In the years since we were introduced to no-knead bread, a new generation of bakers has grown up around the method, and countless professional and amateur bakers have tweaked and adapted the recipe—including the New York Times itself, which amended the original to include ingredient weights and more salt. And when we made our first cast iron Dutch oven, we couldn’t resist developing a no-knead bread recipe specifically for our Field No.8 Dutch Oven.
The Science of No-Knead
Before we get to our recipe, it helps to understand what makes no-knead bread work. The dough itself is as simple as it gets—flour, salt, yeast, and water—but what’s different about no-knead dough is its hydration level (that is, the ratio of water to flour), which is higher than your standard bread recipe. This extra liquid makes it easier for gluten to form without having to do any manual labor. Time does all the work: after you mix the wet, sticky dough, you let it rest for at least 12 hours at room temperature. Meanwhile, enzymes in the flour break down long strands of proteins into shorter pieces, while the yeast gobble up sugars in the flour and release carbon dioxide. The bubbles created by the gas simultaneously leaven the dough and develop a strong, elastic network of gluten, eliminating the need to knead.
But there’s an even more important innovation that gives no-knead bread its crackling, deeply browned crust: the cooking vessel. Steam is essential to crust development, and professional bakers use steam-injected ovens to give their loves that desirable crunch. A covered Dutch oven delivers the same result: the enclosed environment is sauna-like, which yields a thicker, darker crust. And because cast iron is so good at holding and transferring heat, a preheated pot will help the dough spring up and take shape as its carbon dioxide bubbles and water vapor expands in the hot, humid setting—much faster than a dough baked on a baking sheet or stone. In short, a cast iron Dutch oven is the best tool for making great bread at home.
Our Dutch Oven
Many bakers use enameled Dutch ovens for their no-knead endeavors, and have achieved great results. However, many enamel- or ceramic-coated Dutch ovens are only rated for use at 400°F or below, and no-knead bread requires a 450°F or higher oven. Using an enameled or ceramic-coated pot outside of its recommended heat range could cause its coating to flake off, and nobody wants flaky bread. Our Field Dutch Oven is naturally non-stick—as much so as any coated pot—and is also significantly lighter than coated Dutch ovens, which makes transferring in and out of the oven a safer, easier task.
Our Recipe
There are as many differences as similarities between our No.8 No-Knead Bread recipe and the original. For starters, we scaled the recipe to make the optimally sized dough—about 1000 grams—for our No.8 (4.5-quart) Dutch oven, and adjusted the hydration level down a bit (70% vs 90%) to make the dough easier to work with.
We also add a step—cold fermentation—that requires extra time, but no extra work. By chilling the dough in the refrigerator for 1 to 5 days after its first proof, the flavor of the bread not only improves dramatically: it goes from tasting like plain white bread to something more akin to a great sourdough. The longer you let your dough ferment in the refrigerator, the more complex it will taste.
The cold dough is also much easier to work during the final shaping and scoring stage. These final quick steps are also an add-on to the New York Times recipe (which is simply dumped into the Dutch oven), but they will give your bread a higher, rounder shape—one that will be impossible to distinguish from a professionally baked loaf.
Yes, our recipe takes more time—and a minute or two more work—than the original no-knead recipe, but the results will be worth your patience, and start you on the path to making more, and better, bread at home.
Field Notes:
