I made it immediatelly after the show, and it works exactly as he says! Marvelously easy!

I was concerned about possibly damaging my no-stick cookware in such a hot oven so I substituted a lightly greased glass corningware pan. Needless to say, I had a bit of difficulty removing the bread after baking but did manage. My result was a crusty, very rustic, unpretentious type of bread – certainly, easy to prepare & excellent for dipping into hearty soup, chili, stew etc. but, in my mind, nothing special. Alton Brown offers an easy prep bread recipe that is excellent.

Living alone, I do not have need for very much bread so I cut this recipe in half, add some sugar; prepare dough in the evening; refrigerate overnight; bake off in the morning for fresh breakfast bread served with sweet butter & honey. This gives me a small, compact, wonderfully fresh bread to start the day. I do spray the loaf with water several times during baking for even a more crisp crust. Simple . Quick . Delicious

I have been baking bread for over 40 years, so I don’t feel that I have much to prove anymore. I just want good healthy bread with a minimum of fuss. My mother gave me a bread machine which seemed easier to use in my tiny apartment kitchen. I was never really that enamored of that machine…it still required fiddling. It eventually gave up, and I began exploring other methods.
After researching and trying several no-knead methods and being very pleased with most of them, I decided I didn’t need to replace my bread machine.
I especially loved that I didn’t have to add oil or sugar to it.
Then I came across the Jacques Pepin method.
WOW. I like this even better! A couple of times when making a no-knead recipe, I had ended up with bread that was a bit too moist in the center. So after seeing Pepin’s REALLY moist dough, I was a bit worried. I also don’t have a non stick pot, but I came up with a solution:
-I mix the dough very quickly in a bowl, then put it into a springform bundt pan to make sure it gets cooked well all the way through.
I also made it with 1/2 whole wheat flour the first time. Because of the whole wheat, my dough looked less wet than it looked on the video, but I thought I’d just go with it and see what happened.
Wonderful! So cute too! I cut it like a bundt cake and get cute smallish slices. The inside texture is finer than the Artisan no-knead recipes. The crust is crisp but also seemed a bit too chewy/tough. Maybe I overbaked it.
The next time I made it, I doubled the recipe using 1 part whole wheat flour, 1 part spelt flour and 1 part white flour. I put some of that dough into a parchment paper-lined pyrex loaf pan that time. It rose nicely in the fridge and was no problem getting out of the pan.
This way I added about a minute to the prep time by mixing it in a bowl, plus I now don’t have to go out and buy a non stick pot. Of course, I now have the “really heavy additional chore” of swishing cold water in the bowl to rinse out the residue – but I feel that it is worth it. It is still less mess and fuss than any of the other no-knead methods.
I am SOLD.
Now if I could just make a great challah this way!

That bread looks wonderful! I will definitely have to try the recipe.

I have had this recipe for several years – BUT the show I watched had the dough rising on the counter overnight and you shaped it the next day – 1 or 2 rounds, let rise for 2 hours on a corn mealed sheet and than flour and score in a pattern on top and slashing the sides. Looks like the best rustic bread ever found and the taste and texture is amazing..Oh – you throw 1/8 C of water in the bottom of the oven.

Can this be done in a cast iron pot? It seems to me going straight from the fridge directly to a 450 degree oven would cause it to crack. Has anyone tried it? I’d hate to destroy my $200 pot for $.20 bread!

I just tried this recipe (as well as the tuscan flatbread–quick, awesome, no fuss recipe) today. I used instant yeast and AP flour and my dough rose very minimally–both after the 1.5 hrs and when I took it out of the fridge this morning. It didn’t look nearly as air as Jacque’s did on the show. After baking, however, the texture was amazing and not as dense as I expected, but I found the flavor of both the cooks illustrated no-knead bread (which adds beer and vinegar to the dough) and alton brown’s (pretty similar to this recipe but longer rise time) to be better. Next time I’ll try adding some sugar like other have said and vinegar like in CI’s recipe. Oh, a good tip from CI–if you’re unsure when the loaf is read, stick a thermometer in the dough and it’s done when the center reaches 210 degrees.
Also regarding sticking and cast iron, after the initial 1.5 hour rise, I transferred the sticky dough to a piece of lightly oiled parchment paper before putting it back in the bowl I mixed it in and then into the fridge. In the morning I lifted the parchment and dough in an 8inch cast iron (recipe was halved) and then into the oven. Worked beautifully with super easy cleanup and no teflon needed. It would probably be alright in a nicely seasoned cast iron without the parchment but i didn’t feel like risking it.
Even though the flavors didn’t develop as nicely as some of the other no knead recipes I’ve tried, the convenience and simplicity and wonderful texture will probably turn this into my go-to bread recipe.
Did anyone else have issues with rising? I made another dough this morning using active dry yeast instead of instant, also using AP flour. I may try using bread dough as that has given me the best rise in previous bread-making.
Thanks Howard for sharing!

I LOVE this no-knead concept. I’ve been using a bread machine to avoid having a flour-covered kitchen, but it feels sort of antiseptic (and loud–the squeaky gears make me a little nuts). This recipe is a nice blend of easy clean-up, and hands-on baking fun.

I just baked a half-recipe using a 2-quart enameled cast-iron dutch oven. This time, I tried the recipe with the 1 1/8 cup water listed in JP’s original recipe, and used bread flour because that is what was in the pantry. And, I set the oven at 425 (the perils of groggy early-morning baking), which seems to have done no harm.

Next time, I plan to try it with the smaller amount of liquid Howard recommends, to see how that changes the bread. The larger amount of liquid gave it a surface that is full of large air bubbles, so it definitely is not as gorgeous as Howard’s picture. But it tastes great with olive oil, salt and pepper for breakfast, and the center is tender, but not wet.

Like earlier posters, I was worried about putting the cast iron through a fridge-to-oven heat change, so I left the covered pot out on the counter for 9-10 hours overnight. The kitchen in winter is about 58-60 degrees F. overnight, and the dough rose to 1 inch below the top of the pot, so that aspect worked great. I was worried that I would wake to bread risen up and stuck to the bottom of the lid, but no worries on that front.

I look forward to playing around with this recipe. The sugar and vinegar variations sound intriguing, and I’m thinking about leftover black tea, brown sugar and orange zest, or adding a little olive oil as part of the liquid.

Pepin uses a whole package of yeast for 4 cups of flour when making Gros Pain on the show, so 1 teaspoon seems way too little, but I’m giving it a try anyway. We’ll see how it turns out. :)

I just watched Pepin’s video and he calls for TWO AND A QUARTER/TWO AND A HALF CUPS OF TEPID (!) WATER (not 1 1/2 cups). – Just thought I’d let you know. :)