Could there be an even better version of my favorite bread recipe? Thanks to King Arthur Flour, the answer is yes! The KAF No-Knead White Crusty Bread recipe draws from my recent favorite Simple Crusty Bread approach, and provides more detailed guidance to result in a perfectly baked loaf.
The more detailed KAF guidance provides both weight measurement guidance that I followed as well as details on how to substitute a dutch oven for the baking itself. I also followed related guidance to keep my standard inclusion of rye flour to only 20% of the overall flour weight as to not depress the bread rise too much.
(hello scale, I love you!)
By following the weight guidance instead of the volume measurements, I ended up with a much thicker and dense dough than my usual no knead doughs, which are quite loose and shaggy.
Like my preparation of the original recipe, I did half the amount of dough I made to ultimately produce two loaves instead of four.
I baked the loaf in a 7 1/4 quart dutch oven, pre-heated in a 450 degree oven (480 in our new, not-quite-calibrated oven). I baked the bread for 28 minutes in the covered dutch oven, and then an additional 8 minutes with the cover off.
The result, when cooled, was great – full of decent holes, great crust, and a much better rise than when you bake on a pizza stone. I'll be making this again!
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