No-Knead Bread

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1. In a large bowl sprinkle yeast over cool water, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Stir the water, then add flour, then distribute salt. Stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest 12-14 hours at room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself twice. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.
3. Line a bowl about the size of your dutch oven with parchment paper. Then wet your hands to keep dough from sticking to your hands. Gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Put dough seam side down on the parchment paper in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and let rise for about 3 hours. When the dough is ready, it should be more than double in size.
4. At least 30 minutes before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-8 quart dutch oven (or heavy covered pot [cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic]) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Lift the dough via parchment paper from the bowl and transfer to dutch oven. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Notes

• To fold the dough over on itself, grab an end, pull the dough up, stretching it to twice its original length, then fold it. Then grab a different end and do the same thing.
• There's more than one method to make a ball out of dough. The key is that you don't want press or work it so hard that it loses what rise it has already achieved. Here's one method. I use a similar method which picks the dough up and folds it underneath itself.
• Rise time varies depending on the ambient temperature, so you may need to tweak rise times by giving or taking an hour or two. The initial rise develops most of the flavor. Folding the dough provides some structure. The last rise develops the crumb (density/texture). The recipe is very forgiving until the last rise. You want to make sure the dough has enough time to double in size, which means that if you need 4 hours to get a very light/airy crumb, then you'll want to subtract an hour or two from the initial rise, since dough can only rise for so long before it plateaus. From my experience, the yeast's effectiveness, at 70 degrees, starts to plateau around 20 hours. So, rise potential dies around that time.
• You can cut the top of the dough after its placed in the dutch oven for a pretty presentation. Just a deep 1-inch slice across the top with a razor blade, or snips in the dough with scissors, gives steam a place to escape from the dough and makes for a pretty crust.
• You don't have to use parchment paper. The alternative method involves sprinkling a cloth towel with a lot of flour, then transferring to the dutch oven by hand. Using parchment paper is just simpler and safer.
• It helps to have a good long (10") bread knife.