Home bakery

A few months ago I read about no-knead bread in Nancy Leson's All You Can Eat blog in the Seattle Times. She writes about fancy restaurants and foods I'll probably never eat, but she's also funny as anything and she makes really great, practical suggestions.

Anyhow, I haven't tried the recipe yet because it calls for some sort of cast-iron or ceramic lidded baking dish. My early birthday present from Mom and Dad:

Yeah, I know my oven is dirty. Care to come over and clean it for me?

I mixed the dough up on Thursday evening and let it rise overnight. When I came downstairs I could smell the wonderful, yeasty, rising-dough smell.


There's enough dough here for two loaves, so I divided it in half, and let the loaf rise for two more hours. Then it baked and oh! did it smell good. I nearly chewed on the oven in anticipation. Finally, the moment of truth arrived.


Alas, the loaf had to cool for a couple more hours, but that gave me time to clean up the mess I'd made in the kitchen:

Finally... YUM! The result was a hearty, rustic-style bread with an amazing crunchy crust. I took some to a get together on Friday night where Shari brought some yummy Dutch cheese that made it just that much better. Less than 24 hours later and it's pretty much all gone!

(Note: If you decide to follow the Nancy Leson's recipe, I think the amount of beer needs to be amended).