Simple No-Knead Bread

I love having fresh bread in the house but being a mum to a little girl means I don’t have much time to spare. I make this no-knead bread at least twice a week for us to enjoy alongside soup during the week. It’s so easy and you can switch up the flavour additions and flours to suit your families tastes. You don’t need any bread making experience to give this a go. My favourite way to have it is toasted with some wensleydale cheese.

Ingredients - makes 1 loaf (original recipe from RecipeTin Eats)
600g strong bread flour, a variety*
500ml warm water
10g flaky salt
7g dried-active yeast
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp poppyseeds

*I like to use 200g Strong White Flour, 200g Matthews Cotswold Golden Bread Flour and 200g Matthews Cotswold Seven Grain Flour

Method
Day before baking: (or up to 2 days before)
Stir together all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add in the warm water and mix until well combined. Scrape down the edges of the bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave to rise at room temperature between 8-12 hours. 

Once risen, using a wet hand, lift the dough from underneath and fold it on top of itself. Do this all around the dough until it's been deflated and is in a very rough ball. Cover well, so that the dough doesn't dry out, and refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days.

The day of baking:
Put your Dutch Oven into the oven and pre-heat to 220°C. Once the oven has pre-heated, leave the Dutch Oven to continue to heat for another 30 minutes to ensure it’s piping hot.

Tip the dough out onto a well floured worktop. Shape the dough into a round, place onto a large piece of baking paper and cover.

Being very careful, take the Dutch Oven out of the oven and remove the lid. Lift the bread into the Dutch oven by the corners of the baking paper. Score the dough on top using scissors or a bread lame. Place the lid back on top of the Dutch Oven (remember it will be extremely hot), and put it back into the oven. Bake for 30 minutes before removing the lid and baking for a further 15 minutes.

Take the bread out of the Dutch Oven and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing.