No-Knead White Loaf

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 1/2 tsp fast-action dried yeast
• 10 g salt
• 400 ml cool water

Method

1. Stir, do not knead

   Mix the flour, yeast, salt and water with a spoon until there are no dry patches. It will be a wet, shaggy mess and that is correct — the high water content is what lets the gluten organise itself without hands.

2. Long slow prove

   Cover and leave at cool room temperature for 12 to 18 hours, until the surface is domed and pocked with bubbles. Time is doing the work that kneading would; there is no shortcut version of this step.

   12 h

3. Fold and shape

   Tip onto a well-floured surface, fold the edges into the middle a few times, then turn it seam-side down and drag it towards you to tighten the skin. Handle it lightly — knocking all the gas out now undoes the overnight prove.

4. Second rise

   Prove seam-side up in a floured cloth-lined bowl for an hour, while you heat a lidded casserole in the oven at 240°C. The pot must be blisteringly hot before the dough goes in.

   1 h

5. Bake covered

   Tip the dough into the hot pot, slash the top, and bake with the lid on. The trapped steam keeps the crust soft long enough for the loaf to spring up fully.

   30 min

6. Bake uncovered

   Take the lid off and bake until deep brown and hollow-sounding underneath. Cool on a rack for at least an hour — cut hot, the still-setting crumb goes gummy.

   15 min