Recipe: No Knead Bread

Move over crackers, there's a new cheese board King in town, and his name is no knead bread. Perfect for a weekend baking project, this bread will impress your friends and leave you feeling like the Queen of the kitchen!

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting
• ¼ tsp instant yeast
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ cups room temperature water
• ¼ cup cornmeal
• 1 cup chopped nuts, seeds or dried fruit (optional)
• 1 cup fresh chopped herbs (optional)

Preparation

In a large bowl combine flour, yeast, salt and optional filling. Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be wet and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest overnight, at least 18 hours at warm room temperature.

The next day, lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with a tea towel and let rest about 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Sprinkle a piece of parchment paper with cornmeal; put dough seam side down on paper and dust with more cornmeal or flour. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours, until doubled in size.

At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450F. Put a 6-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Lift the dough up by the parchment underneath it, and lower the whole thing into the pot. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed.

Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack for at least one hour before slicing.

Cheese board tips:

• Slice your No Knead Bread thinly and add it to your cheese board instead of crackers. Toast if desired.
• Pick a variety of cheeses from soft (goat cheese), medium (blue cheese), firm (old cheddar).
• Have something sweet on your board such as honey, jams or jellies to cut the richness of the cheese.
• Add nuts or seeds for textural contrast.
• Fresh fruit brings a nice splash of flavour and freshness.