Bread newbie here. After trying and failing to cultivate a sourdough starter as a fun new project, I cut my losses but still wanted to make some kind of good rustic bread with a crackling chewy crust. It doesn't take much googling before you see the no-knead process show up everywhere. Having never researched bread-making this was foreign to me, but apparently when the NYT published a recipe with this process 15-ish years ago (from a NYC bakery) it was somewhat groundbreaking.
So I gave it a go. This was literally 20 minutes of hands-on time, and would be less if I knew more what I was doing. A few minutes to mix up the dough the night before, a few minutes to shape the next afternoon before a final rise, then into the Dutch oven to bake. The results were phenomenal. I'm a little shocked that bread this good can come from such simple and easy process. Very complex flavor with a thick chewy crust. I'm sure this is nothing new for most of you, but feels like kind of an epiphany to this novice.
So I gave it a go. This was literally 20 minutes of hands-on time, and would be less if I knew more what I was doing. A few minutes to mix up the dough the night before, a few minutes to shape the next afternoon before a final rise, then into the Dutch oven to bake. The results were phenomenal. I'm a little shocked that bread this good can come from such simple and easy process. Very complex flavor with a thick chewy crust. I'm sure this is nothing new for most of you, but feels like kind of an epiphany to this novice.