no-knead bread

no-knead bread
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

OK, so it's been all over the internet. And, sure, I wanted to try it out and post the most wonderful, crispy-crusted awesome loaf on my site. Alas, it didn't happen! I did read all the raving reviews, for example by the Wednesday Chef on the net, and all the raving comments on her post. And I did see the original post of the New York Times, which can't be viewed not unless you want to chip in 4,25 dollars or so. So I thought I'd give it a try : I put together 3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast (more of that later) and 1 5/8 cups of water (it took a lot of fiddling with my cup-measurements, which didn't have 1/8 but only 1/3 and 1/4). Well, I must admit, my instant yeast wasn't bought instantly at the store but came from a tin in my cupboard. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Mistake. Because 17 hours later my dough, which was VERY sloppy when I started out, hadn't risen as much as I thought it should have. And I wouldn't have minded a little kneading. For after these 17 hours it looked like a "will definitely-fail bread". Still, I tried to flip it into some kind of shape and sprinkled some flour on top and added a towel. The dough stuck terribly to the towel, but after another two hours I heated a pan anyway in a very hot oven (230 C), then I scraped the dough off the towel into my heated Creuset and put it in the oven for 30 (covered) and 15 (uncovered) minutes. Needless to say, the end result was... dreadful, a bread of not yet 5 centimeters high with a sticky, unrisen inside. Look at my Flickr photos... However... I am definitely trying this again with NEWLY bought instant yeast and will post as soon as I have my own beautiful no-knead no-failure! Did you try?