I’ve mentioned my readers umpteen numbers of times. I love how you send me fantastic recipe suggestions and places to eat. One reader Stefania emailed me recently with a recipe suggestion for a No Knead bread. The recipe is by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery and Co Pizzeria and addresses one of my biggest problems pre Kitchenaid – the inability to knead dough. I’ve never been able to knead dough properly-my arms just aren’t built for it although they are very good at carrying bags of shopping and dropping things and taking doors off hinges (accidentally of course, I can be freakily strong at the most inappropriate times).
I had tried no knead breads and this was purely out of laziness. No knead as in I gave up really quickly and couldn’t be bothered kneading it anymore. They always turned out cakey and not bread like at all but I was willing to be a believer. Even when the dough seemed impossibly wet. Even when I waited 12 hours while it proved overnight. Even when the dough stuck to the teatowel. Even when I changed the amount of yeast from 1/4 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon. You might say I was cautiously optimistic until the very end when I opened the oven door and saw a wonderful (albeit small as the dough had stuck to the teatowel 
) round loaf.
Fresh out of the oven I cut the crusty exterior. “Hmmm very sourdoughy” I said to myself (and you know I do talk to myself all the time although not quite full conversations…yet!). I peered inside and it was holey just like a sourdough. I buttered it and tasted it and it had a lovely crunch on the outside and a soft, spongy, moreish interior like a fresh sourdough. I thought I was seeing or tasting things so I gave Mr NQN some to try.
“Hmm it tastes just like restaurant bread” he said. I grinned triumphantly and sent a thankyou to Stefania.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you usually eat the bread that they give you at restaurants? And do you prefer it with butter or olive oil?
No Knead Bread aka the Restaurant Sourdough Doppelganger
Slightly adapted from Jim Sullivan’s recipe
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- olive oil (for coating)
- extra flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal (for dusting)
Equipment:
Two medium mixing bowls
6 to 8 quart pot with lid (Pyrex glass, Le Creuset cast iron, or ceramic)
Wooden Spoon or spatula (optional)
Plastic wrap
Two or three cotton dish towels (not terrycloth)
Process:
Wet, wet, wet dough
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add water and incorporate by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute. It will be a very “wet dough” but that’s ok. Lightly coat the inside of a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 18-22°C or 65-72°F).
Pre proofing
After proofing, fold bread
Coating a tea towel with flour-you may want to add more than this as some of my dough stuck!
Dough on the floured teatowel. Yes I’m aware that you could have done without this shot 
2. Remove the dough from the bowl and fold once or twice. Let the dough rest 15 minutes in the bowl or on the work surface. Next, shape the dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel with flour, wheat bran, or cornmeal; place the dough seam side down on the towel and dust with flour. Cover the dough with a cotton towel and let rise 1-2 hours at room temperature, until more than doubled in size.
3. Preheat oven to 240-250°C/450-500°F. Place the pot in the oven while it is preheating. Once the dough has more than doubled in volume, remove the pot from the oven and place the dough in the pot seam side up. Cover with the lid and bake 30 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake 15-30 minutes uncovered, until the loaf is nicely browned.
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86 Comments | Add your own
I love that bread and yours looks wonderful!
Cheers,
Rosa
Oh yes! I always love the bread. I like it either way. Me no fussy.
Me just love bread! x
Baking in a pot, that is a novel idea. Sort of like a damper. I must say I enjoy kneading, I like the feeling of the dough squelching between my fingers.
I love my bread with butter.
Some restaurants serve pretty good bread.
Usually, I’ll only eat the bread if it’s warm or an interesting flavour. I’ve just never been that into bread… even here in Paris, I’m focusing on cheese and patisseries and amazing cookies from the supermarkets, not bread! (Whoops!)
But yours does look wonderfully chewy and delicious…
Oooh looks awesome
can smell it now!
I love good bread, particularly with butter, but don’t eat it in restaurants because it will fill me up and I don’t want to risk having no room for dessert
You know me, if it’s bread, I’ll make it
Hahaha I like how you called it the Restaurant Sourdough Doppelganger! Will have to try a no knead recipe sometime, I hate kneading!
No knead bread definitely appeals to the lazy girl in me, although a girlfriend of mine did once send me a video link of an impossibly elastic dough that just had to be ‘folded’ 3 times and it was ready for baking!
oooh I will have to try that recipe out for sure!!!
looks great lorraine – i always eat the bread at restaurant, at bettys soup kitchen in the city- they serve a large roll of bread with an even larger bowl of butter its awesome! but i do like it with olive oil & salt as well
I like my restaurant bread with butter – extra points if it’s warm!
Mmm fresh bread! Love fresh good quality bread! With butter or olive oil not fussed, but maybe preferring the butter more, if it’s good butter.
Yay – a bread recipe I could try myself. Not too many steps or the need of a breadmaker.
Accessible bread recipes – a great start to Monday!
SSG xxx
This looks fantastic, Lorraine! I love the rustic look of the bread, and the first thing I thought of when I saw the interior was that it looks like a sourdough. I will be making this very soon!
The bread looks fabulous. I dont have a Kitchenaid so this would be a perfect recipe for me. I have never made my own bread before but I think I might start now.
There are a couple of great books on No Knead bread and I’ve been dying to try it for a while! It’s definately on my list of have too’s now … this weeks hopefully. Great post again Lorraine
Fantastic! I will have to try this soon – like maybe tonight! Daniel loves sourdough. I want to surprise him!
Lorraine, the trick to not getting dough stuck on the teatowel is to flour it with rye flour. White flour will stick like glue.
If it still gets stuck, spritz the back of the teatowel with water, and the dough should release.
I’ve tried pot baking a few times now, but taking the flaming hot pot out of the oven to put the bread in gives me the willies. Agree completely though that it makes a lovely sourdough substitute!
I recall a similar/same recipe in the New York Times a couple of years back. My loaf looked , and tasted i’m sure the same as yours. I dont recall the tea towel part though. It is a great recipe.
There’s a whole movement devoted to no-knead bread! Have you seen http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/ – the authors have developed a number of bread recipes with the same method that one can make in bulk and keep refrigerated. Tear off a piece of the fridged dough, shape it quickly, bake it and you’ve got artisan bread. They recommend using the prepared dough within 14 days, during which a sourdough flavor becomes more pronounced, especially after day 7. Hope you enjoy!
That’s a fabulous-looking loaf of bread! I haven’t tried the no-knead approach yet, but I’m getting more and more inspired.
This bread has changed my life… I add rye and whole wheat and let it sit in the fridge for 3 days with a touch more yeast. What comes out is a miracle. Bless Jim Sullivan… and good of you to let others in on the secret!
not a good knead-er as well…looks excellent!
Always eat the bread – provided it smells nice – and it MUST be butter, especially French butter which seems to taste better.
My neighbor just made this bread two weeks ago. Fantastic and she adds 1/4 t of vinegar. It is a lot better than the other no knead bread I’ve made.
This seems like an interesting recipe.
I also agree with Mark, it does seem similar to damper.
Yum Yum!
http://www.brisbanebaker.blogspot.com
This looks fab, I’ll be trying it ASAP.
Bread in restaurants? If I didn’t have to cook it… I’m eating it! With butter. Lots of Butter.
Lorraine, It is funny you should write about the “no knead bread” because just the other day I was reading an article in the NY times about how less kneading can produce better bread.
Your bread looks absolutely delicious! And for me I like anything on my bread when I am out wining and dining- anything from butter to pea puree! x
Oooo at last a bread that I can dare to try without spraining my hand (let’s just say that I’m not that good at kneading and it’s almost always a disaster..) I’m definitely going to try this one. Looks DELICIOUS.
And yes, I eat restaurant bread, anyway it comes. Love bread!!!
Hi Lorraine, it looks pretty good!! I have made 9 loaves and counting – each one better than the last!!! Giving them away now for sheer enjoyment!!! FYI I have been using bread flour and get an even better result…
I’ve been reading about this for a while too.. Unfortunately my family prefers kneaded bread/rolls.
Your bread has a very lovely texture.
Butter, and dunked in creamy soup! It’s a beautiful rustic looking loaf!
No-knead bread is a winner for us with puny arms! Good to hear that it tastes good, too.
I had the best ever bread at Becco in Melbourne – the size of a small brick, and dipped in basil-infused oil. I ate so much of it, I was too full for the rest of the meal. Totally worth it.
No Knead.. oh yea.. I love that idea, because after working out, I can’t lift a finger, my arms feel like jello..
I WOULD LOVE to dollop some butter on that.. damn DIET.. wish I’d hurry and rid of the last 5kg… I WANT TO EAT…
This looks beautiful and almost like Ciabatta…I’m sure it tasted brilliant! Never tried the no knead thing, (because I have Thermomix which does it all for me of course…) not sure I can be bothered with all the proving…make bread, want to eat bread!
Everyone in Adelaide has been making this since chef, Ann Oliver published the original recipe and a modified version in the Independent Weekly last month.
See the article at http://www.independentweekly.com.au/news/local/news/entertainment/rise-and-shine-for-your-daily-bread/1758426.aspx
If you use less yeast (not more) and are patient enough to let it rise for the longer period of time, the result is much improved.
I tried sticking to the original recipe as well too but still had to up the yeast levels and I found the flavour a little bland, not enough salt so I started tweaking it a little until I was happy but mine looks so much more watery than yours!
http://yayasyumyums.blogspot.com/2009/02/no-knead-bread-my-attempt.html
I used to love bread with a really good olive oil but have recently started appreciating good butter too!
Yum, this bread looks fantastic.
Looks like rustic bread.
Something you would buy at Sonoma.
hey lorraine – bread looks great! excuse my ignorance though – whats the “seam side” of the dough?
I like my bread with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt or balsamic vinegar..
Your bread looks nice! I hate working with yeast as my kitchen sometimes doesn’t get warm enough
See it is the crust in that bread that does it to me every time I see it! I want to chew on that crust! I have to make it, there is no excuse now! Yours looks fantastic!
Looks like restaurant bread too!
I try to reserve stomach space, but some places have bread that is just too good to refuse.
I prefer the bread with olive oil, salt and vinegar! Yum. I also talk to myself – or more accurately, my food. An example of this would be gee, you really are a bit overripe- into the bin for you. My BF picked me up on it yesterday.. Is it bad that I talk to my food, or worse that I talk to my food in the company of other people?
I love that bread! I used to bake it frequently but don’t own a baking vessel for it (the one I had used previously was borrowed) so now I just buy bread at the Green Market. And I definitely prefer bread with olive oil!
mmm I’m giving it a try !
Looks delicious – though I have to say I find kneading bread very therapeutic.
Bread is such a comfort food and the smell of it as it comes out of the oven is heavenly. This recipe looks great, the doughy , holey inside reminds me much of a Ciabatta or a lovely peasant loaf you’d expect to buy in some remote mountain village bakery in any country in Europe. I love bread but have to be careful as I tend to eat too much of it. Yes, I like most breads at restaurants and like it both ways ie: olive oil and butter .
I enjoy kneading dough as I love to make my own pizza and homemade pasta, it’s quite therapeutic and of course, very rewarding!
It is such a delicious easy bread, isn’t it?!
And your photo’s are so much nicer than mine, Lorraine!
Thanks for sharing. This recipe will come in handy one day because I don’t have a Kitchenaid!
I love this bread, and yours looks lovely and golden and appetising.
I would eat mine either on its own or with salted butter. If at home I would eat it with a big bowl of hot chocolate. I’m drooling on my keyboard….
any recipe that involves less work and time has got to be a good thing
this bread has the perfect texture for me–soft and chewy innards, crispy edges. i usually at least taste the bread offered at a restaurant, and if it’s good, i reserve a separate chamber in my stomach for multiple pieces.
You have demystified the no knead bread scenario for me. Homemade restaurant bread… Yes please!
GOSH, it’s gorgeous Lorraine! yay that u got bitten by the no-knead bug! Have to try your recipe soon!
I love no knead breads. They can make life no much easier.
Strange method. Am feeling curious enough to try…
A gorgeous loaf! Perfectly crusty!
I’ve tried several no knead recipes, but I’m intrigued by this one. I’ve never seen bread baked in a pot with a lid on. You definitely produced a gorgeous bread! xoxo Mum
This bread has been on my to do list no less than 5 years now. I remember when I first saw it in a magazine when my son was born (way back when I actually had time to read a magazine) I also hate to knead but found that my bread maker dough cycle does a fine job. No more dough under my fingernails yay!
hey lorraine.
i tried it. made the prove last nite and baked this morning. it’s exactly as you described. thanks for sharing. i love a good bread that has that exact texture… soft, chewy… am going to share this with a fren who has tendinitis from carrying her bub. she said this would be perfect for her…
Bread looks fab! Oh i love my bread with a dollop of butter, there is nothing better than butter
i’m liking how easy this recipe looks! and yep, i always eat the bread at restaurants, usually smothered with a lot of butter. i’m not that big a fan of olive oil.
oh wow – this looks just gorgeous and absolutely a doppelganger for good restaurant bread!
I suspect this would be deeply lush dipped in a fruity green olive oil with a little balsamic puddled in the middle, maybe with some aromatic herbs crushed on top?
I have been seeing this no knead bread popping up lately. I am so lazy that even this seems slightly daunting. I just fear baking….
i finally bought this book, so i have to give it a try
This is very cool, I’ll have to try this. I never hand knead my bread as my arms are not built for kneading, I use my Kitchen Aid instead.
And I always eat the bread in restaurants. I have this problem where I must eat food if it is in front of me, restaurant pre-dinner nibbles are made for me!
I saw this recipe just the other day and have been saving it for a long or relaxing weekend… maybe Easter will be the time I can try it
Hi Lorraine,
Am really tempted to bake it now. Looks fantastic and I do love how bread smells fresh from the oven x
No knead bread is something I’ll definitely try one day! The texture looks so different to normal, ‘kneaded’ bread!
The bread’s really small- did it go instantly?
I haven’t tried this version, but I have made and loved the version from the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Your loaf looks lovely. I can never resist restaurant bread as long as it seems fresh. My favorite accompaniment for it is some good balsamic vinegar and olive oil!
Beautiful bread, NQN!
And I love the part about being freakishly strong at inappropriate times! Hey, what’s the point if it isn’t inappropriate?!
Well, this looks like my type of recipe, I refuse to make bread in the convential manner (kneading)!!! bought a bread making machine last year, but have lost the necessary paddle, so I have a good deal of bread flour in my cupboard and yeast, so I have JUST started this recipe and the wet dough is in the second mixing bowl waiting for the l2hour rise – can’t wait for the finished product will keep you posted – bye for now!! Judy farom United Kingdom (England).
Great photos. Despite having the Thermomix Tenina !) I still do no-knead breads at times. Great idea doing in the pot like damper.
Made croissants again yesterday and thought – “this bread would have been so much easier”
Well the bread is finished now, I made a mistake with amount of water and had to add another cup of flour to get consistency correct just before the last rise, still went ahead and baked it, although it didn’t have the large holes as above pics showed, it was very very good, especially with cold slabs of salty butter, will definitely make again using the correct measurement of water, thanks to NQN !!
Awesome! I’ve been using a lot of recipes from here: http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com
These recipes are all from that spirit of no-kneading, Lorraine. Totally worth the investigation.
I tried this recipe on the weekend and it is a WINNER! Thanks NQN i now have an “easy” bread recipe to cook at our farm.
A friend lent me the Leahy Book, and I made the basic loaf and now have a sultana and walnut loaf rising in preparation for baking tomorrow. Love it, and have subsequently bought the book
Oh my … I love this recipe and I’m going to try it this weekend but I have one problem: COULD someone please tell me what FOLDING means???
Thank you in advance!!!
Wow, the best bread ever!
I’ve never been able to bake a loaf like this. Thank you NQN for sharing this awesome recipe!!!
It’s a Winner!!! My first attempt at no-knead bread & I’m very proud of myself, the result was delicious. Hubby & I just ate half the loaf straight out of the oven, now I’m about to race down the shop to buy more flour so I can make another loaf for tomorrow
Thanks for a Great Recipe!!!
Im hooked. I shall make it today and then see how it goes, with spina bifida it is sometimes difficult for me to knead bread but this does away with that.. thanks.
Dear NQN,
Since I have discovered this recipe almost one year ago, it has been baked more than once a week and looks and tastes absolutely professional.
Now, I have tried to use a mixture of Rye/Wholmeal and white flour. But it doesn’t look as nice. The flavour is fantastic, but it turn out pretty flat.
Have you tried using different types of flour for this recipe?
Could you please tell me if there is anything I could possibly do wrong?
I would appreciate any kind of comment from anyone!
Thank you in advance!
Mel
Do you know if you could possibly make this dough up to a certain point, then freeze it ready to pull out (& defrost) ready to bake when you want some fresh bread?
Hi Inexpensive meals-I’m not sure, but if you can do it with other doughs I don’t see why you couldn’t with this!
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