It’s time for Christmas party. I am invited to a potluck Christmas party. While I will go back to Hong Kong very soon, I need something that is simple enough in preparation (so I can be free to pack my stuff for my 3-weeks stay in Hong Kong) and something festive, good for family with kids. And just in case of leftover, I won’t have a nightmare to finish the leftover in a few days. So I decided to make this no-knead harvest bread for the potluck party.

Time and Serving

• Preparation time: 20 mins
• Waiting time: 14 + 2 hrs
• Cooking time: 50 mins
• Serving: 1 loaf

Ingredients and tools

Ingredients
All purpose flour	390	g
Wheat flour	113	g
salt	2	tsp
instant yeast	1/2	tsp
water	1 3/4	cup
dried craneberries	85	g
golden raisins	85	g
coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts	113	g

Tools
24 cm/4 Quart Le Creuset/Staub Round Dutch Oven	1
Clean Kitchen Towel	1
Large Mixing Bowl	1
Baking mat	1
Plastic wrap	1
Sift	1
Knife	1
Cooling Rack	1

Gallery

Directions

1. Mix the flours, salt, yeast and water in a large bowl. Stir and mix by hand to form a dough
2. Work the dough just enough to incorporate all the flours, then mix in the nuts and raisins
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it to rest in room temperature for 14 hours
4. After 14 hours, pour the dough on lightly floured workspace.
5. Lightly pat the dough, then fold the left and right side of the dough towards center
6. Fold the upper and lower side of the dough towards center, then round the dough
7. Lightly floured a clean kitchen towel
8. Place the dough on the floured kitchen towel and wrap the dough in the kitchen towel. Let it rest for 2 hours
9. In the last hour of resting the dough, lightly grease the dutch oven and put it in the preheated 450F (232 C) oven for 1 hour
10. After 1 hour, transfer the dough into the heated dutch oven
11. Wet a knife with water, slash the bread at 20 - 30 degree angle towards center in a crosshatch pattern or other pattern you preferred. Just remember the bread will expand following the direction of the slashes, if you prefer a rounded loaf, slash along all 4 sides of the bread
12. Use a sift to sparkle flour over the top of the dough
13. Bake the bread with the lid on for 45 minutes
14. Uncover and bake for 5 more minutes
15. Remove from the oven and let it cool on a cooling rack

Remark

1. The best way to store the unfinished bread is to wrap it in parchment paper and then put it in a plastic bag which is punctured with many holes. So that the bread would be still crunchy (purpose of the parchment paper) and not too dried out (purpose of punctured plastic bag) next day
2. When the bread is cooled down, wrap it nicely in parchment paper and tied with cotton twine, you are ready to go for the potluck party
3. When I put down Le Creuset or Staub in front of the round Dutch oven, I receive no advertising fee or commission for that. I specify these two brands solely because their qualities is no comparison with other cheap Chinese made dutch oven. Specifically I refer to how tight the lid is paired with the pot. You can try it out in any department store to compare them with other dutch oven, you will see what I mean. This is particularly important if you want to retain moisture and water in applications like cooking soup or braising. Yes, they are expensive compared with a US$30 - US$50 Chinese made dutch oven. But first, you can wait for it be on sale. Like mine, I got my Staub 24cm/4 Quart round dutch oven from Sur La Table during Black Friday Sale for US$99.99. Amazon have the same offer during 2020 Black Friday Sale. Or going to Le Creuset Outlet during July 4th or Thanksgiving Sale. Second, they definitely worth the investment. I have so many applications for them, steaming, baking, braising, cooking soup. They perform all those tasks perfectly, much better than stainless steel cookware. They are the workhorses in my kitchen.

Reference

This recipe is modified based on the following recipes

1. No-Knead Bread Recipe- NYT Cooking
2. No-Knead Harvest Bread Recipe: King Arthur Flour