Easy, No Knead Crusty Bread

Image Gallery This easy bread recipe requires no kneading, and uses the heat and humidity of a Dutch oven to achieve the perfect crispy crust. ROGER DOIRON

Picture a bowl of soup or a salad without a slice of crusty bread to go with it. Worse still, imagine a deliciously tangy piece of Camembert cheese, served with a glass of red wine, but no accompanying hunk of baguette. Quelle horreur! as the French would say.

Much has been written over the centuries about bread’s importance in global cuisine. Legendary American chef and food writer James Beard called it the “most fundamentally satisfying of all foods” and referred to bread served with fresh butter as the “greatest of feasts.” True to form, the Italians are even more dramatic in describing bread’s essential role. “Senza il pane tutto diventa orfano,” they say, which means “without bread, everyone’s an orphan.”

About six years ago, I felt orphaned myself. I had just returned from 10 years living in Europe where artisan bread is so common you almost trip over the stuff in the streets. The same cannot be said of my native state of Maine, where Wonder Bread still leads wonderful bread by a comfortable margin. If you trip over anything in the winter-worn streets of Maine, it’s more likely to be a frost heave.

Bread had become so fundamental to my culinary happiness that I realized upon returning to the States that I needed to knead some of my own. After five years playing around with different recipes and techniques, I reluctantly came to terms with my limits as a home baker. I could produce zucchini and banana breads to die for, a decent sandwich loaf in both white and whole-wheat varieties, and a perfectly respectable foccacia.

What I couldn’t produce, unfortunately, was the type of bread I craved the most: a hearty, round rustic loaf with a moist, chewy crumb (inside) and a thick, crispy crust.

Fortunately, my return proved to be well-timed in that it coincided with an artisan bread-making revival making inroads in Maine. I became a regular customer of Standard Baking Co., a Portland-based bakery that turns out breads and pastries that rival Europe’s finest. What I couldn’t bake myself was available just a few minutes and a few dollars away.

But for people like me who grow some of our own food and cook from scratch, close foods can never be quite close enough. I remained committed to being able to produce the loaf of my dreams in my own kitchen. On a Saturday morning bread run to Standard, I asked one of the bakers her secret to a crusty loaf. She replied “quality ingredients, time and a $10,000 professional baking oven.” Ugh. That was not what I wanted to hear.

She went on to explain that the secret to a loaf that is soft and moist on the inside and crusty on the outside lies in the careful balance of heat and humidity. Professional baking ovens achieve this balance via high temperatures and blasts of steam during the cooking process.