Easy No Knead Bread Margarita Pizza Boat!

Want to learn how to master easy no knead bread and make wonderful, eye-catching bread loaves with it? This is a delicious adaption of the famous 3 ingredient no knead bread from 2010 that you can make as a plain loaf or this margarita pizza boat!

This whole COVID-19 situation has awakened a passion in me for baking, specifically baking bread. Three times a week I bake bread and I thought I'd share some basic bread recipe so that you can all become confident bread bakers, even if you don't have a stand mixer and dough hook. And for those of you looking for flour I share a couple of places in Sydney where you can buy big bags of flour!

The reason why I love this bread recipe is because it is simple. I totally understand that bread making or working with yeast can be intimidating and truthfully I never, ever have got into it until I had a dough hook with an electric mixer. I simply never have enough arm power to hand knead and always gave up halfway and my bread was never that good or tasty.

I had my mixer by the time I came across this famous no knead bread recipe by Jim Sullivan of Sullivan Street Bakery 10 years ago, yes 10 years ago in 2010! It requires no kneading at all so you don't need that dough hook. You just need some patience with resting the dough.

Bread flour vs plain all purpose flour for bread? Ahh those were the days where we could get bread flour. Nowadays you can't. But good news, you can still make all these breads with plain all purpose flour!

Why bread? It's one of the basics of life and really when you think about it, it's quite magical how two ingredients can transform into one of life's greatest gustatory pleasures. Bread making literally gets me up in the morning in a way that cooking other food doesn't.

Lately going out to the shops for ingredients creates anxiety for me and I'm not the only one that feels that way. I have to psych myself up for it. I've bought a bag of milk powder so I don't have to run out for milk and a 12.5kg bag of flour. You can buy these at Two Providores (usually wholesalers but now open to general public) in Marrickville and Essential Ingredient in Surry Hills apparently has flour too. Two Providores also has yeast in 500g/1.1lb packets.

It's so funny how quickly COVID has enmeshed in our lives. I watched a show that was filmed about a year ago and saw people shaking hands and hugging. "Nooooo!" I whispered to the screen while Mr NQN looked at the scene in horror! It makes me wonder if we will ever greet friends again with hugs or business acquaintances with a handshake.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you think we will hesitate to shake hands or hug? What is your current Covid cooking obsession? Why do you think people love baking?

Tomato Cheese Bread Boat

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus overnight/12 hour resting time

Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

• 320g/11.2ozs. flour
• 1 teaspoon instant dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 250ml/8.8flozs warm water
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

• 1 tablespoon oil

• 150g/5ozs. cherry tomatoes, quartered

• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup grated mozzarella or tasty cheese
• 1/2 onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Step 1 - Add flour, yeast and garlic powder to the bowl. Dissolve salt in water and incorporate with the flour by hand or with a wooden spoon or spatula for 30 seconds to 1 minute. It will be quite a "wet dough" but that's fine. Lightly coat the inside of a second medium bowl with olive oil and place the dough in the bowl and drizzle some oil on top. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest 12 hours at room temperature (approx. 18-22°C or 65-72°F).

Step 2 - Place on a sheet of parchment on a tray. After the 12 hours lightly oil your hands and fold the dough a couple of times. Remove the dough from the bowl and roll into a ball and place on the lined tray and shape into a boat shape.

Step 3 - Add sugar and salt to cherry tomatoes to season. Brush the top of the dough with tomato paste and then sprinkle with cheese, onion and cherry tomatoes. Brush with oil on the sides and drizzle some oil on top of the tomatoes. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the side of the boat. Let rise 30 minutes or until puffed up again at room temperature. Meanwhile preheat to 180C/350F and then when bread is ready, bake for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted and golden and tomatoes are caramelised.