No Knead Crusty Bread

Ingredients

360ml warm water

1 tsp sugar

7g dried yeast

400g strong white flour

1 tsp salt

Directions

Dissolve the sugar in the warm water in a bowl or jug. Add the yeast and allow it to dissolve and activate. You will know it's ready when it froths up on the top of the water.

Combine the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. When the yeast mixture is frothy, pour it into the flour and stir well to make your dough. This will be a very wet dough, so do not be alarmed if it looks very sticky, it is meant to be. Cover the bowl with cling film and allow to proof in a warm place for one hour, it will roughly double in size in that time.

When the dough has been proofing for thirty minutes, preheat your oven to 220 Celsius. Put a cast iron casserole in the oven and heat that up at the same time.

After one hour, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Again, it will be very wet - do not freak out - it is meant to be. Sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold the dough it back on itself about four times to form a round loaf. Line a bowl with grease proof paper and carefully pop the dough into the bowl, seam side down. Cover with a towel and let it rest for fifteen minutes.

After fifteen minutes, carefully take your casserole dish out of the oven, it will be very hot. Use the edges of the paper to lift the dough out of the bowl and drop it, still in the paper, into the dish.

Cover and put it back in the oven. Bake for thirty minutes.

After your bread has been baking for thirty minutes, remove the lid and bake for another fifteen minutes to get the crust nice and golden. Transfer the baked loaf to a wire rack and allow it to cool a little before slicing.