No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

A crackling, open-crumbed loaf with almost no hands-on work — time and a covered pot do the job kneading usually does.

Makes 1 loaf · Prep 10 min · Rise 720 min · Bake 45 min

Ingredients

3 cups All-purpose or bread flour
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1/8 tsp Instant yeast — Instant/quick-rise: stir straight into the dry ingredients, no proofing needed.
1 5/8 cups Water, room temperature

Whisk the flour, salt, and yeast together in a large bowl, then stir in the water with a spoon or spatula until no dry flour remains. The dough will be shaggy, wet, and sticky. (Tip: Don't knead this. It's meant to look rough — the long rest is doing the gluten development instead.)

Cover the bowl and leave it somewhere cool (room temperature is fine) for 12 to 18 hours, until the surface is dotted with bubbles and roughly tripled in volume.

Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface, fold it over on itself a few times to gather it into a rough ball, and let it rest, seam-side down, on a floured towel while the oven heats.

Put a lidded dutch oven, empty, into the oven and heat both to 230°C (450°F) for 30 minutes. (Tip: The pot has to be genuinely hot all the way through — this is what gives the crust its initial burst of oven spring.)
Carefully lift the dough (parchment underneath makes this much safer) into the hot pot, cover, and bake.
Remove the lid and continue baking until deeply browned. (Tip: The uncovered stretch is what lets the crust actually crisp and colour — a lid left on the whole time steams the loaf pale.)

Timing the long rise: Mix it before bed and bake it the next morning, or mix it after breakfast and bake it for dinner. The window is forgiving — anywhere from 12 to 18 hours works, and a cooler kitchen just means the longer end.
No dutch oven?: Any heavy, oven-safe pot with a lid works, including a stockpot with foil crimped over the top in place of a lid. The mass and the seal are what matter, not the brand.