This is a superb and really reliable recipe for making a sour-dough style white bread that neither requires sour dough nor any kneading (the clue is in the name). As with some other recipes in this site, this one is a compressed transcription of Jim Lahey’s recipe so that my poor little tablet can display the page without collapsing in a smouldering heap.

This recipe takes a day to make (mostly just waiting). In terms of human actions we’re looking at about five minutes total!.

Ingredients

Dry Mix

• 440g plain flour (strong or not - doesn’t matter much)
• 1/2 teaspoon yeast (Yes, really that little)
• 1 1/4 tsp salt

Wet

• 330ml warm water

Method

Prep (1 minute)

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Add the water and mix briefly until all the dry mixture is mixed in. I use a fork and it takes around 30s or so of mixing. I often add a tiny bit more liquid to make sure all the dry mixture is picked up.

18 Hours later

1. Cover (cling film, lid, whatever you have) and put in a warm place for around 18 hours.

2. Put out a sheet of greaseproof paper and pop some flour on it.

3. Flour a work surface generously and put the dough out on it.

4. Quickly shape the dough with floured hands to form a rough dome shape. Takes just a few seconds and feels a bit like trying to fold a bag of jelly!

5. Take the (rather soft but hopefully not sticky dough) and flip it upside down onto the grease proof paper.

6. Leave for 90 minutes. It won’t rise much and might spread out a bit so I hope your bit of paper is wide enough.

7. Turn oven on to max temperature (230/230C or so) and put your dutch oven/le creuset/pyrex dish with lid) in to preheat.

8. Wait another 30 minutes.

9. Take dish out of oven, put dough (still on paper) into the dish. Put lid back on dish and put back in the oven.

10. Wait 30 minutes.

11. Take the lid off and leave the pot in the oven. The original recipe says 15 minutes. For me 6 or 7 is enough though! Check and take it out when it looks brown enough.

12. Take out of the oven and remove bread from dish (don’t burn yourself!).

13. Allow to cool then eat.

Storing

I store it in a cloth bag. It’s delicious the first day. It’s good the second day. It can be toasted the third day. You can build a house with it on the fourth day. Just eat it all on the first day.