A Hearty Bakery Style Crusty Bread Recipe
Most bread recipes require folding and kneading every hour for at least 2-3 hours before doing final proof and shaping. It truly is an art and fun to watch. As much as I’d love bread I do not have the time or patience no matter how delicious. Well okay my one exception might be if I’m having an Italian dish with red sauce. A crusty Italian bread is a must to get all that leftover saucy goodness.
So how do we fix such a dilemma?!? The answer: No Knead 3 day crusty bread. You mix the Ingredients and set it in the fridge overnight to develop its gluten (aka strength) as well as start fermenting a bit. The beauty is this recipe makes three loaves and you can bake them all at once after 12 hours or up to 72 hours. I like to bake one each day and compare the taste. Each day your bread will develop a more sourdough tang. You can of course bake all at once on any of the three days. You can also scale it down and make just 1 to 2 loaves.
Below is a picture of the dough after the initial 2 hour proof before refrigerating for 12-72 hours. You can see the dough has begun to rise and bubble. The dough will collapse a bit in the fridge and that is totally fine. Note the longer its chills the more sourdough tang the dough develops.
This recipe is inspired by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François’ book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I modified the flours and intents to include sourdough discard as well as different flour ratios (rye & spelt mix is my favorite). I hope you enjoy not only the bread but the bakery smells your kitchen will bring!
A delicious no knead multigrain bread that requires less than 15 minutes hands on time to make. Simple substitutions can be made to fit whatever whole grain flour you have in the kitchen.