey, also has a cookbook out devoted to this bread and the many variations that it can be made into, that I am currently coveting. There is a recipe in it for pizza bianco, a delicious treat I first had in Rome, that I would love to try to make at home. Jim Lahey is an extremely provocative fellow, to say the least - click here to read a very interesting but slightly disturbing article in NY Magazine about him (hook worms anyone?)

Anyways, back to the bread. It is incredibly simple to make. There is no kneading or work involved, just mix the ingredients for about 30 seconds and that's pretty much it. The only tricky part is timing out the rise, as the initial rise time is approximately 18 hours, followed by another 2. You'll also need a very heavy casserole or cast iron pan. I use my cherished Le Creuset french oven that my mom got for her wedding almost 40 years ago and is still going strong.

Jeffrey Steingarten's Version of Jim Lahey's Miracle Bread

Ingredients
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp fine salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature
Coarse wheat bran

Equipment

Heavy Casserole

Coarse dish towel, or piece of canvas

Method

Using your fingers or a sturdy wooden spoon, thoroughly combine the first three ingredients in a 2-quart bowl. Pour in the water. Again with fingers or spoon, work the dry ingredients and water together for about 30 seconds until a rough wet dough has formed and all the flour has been absorbed.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at warm room temperature for about 18 hours.  

Heavily flour your work surface. With a plastic dough scraper or your hands, invert the bowl over the floured surface as you pull out the dough, which will spread into an amoebiform blob onto your work surface. Dust it with flour and stretch it into a rough square about 10 inches on a side. Fold the square into thirds. It will now be a puffy strip about 4 inches wide and 10 inches long. Cover lightly and let rest for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, spread the dish towel on a flat surface. Rub a generous amount of flour into one half of the dish towel and sprinkle several tablespoons of bran over the flour. This is to prevent the dough from sticking to the towel, an occurrence that can ruin your life.

Fold the dough into thirds again, beginning at one of the short ends on the strip. The resulting package of dough should be nearly the shape of a cube.

Delicately brush off excess flour from the dough, and with your palms, very gently stretch the top layer part way down over the seams visible on two sides of the dough. With both hands, lift the dough onto the middle of the half of the dish towel you've just prepared.  Sprinkle the top of the dough, now really a loaf, with a little flour and bran. Cover with the other half of the dish towel or with plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours.

Halfway through, put the casserole and its cover in the oven, and turn the temperature to its highest setting, probably 500-550 degrees F. 

When another hour has passed, open the oven and remove the casserole cover. Slide your hand under thew towel where the loaf is resting, lift up towel and loaf, bring them over to the casserole, and, steadying the loaf with your hand, invert it into the casserole. Pull off the towel. Shake the casserole sideways if the loaf needs to be neatened. Cover the casserole, close the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. Uncover the casserole and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes until the loaf is a handsome, golden to dark brown. Remove the loaf and let it cool until it is barely warm to the touch.

This makes one truly delicious loaf of no-knead bread. Try it once, and it will change your life.