Sandwich Bread (No Knead)
Super soft and easy sandwich bread made with a handful of ingredients and without a mixer.
Servings 1 loaf bread
Equipment
- loaf pan standard size 5x9 inches
Ingredients
- 360g or 1 ½ cups cool tap water
- ¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 430g or 3 and a scant ¼ cups bread flour if using cups, shake the flour over the cup and level. do not scoop or pack the flour into the cup!
- 1 ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup optional, adds a touch of sweetness
- Olive oil & butter for preparing the baking pan
Instructions
The night before, (I usually start around 8pm: doing a turn/fold around 9pm and another around 10pm)
- Measure the water into a large bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Gently stir to combine.
- Measure the bread flour into the bowl and add the salt. Stir to combine until you have a shaggy dough. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 45-60 minutes.
- We’re going to do some folds: wet your fingers and lift one side of the dough and fold it over the center. Turn the bowl 45 degrees and lift from another side and fold again. Keep doing this until the dough starts resisting and you have a tight dough ball. Cover with the plastic wrap and set aside.
- After an hour do another fold, and like the first, keep going until the dough starts resisting again and you have a smooth ball. If you have time, do a third fold after another hour. Cover the bowl with the plastic wrap and leave to rise for about 8 hours.
The morning of baking
- In the morning the dough will have risen quite a bit and be very bubbly. Butter a 9x5 inch loaf pan ver well and then rub it with olive oil (both butter and oil are necessary so the dough doesn’t stick).
- Like you did the night before, fold the dough over itself (it will deflate - this is ok), until you have a taut dough. Tuck the sides in to make a rectangular shape and set it into the prepared loaf pan and rub the top with oil. Cover with the same plastic wrap. Leave to rise until the dough has risen over the rim of the pan by at least half an inch, this can take up to two hours, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.
- Preheat the oven to 425 F. Once preheated, fill a cake pan (any size - I use a round 9 inch) with ice and set it in the oven. After 5-10 minutes of the ice being in the oven, set the bread to bake until it has risen considerably and is a deep brown color all over - about 30-35 minutes.
- Transfer the bread to a cooling rack. It’s best to give the bread time to cool out of the oven before slicing it for at least an hour as it continues to ‘cook’ out of the oven and the crumb will be nice and tender.