Easy No-Knead Crusty Bread from Simply So Good

My friend Jennifer over at AFlexibleLife.com turned me on to this recipe from the Simply So Good blog.  I have tried a few different kinds of “no knead” bread but really haven’t had much luck.  The loaves generally turned out really dense and tough.

A little history – I’m not a very good bread maker.  I was making a pretty nice recipe in my bread maker, but I only used the maker to knead, not to bake.  I got really sick of having a bread machine in my kitchen.  It’s clunky and only does one thing.  Pretty boring, so I got rid of it.

This bread truly is easy, you stir, let sit overnight, and bake.  The recipe doubles nicely – and please read the entire post about it at Simply So Good because you can add a bunch of different enhancements to the bread to flavor it.  I’m keen to try kalamata olive and rosemary soon.  Probably when Todd and my son are in Denver in a week for a bow show, both despise olives.

You do need some kind of dutch oven thing with a lid to cook it in.  I use my enameled cast-iron dutch oven to bake these.  I’d love to have one from Le Creuset like the gal at SimplySoGood – but I’d rather not drop $300+ on ONE pan 😉

This is hands-down the easiest bread recipe out there.  I have done a lot of different variations on this one – from Jalapeno Cheddar, Parmesan & Sun Dried Tomato – and even Roasted Garlic & Rosemary!