Homemade Bread

I love to bake, but I rarely make bread anymore because of the time it takes. A friend from church gave me a recipe for Almost No-Knead Bread that takes very little prep time (although it does rise for a long time) and is nice and crusty. I've never been able to make crusty bread before. We ate it last night with dinner, and Caleb and I had the leftovers as French toast this morning.

Here's the recipe -

3 c flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt
3/4 c plus 2 TB water (room temperature)
1/4 c plus 2 TB mild flavored beer
1 TB white vinegar

1) Whisk flour, yeast, and salt 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 8-18 hours.

2) Lay 12 X 18 piece of parchment paper inside a 10 inch skillet and spray with cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and need 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball. Transfer seam side down to parchment lined skillet and spray top of dough with cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.

3) About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest setting, place 6-8 quart Dutch over with lid on rack (I improvised with the crock from my crock pot and aluminum foil for the lid as the lid is only oven safe to 350 degrees), and preheat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and cut a 6 inch long slit in top. Remove pot from oven. Pick up dough using parchment and place in pot. Cover and place in oven. Reduce temperature to 425 degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes, uncover, and bake for another 20 -30 minutes until loaf is deep brown. Cool on a wire rack.