Some people will find this hard to believe, but there are those of us who still eat bread. Regularly. And I am one of them. As far as I'm concerned, there's a reason that it has long been referred to as the staff of life – and that the ultimate expression of companionship and community is breaking bread. Bread is simple, fundamental, essential. There is nothing nicer, to my mind, that tearing off a corner of a fresh baguette and eating it slathered in butter. Or dipped in olive oil and sea salt. Or spread with apricot jam or topped with brie and slow-roasted tomatoes.
I love sourdough and Tuscan peasant rounds and caraway rye and sprouted whole-grain loaves. I love avocado toast ala Gwyneth Paltrow ("like a favourite pair of jeans" indeed) and yolky, salty, fried-egg sandwiches ala my mum. With peameal bacon, if at all possible. I love thick slices spread with the pimento cheese that my Southern stepmom taught me how to make. Or turned into yummy bruschetta.
Add to that, as Tamar Adler pointed out in An Everlasting Meal, there's a million lovely, homey uses for a loaf that's past its prime: breadcrumbs, croutons, garlicky crostini and even Italian bread salad or soup.
All of this is why I will never give up eating bread, no matter how unfashionable it is. I am so committed to carbs, in fact, that I have started baking my own. I tend to favour the dense, whole wheat, seed-crusted, molasses-sweetened beauties of my hippie childhood. But I don't always have the get-up-and-go to tackle all that kneading.
So the below recipe is a good compromise. It's from Kathleen Flinn's wonderful book The Kitchen Counter Cooking School, adapted from master recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It gives you mouth-watering, hearty bread with almost no effort. That way, you can spend all your time and energy dreaming up delicious ways to serve it.
No-Knead Bread
Yields four one-pound loaves
3 cups lukewarm water
1 and 1/2 tablespoons yeast
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
6 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
additional flour for dusting loaves
cornmeal
1. Combine the water, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir to mix. Add all of the flour at once and mix with a wooden spoon until the dough is wet and sticky with no dry patches. Loosely cover with plastic wrap. Do not seal airtight. Let it rise 2 hours at room temperature. If not using immediately, refrigerate the dough, covered, for up to 2 weeks.
2. To fashion a loaf, scoop a grapefruit-sized piece from the bowl of dough and dust it in flour. Rub with more flour and then gently stretch the top around to tuck the sides into the bottom to form a round, smooth loaf. Put on parchment paper, dusted with cornmeal so it won't stick. Let it rise, uncovered for 30-90 minutes. (And no longer, as I learned the hard way! Flat loaves = not cool.) The loaf will plump but not change radically in size.
3. 20 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 450F. Place pizza stone on middle rack. Place a deep baking tray on the bottom rack.
4. Dust the loaf liberally with more flour. Slash the top several times with a knife. Place the parchment paper and loaf on pizza stone in hot oven. Pour hot water into the baking tray and close oven immediately so that steam does not escape.
5. Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool to room temperature.
