After making that 24-hour no knead loaf, I knew I was onto something interesting: easy, yet excellent bread at home.
Then I came across a book at Chapters, called '200 Fast and Easy Artisan Breads: No knead, One Bowl.' It seemed to follow some of Jim Lahey's modern bread-baking techniques. So I read through the introduction, and wrote down the recipe for a very simple loaf:
3 1/4 cups flour
1 3/4 cups warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons fast-acting yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
cornmeal, as needed
According to the recipe, I: Mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl then added the warm water stirred it up until just mixed, placed it into a greaced bowl, and let it rise in a warm spot for 2 hours, placed the dough onto parchment paper, let it set for 40 more minutes, preheated the oven to 450F with a sheetpan on the top rack and a roasting pan on the middle rack, made 3 slices 1/2" deep in the dough ball, sprinkled it with cornmeal, placed it onto the hot sheet pan, threw 2 cups of water into the roasting pan, and quickly closed the door. Baked it in high moisture for 25 minutes, removed the water pan, then baked for another 15 to 20 minutes until crunchy and coloured.
This loaf, simple as it may be, turned out great. Nowhere near as crunchy as the 24-hour loaf, and finished in just 4 hours. I like that the extra yeast saves 20 hours. It was bubbly inside, with a light crust on the outside. Went well with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.