The Fugue

No-knead bread is simple and painless. So why do we still put it off or decide not to make it because of five lousy minutes of effort (and a few dishes)? Because we’re lazy, that’s why. So here’s how to bring your laziness to the next level: freeze that dough.

Here’s a scenario: it’s half an hour past your bedtime, and in the morning you’ll leave the house about 40 minutes after you wake up. But it would sure be nice to have some hot, fresh bread for breakfast. So you take a bâtard out of the freezer, take it out of the freezer bag, and put it in your greenhouse on a piece of parchment paper. Then you climb in bed and start sawing sheep. The next morning, you stumble into the kitchen and turn on the oven. You go do some morning stuff and come back in 10 minutes and put the bread in the oven. More morning stuff, and the bread is done just in time for breakfast. Your day turns out 134% better.

It really is that easy, I did it a few times over the past week. Sourdough and baker’s yeast work equally well. Here’s how you freeze it: begin as normal, but after the first 12–18 hour rise chop the dough into 3 or 4 pieces, shape into bâtards (or boules or whatever), lightly dust with flour and freeze (in freezer bags). I’m sure it will work just as well with normal-size loaves too (though you may have to adjust the thaw/rise time). Less mess, less time, less stale bread. A big winner all around.