Back to the Wet Bread - No Knead Dough Extravaganza

No Knead French Bread
From Artisian Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

3 cups of lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt

6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Grab a very large mixing bowl, or a large container that you can cover. In it, mix the water, yeast, and salt. You don’t have to heat up the water to a precise optimal temperature for the yeast. I’ve even used just regular tap water, and it’s worked well for me. Just let that sit together for a while (you don’t have to wait for the yeast to dissolve completely), then dump the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon. You don’t need to knead this, and you’re not looking to make it come together into a dough ball. You just want everything mixed well, it will be very wet a gloopy. I used a 1.3 gallon Tupperware and partially attach the lid. You barely have any cleanup because this will be the container the dough will live in while in your fridge until you finish it.

Leave it in your container, covered (but not airtight, or it’ll pop), for a few hours. When it has risen and then deflated a bit, your dough is done. It’s ready to be used or stored in the refrigerator. I keep mine in the cupboard where the under cabinet lights keep it about 80 degrees. In less than 2 hours it tops my container so I poke it a little and pop it into the fridge.

To bake the bread, dust lots of flour on the dough and just grab a chunk of dough, about the size of a grapefruit with scissors or a knife. With your dusted hands gently pull the sides of the dough toward the bottom, rotating the dough a quarter turn each time, until you get a roundish shape with a smooth surface. It should only take you about a minute or less to do this. Don't worry about the funky looking bottom.

Put it on a cutting board that’s been dusted with cornmeal and flour to prevent sticking, and let it rest for at least 40 minutes. No need to cover it. If the dough has been refrigerated, it helps to let it rest a little more, until it’s no longer chilled.

Twenty minutes before you are ready to bake, put a cast iron skillet (or a pizza stone) in the middle rack of your oven, and put a broiler pan (I used a cookie sheet) in the bottom rack. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Dust some flour on the top of your loaf, and slash the top, about 1/4-inch deep.

After twenty minutes of preheating, it’s time to bake. (You can put the bread in after 20 minutes, even if your oven hasn’t reached 450 degrees yet.) Slide the loaf onto the baking stone, and then quickly pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler pan. Then quickly shut the oven door to keep the steam inside.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until you get a nice brown crust. Remove and let cool completely. Sometimes for a softer crust I wrap the bread in plastic wrap after it comes out to hold the moisture. This is perfect when wanting to use it for soup bowls or sliced sandwich bread too.

PIZZA PIZZA
My newest trial was stretching it out to a flattish personal sized pizza dough shape and just before putting it in the oven topping it with pesto, cheese, artichoke hearts, feta and sun dried tomato's! yummiest pizza I have had in a while.