Basic No-Knead Bread

Here’s my basic no-knead, long-fermented rustic bread, a round loaf, or boule. It’s an adaptation for the home kitchen of the much larger oval filone and the football-shaped pugliese sold at the Sullivan Street Bakery. Even if you’ve baked before, the process is probably nothing like what your experience would lead you to expect. For one thing, many people who bake this bread find the dough to be unusually wet. Remember that most of the water is meant to be released as steam in the covered pot, and you’ll be handling the dough very little anyway. Don’t feel too uptight about any of this. For example, I specify that the dough should rise at room temperature, about 72°F / 22°C. (In many of the recipes, I say to put the dough in a warm, draft-free spot - same thing.) But if that’s not what you have at the moment, you’ll be okay anyway. Just pay attention to the visual cues: at the end of the first rise, the dough is properly fermented when it has developed a darkened appearance and bubbl