[Slowly Baked] Homemade Bread

I've always aspired to bake bread, but I'm utterly intimidated by the entire proposition so I got really excited when I saw this article on easy foolproof bread baking in the nytimes today. It takes a really long time so it's high on patience, but low on actual work. MGDub and GJDubya have a Ukrainian phrase they like to use for these types of projects which essentially means something like, "why bother." Unfortunately, the entire bread baking process takes nearly 21 hours and I can't figure out how I'll manage to schedule this bread baking without having to rush home in the middle of the day to work on my dough. Without rearranging my current schedule and disrupting my beauty sleep, I can only practically start the process of baking bread on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. All other days, I'll be stuck at school at a critical point in time when I need to be home. Given that each loaf is 1.5 pounds, I shouldn't have to bake bread more than twice a week in order to feed the two of us.

Recipe: No-Knead Bread

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street BakeryTime: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm 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; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. 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.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.