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As promised in my publisher’s column in the magazine, here is my friend’s amazing bread recipe. Thank you, Wes, for sharing!

No-knead Bread

3 Cup flour – bread or all purpose

¼ tsp yeast

1 ¼ tsp salt

1 5/8 cup warm water

Mix together dry ingredients and add water. Mix with your hand or spoon or whatever till everything is wet. This takes about 20 – 30 seconds. It will be wet and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 – 18 hours at room temp or warm area. Sitting for this time apparently develops the glutens in the bread. Walk away and forget about it.

Dough will look lumpy and bubbly. Turn it out on a lightly floured surface and gently fold the dough over on itself 2-4 times. Cover and let it set for 15 minutes. It will still be sticky.

Next lie out a dish towel (not terry cloth) and liberally coat with flour, corn meal and/or wheat bran. I use the first two together. With floured hands form the dough into a ball and place on top of cloth. Sprinkle with some more flour and fold sides of cloth over dough so it doesn’t dry out. Let rise till double 2-3 hours. I don’t think the timing is critical.

Preheat oven and large covered pot to 500 degrees for 30 – 45 minutes. You can use ceramic, cast iron, or whatever but it must be covered. I place mine on a pizza stone. Its important to have the oven and the container fully preheated.

When everything is ready to go, pick up edge of towel and invert dough onto your other hand. Gently plop into pot and put on lid. You can also flip it directly from the towel into the pot but it seems to get flour all over the place. Just be careful – 500 degrees yields immediate and profound burns.

Cook for 25 minutes and remove lid. Cook another 5 – 15 minutes until top is golden grown and caramelized. Extract from pan and cool on rack. Eat it. The result is a crusty bread with large holes and moist interior.

Whole Wheat: substitute ½ cup whole wheat flour for the white stuff.

Raisons : substitute ½ cup whole wheat flour

Also add ¾ cup raisons, 1 ½ tsp cinnamon, ¼ cup molasses all at the beginning of the mixing process. Experiment with proportions as you see fit.

Every loaf has turned out and all has been yummy.

In recent versions I use a little more flour and I think it turns out a little better.