Almost No-Knead Bread

1. Whisk flour, salt, and yeast together in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl, until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
2. Lay 18 by 12-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with vegetable oil spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured counter and knead by hand 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer loaf, seam side down, to prepared skillet and spray surface of dough with oil spray. Cover loosely with plastic and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 2 hours. (Dough should barely spring back when poked with knuckle.)
3. Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using sharp serrated knife or single-edge razor blade, make one 6-inch-long, 1⁄2-inch-deep slash along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up loaf by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown and loaf registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove loaf from pot; transfer to wire rack, discard parchment, and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours, before slicing and serving. (Bread is best eaten on day it is baked but will keep wrapped in double layer of plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 2 days. To recrisp crust, place unwrapped bread in 450-degree oven for 6 to 8 minutes.)

ALMOST NO-KNEAD BREAD WITH OLIVES, ROSEMARY, AND PARMESAN
If you prefer black olives, substitute them for the green olives, or try a mix of green and black olives.
Add 2 cups fine-grated Parmesan cheese and 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary to flour mixture in step 1. Add 1 cup green olives, pitted and chopped, with water.

ALMOST NO-KNEAD SEEDED RYE BREAD
Replace 1-3⁄8 cups all-purpose flour with 1-1⁄8 cups rye flour. Add 2 tablespoons caraway seeds to flour mixture in step 1.

ALMOST NO-KNEAD WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Replace 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 cup whole wheat flour. Stir 2 tablespoons honey into water before adding it to dry ingredients in step 1.

ALMOST NO-KNEAD CRANBERRY-PECAN BREAD
This bread makes especially good toast.
Add 1⁄2 cup dried cranberries and 1⁄2 cup toasted pecans to flour mixture in step 1.

MAKING ALMOST NO-KNEAD BREAD
1. After mixing dough, leave dough to rest for 8 to 18 hours.
2. Knead dough 10 to 15 times and shape it into ball.
3. Allow dough to rise for 2 hours in parchment paper–lined skillet.
4. Place dough in preheated Dutch oven and bake it until it’s deep brown.