No Knead Rosemary Lemon Bread

Holy I just made real bread, Batman. Up until today, I let my bread machine do all the work....and don't get me wrong, I LOVE my bread machine! But today I made real live, delicious, homemade Rosemary-Lemon Bread.

Hang on. Let me rewind a bit. This is my first every post on this blog. Let it be known that on November 13, 2010 Becca posted her very first blog post AND made real homemade bread. Tonight we're have a bunch of people over for a big 'ol pasta dinner (yep, Brandon made DE-FREAKING-LICIOUS homemade sauce...recipe for that one coming soon) and what better side to complement pasta than yummy bread, which we'll probably throw some garlic on and toast up!

Backing up even more, today started with a 5-mile trail race in Monroe Falls (at a later date I'll discuss how I grew up in Cleveland, went to college in New Jersey and ended up in Cleveland). I haven't been running many trails lately so I wasn't quite ready for the rolling hills... South Euclid tends to be pretty flat. Anyway, trail run (46:30 finish! w00t w00t) then we stopped in Hudson and what does that mean? MAIN STREET CUPCAKES!!!

Let's talk about Wedding Day White, Buckeye, Main Street Cupcakes Fluff, Lemon Drop, Champagne and Berries, and Pumpkin Cheesecake. These guys inspire me to try all kinds of ridiculous cupcake flavors on a daily basis. Since I'm mostly just too lazy to make these decadent cupcakes, I just go to the store. They have two locations, nowhere close to me, but SO worth the trip. So we stopped in for some cupcake-y deliciousness and then had brunch. Thank god for breakfast food at noon!


Okay, so back to the bread! I found this recipe on one of the MANY food blogs I follow, but I recently uploaded all of my recipes to google docs (I love everything Google) so I cannot remember where I saw this recipe. If you recognize this recipe as your own, PLEASE let me know...I'm happy to give credit where credit is due! By the by, this is probably less work than putting ingredients into a bread machine, but my bread machine breads often come out very dense, brick-like and crust-less.

No Knead Rosemary Lemon Bread
Ingredients:
2 1/2c unbleached all purpose flour (the recipe recommended staying with white flour. I'm normally a wheat flour girl...but I really wanted perfect bread!)
1/2c wheat flour
1 3/4tsp salt
1/2tsp yeast
2 stalks fresh rosemary
zest of half a lemon

How you make easy, easy bread:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix until a shaggy mixture forms.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  Overnight works great.  Heat oven to 450 degrees.  When the oven has reached 450 degrees place a cast iron pot with a lid in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, pour dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove hot pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove bread from oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.

Final product: 

Where do you get your bread; the grocery store or homade? Do you use a bread machine or have a better way to make lazy bread? I can't wait to hear everybody's comments! Bread is an important part of my diet and I HATE all of the additives in store-bought bread.