No Knead Italian Bread

ATTENTION: Even if you have never baked a bread recipe before or in your lifetime THIS ONE’S FOR YOU!

This is a “FOOLPROOF” Italian Bread (NO KNEAD) recipe that will wow you, your family and friends. You can find it on the King Arthur website 3 pages long and on other websites. I have been making it for decades. When retiring to Arizona 16 years ago finding Italian Bakeries is like looking for gold. When I started making it in Arizona for friends and at the church people would ask, “Where did you buy this?” I would answer we made this bread and it is an easy recipe. There is no kneading, no special loaf forming and preparation. You mix the ingredients, let rise for 2 hours on the counter. Then place dough in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. If you want fresh Italian bread take the dough out of the refrigerator, literally plop a hunk on a peel covered with parchment paper, form into a rough long loaf or a round loaf, let rise for 1 hour, egg, seed, slit and bake. The outcome will blow you away! I have made this recipe for friends with making one large 2 lb loaf or 20 loaves for a church dinner feeding 150 people.

Video

Recipe

Always read the ingredients and preparation instructions TWICE before you start!

PREPARATION: 1 hour & 30 minutes, 15 minutes to make dough, 1 hour and 15 minutes to shape loaf, let rise and place in oven
COOK TIME: 40 - 45 minutes
SERVINGS: 10 hungry people
EPISODE: 006

Ingredients

• 3 cups lukewarm water (about 105° to 110° F)
• 32 oz flour which is about 6.5 to 7.5 cups but weight is more accurate (we use Bob’s Red Mill Bread flour, Gold Medal works fine, it will just rise less but still taste delicious)
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp INSTANT yeast (must be INSTANT yeast)
• 1 egg beaten at room temperature
• 1 jar sesame seeds
• Optional: cornmeal to sprinkle on parchment paper lying on peel

Preparation: No Knead Dough

1. Combine flour, salt and instant yeast in a six quart or larger food-safe plastic bowl with lid
2. Mix dry ingredients with a whisk
3. Add the 105° F water to the dry ingredients and mix with a Danish Dough hook or wooden spoon until totally combined
4. Scrape down sides of the bowl, cover with lid and place under a blanket for two hours to rise. Then place in the refrigerator

Your Italian Bread dough is complete in about 15 minutes. The dough can stay in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. They say the longer it stays in the refrigerator the more it will taste like sourdough bread.

In our house the dough never lasts more than 2 days so I have not proven that theory!

Preparation: Italian Bread

1. Remove dough from refrigerator, take lid off and sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough
2. Flour your work surface and scrape the whole dough onto the floured surface
3. We cover a peel (if you do not have a peel you can use a cookie tray) with parchment paper
4. Sprinkle cornmeal on the parchment paper so it has a light coating. This step is not necessary, it just makes the bottom of the bread like I remember as a kid from the Italian Bakeries
5. Take the entire dough, plop it on the parchment paper and roughly shape a long loaf onto the parchment paper (watch video) then fold the edges of the dough under to make a loaf higher and pat into shape.
6. Lightly sprinkle flour on the top of your dough loaf and cover with stretch-tite, cover with a dish towel
7. Let rise for one hour. You cover with flour and stretch-tite so dough does not stick to the dish towel
8. While waiting for the hour to pass, place your baking stone in the oven in the middle of the oven and a heavy cast iron or ceramic pan on the lower rack under the stone and turn the oven on to 450 degrees.
9. If you are using a cookie/baking sheet instead of a stone just position one shelf in middle and the cast iron pot below and turn oven on to 450° F
10. When the hour is up, take the dish towel and stretch-tite off of the top of the dough. You will notice that the dough did rise and may have squatted a little but it is not an issue
11. With a basting brush push the flour off of the dough, Apply egg wash liberally (cover completely) and sprinkle your favorite seeds on top to cover bread. As you can see in the video I over do it with sesame because we love them but I have used poppy seeds too.
12. With a sharp thin bladed knife, put 3 or 4 slits into the seeded dough a half inch, it helps the bread expand, lets moisture escape and looks professional.
13. Fill an eight ounce glass with hot water from the sink or microwave it, the hotter the better
14. Place bread in oven on stone with parchment paper still attached
15. Then pour the hot water into the cast iron pot and close oven door (watch your face so not to get burned) you will see and hear the steam rise
16. Bake for 40 minutes until Golden Brown about 40 minutes
17. Bread is done when it is golden brown and 200° F internal temperature. I use an instant read thermometer and/or take out the bread, using a pot holder to protect yourself from the heat, ping the bread bottom with your middle finger and the sound should sound hollow

Extras

When you make it the first time make the entire dough into bread. The next time you make it do not use the whole recipe at one time just keep the remainder in the refrigerator. The more you make this recipe the easier it becomes. So wow your family and friends. Remember it takes only 10 - 15 minutes to make the dough and about two hours to make the bread with most of that time spent waiting for the bread to raise and cook.