Sourdough No-Knead Bread

I've been making this bread for years. It took me about a year and many messy towels to switch to parchment paper. I let the bread rise in the cooking pan in parchment paper and then remove it to a bowl when the pan is heating. I then pick up the whole thing put it in the hot pan, and cook it with the parchment paper.

No mess. No deflating of the dough.

Total novice question... What does "fed" mean exactly? I understand what using unfed means, but I'm not sure about fed. Was it fed 2 hours ago? 6? 12? Any advice is appreciated.

Why is the baking temperature (550) so much higher than the temperature for regular no-knead bread (450)?

I've been baking no knead bread for several years. I use a cast iron Dutch oven, heated to 500 and then turned down to 450 when baking. One thing that has helped me, is to proof the dough on a piece of parchment paper large enough to be able to lift the proofed loaf and lower it into the Dutch oven.

After doing some research on this question, here is the best answer I found.

Basically, you want to increase the volume and raise the activity of your starter to a more energetic level, and you do this by giving it a couple of feedings at room temperature, every 12 hours, until you notice the starter doubling or tripling in volume in 6 to 8 hours. That means it’s strong enough to leaven bread.

Once the starter is bubbling and vigorous, it's fed and ready for use in baking.

I tried this recipe following the 425g of flour specified and found the dough far too liquid to work with. The next time I went by the '3.5 cups' flour, and found that came out to 600g, which made the recipe work.

You actually don't need 3/4 cup of starter. I took a seminar with Jim Lahey and what he recommended was pinch a little bit of sourdough off(maybe a 1" blob), put it in a sealable container with some or all of the water used in the recipe(I use a 1 qt. plastic container from a take-out place), shake it so the sourdough breaks up/dissolves in the water, then continue with step 2. This way it takes about 18-24 hours for the first rise.

If you've been feeding your starter with a 100% hydrated blend (ie, equal parts flour and water), I found the following to be the right blend: 180g starter 235g water 430g flour 8-16g salt, depending on personal preference. You can determine your own ideal hydration by diluting the starter in a much smaller amount of water, adding it to your dry ingredients, then adding water a little bit at a time until your dough reaches the ideal just-together shagginess for a no knead.

I made this twice and both times it was a gloopy mess... finally I pored through the comments and found the reference to weight/volume mismatch. Thanks to those commenters and hey, NYT, maybe fix that?

After it's fed, use the "float test" to make sure it's ready. Take a small spoonful of starter and drop it in a bowl of water. If it floats, it's ready to go.

Yup,made it twice by weight and once by volume. The weight on the recipe is incorrect. VERY aggravating since one of the things you get in the habit of doing when you bake bread a lot is using a kitchen scale and weighing everything. But if you use the volume measurement, it comes out beautifully!

This is almost exactly the process I have been using for years. One slight difference, I coat the pot with regular canola oil, & sprinkle sesame seeds on the bottom before putting in the dough. Also, when you remove the lid, spritz the inside of the oven with water before closing up again. It makes a great chewy/crispy crust!
I take starter on camping trips (w/ flour & salt..etc) & bake it in one of those folding omelet pans, that you can flip (closed) to cook the other side.

I made this twice as written in my 5.5 quart/5.3 litre enameled dutch oven. While it was delicious, it was a little flat and disappointing looking. An experienced sourdough baker advised me to try multiplying my recipe by 1.5, which I did with this one and the results were perfect. I baked at 450 with the top on for the full 30 minutes, and 22 with the lid off and it was the best sourdough yet, very airy, delicious and Insta-worthy!

I made it and it was very good. One thing_ I have always been told by the Le Creuset salespeople not to heat up their enameled cast iron pans with nothing in them. The enamel will crack. I bake my bread in plain old cast iron.

I found that my bread was too moist inside until I learned to say "No! It's not ready!" and let it get completely cool. I weighed it fresh out of the oven, and then 12 hours later, and found that it lost as much as an ounce (of water?), the flavor was better, and it no longer had that gooey character inside.