Featured Recipe

BREAD: No Knead Dutch Oven Bread

Ingredients

- 3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp instant yeast
- 1 5/8 cups warm water
- flour, wheat bran, or corn meal for dusting

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water and stir until blended; the dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 12 hours, preferably about 18 hours, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

The dough is ready when the surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place the dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.

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

At least a half hour before the dough is ready, heat the oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex, or ceramic) in the oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake the pot once or twice if the dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover the pot with the lid and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until the loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2 pound loaf

This recipe is adapted from the New York Times Online, Recipe: No-Knead Bread.

FEATURED PRODUCT: Emile Henry Flame Stewpot, 5.5-qt, $189.99

Emile Henry Flame Stewpots are extremely functional as well as beautiful. These pots are used as you would a traditional cast or enameled Dutch oven. The Emile Henry Flame stewpots are manufactured from Burgundy Clay, which makes them lighter and naturally easy to clean. They work well on all stove tops (gas, electric, halogen, and induction with a diffuser) and can be heated to extremely high temperatures for searing. These pots are also microwave, oven, and broiler-safe, and can be used on gas and charcoal grills and open flame.