ShortOnYeast-19 Bread

This plaguey springtime, it is not so easy to buy baker's yeast.
Simple bread recipes call for two 7g sachets of dry yeast or a full 40g (1.5 oz) cube of the fresh one, per kilogram (2 lb) of flour. This is unnecessarily wasteful, unless you are in a hurry. A quarter of a single dry yeast sachet (or 1/8 of a fresh yeast cube) is more than enough. Moreover, the slower process will make bread far more flavorful.

A decent loaf of bread calls for

• 1kg (2lb) of flour,
• 1/4 sachet (a teaspoon) of instant dry yeast,
• 15g (1/2 oz) salt
• 620ml water (19 floz per 2lb flour)
• some 10 minutes of work and an overnight wait.

that can hold at least 4 liters (a gallon) mix the three dry ingredients, than add water. (If woking from fresh yeast, dissolve it in water first, than add to flour/salt mix.) Proceed by mixing, but only enough to make it roughly uniformly damp. No need to knead. Form a ball, cover to prevent drying, leave at room temperature overnight.

we are not worried anymore about the minute amount of yeast that we used. Pull the dough foam from the walls of the bowl and repeatedly fold toward the center to tension its surface. No need to knead. Form a ball, dust with flour and leave in a covered bowl again for an hour or two until it doubles in volume. In the meantime, it might be necessary to turn and dust again to prevent sticking to the dish.

to 200C (390F), no ventilation. Put the dough loaf in, score top, throw a shot glass worth of water in and close. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180C (360F). In another 30-45 minutes, it should be done.

This makes for a typical European loaf as if from a true bread oven.

The no-knead preparation was inspired by the "New York Times bread" recipes around the net.
Andrej was a huge help in forming the dough and making the photos for this instructable.