Yeasted Portuguese Cornbread (Source: Kneadlessly Simple)

So I’ve been seeking some, small way to add to the debate. And this is it. An ode to Nancy Baggett, the author of Kneadlessly Simple, my no-knead bread bible. Nancy (who also writes for the Washington Post) is well-known as an excellent baker and recipe writer. But she hasn’t got the credit she deserves for this marvelous book, which offers clearly written, delicious recipes for everything from your basic peasant loaf to pizza dough and yeasted coffee cakes.

When most people think of no-knead bread they think of Mark Bittman, whose recipe in the New York Times launched the craze, and Jim Lahey, the baker who gave it to him. Kneadlessly Simple didn’t arrive until 2009 . But in the years that followed the “discovery” of no-knead breads, Nancy explored and perfected the technique. The recipes are long – some run three pages – and that probably intimidates some. In fact, it is a blessing. Like other great recipe writers — Molly Stevens, I mean you — she tells you exactly what to do and what to look for at each stage, which helps new bakers understand the process and all but eliminates room for error.

Here in Huntington, I bake bread once or twice a week. My current favorite is Nancy’s Yeasted Portuguese Cornbread. It has a chewy crust and a gorgeous, soft crumb with a hint of a sweetness. It also seems to stay fresh longer than the basic white loaf

Try this bread. It will turn you into a bread baker. And a fan of Nancy Baggett.

Crusty Portuguese American Yeasted Cornbread

Yields 1 large loaf

1-1/2 cups boiling water

1-1/4 cups cornmeal, preferable white stone ground plus 1 tbsp for garnish (I use locally milled yellow cornmeal)

2 cups (15 ounces) unbleached white bread flour, plus more as needed

2 teaspoons salt

3/4 teaspoon instant, fast rising yeast

1-1/4 cups ice water

Corn oil or other flavorless vegetable oil for loaf top

First rise: In a medium bowl, gradually stir the boiling water into the cornmeal until smoothly incorporated. Let cool thoroughly. In large bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, salt and yeast. Gradually but vigorously, stir the ice water into the cooled cornmeal until very smoothly blended. Then vigorously stir the cornmeal mixture into the bowl with the flour, scraping down the sides until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. If too dry to mix completely, a bit at a time, stir in just enough more ice water to blend the ingredients; don’t over-moisten as the dough should be stiff. If the dough is soft, vigorously stir in enough flour to stiffen it. Brush or spray the top with vegetable oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. If desired for best flavor, you can refrigerate the dough for 3 to 10 hours Then let rise at cool temperature for 12 to 18 hours.

Second rise: Vigorously stir the dough, adding more flour if needed to yield a hard-to-stir dough. Using an oiled rubber spatula, fold the dough in towards the center all the way around. Brush or spray the top with oil. Re-cover with nonstick spray-coated plastic wrap.

Let rise using any of these methods: For 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 hour regular rise, let stand at warm room temperature; for a 1-2 hour accelerated rise, let stand in a turned-off microwave along with 1 cup of boiling-hot water; or for an extended rise, refrigerate, covered for 4 to 12 hours, then set out at room temperature. Continue the rise until the dough doubles from the deflated size, removing the plastic if the dough nears it.

Baking preliminaries: 20 minutes before baking time, put a rack in the lower third of the oven: preheat to 450 F. (I heat it to 425 because my oven here is hot. After a first try, feel free to adjust the heat so you don’t get so crusty a crust that it’s hard to cut.) Heat a 3-1/4 to 4-quart (or larger) heavy metal pot in the oven until sizzling hot, then remove it using heavy mitts. Taking care not to deflate the dough, loosen it from the bowl with an oiled rubber spatula and gently invert the pot. Don’t worry it’s it’s lopsided and ragged-looking; it will even out during baking. Generously spray or brush the top with water, then sprinkle over a tablespoon of cornmeal. Immediately top with a lid. Shake the pot back and forth to center the dough.

Baking: Reduce the heat to 425 F. Bake on the lower rack for 50 minutes. Remove the lid. Reduce the heat to 400 F. Bake for 15 to 25 minutes longer until the top is well browned and a skewer inserted into the thickest part comes out with just a few crumbs on the tip (Or until the center registers 210 to 212 on an instant-read thermometer. Then bake for 5 minutes longer to ensure the center is baked through. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the loaf to the rack. Cool thoroughly.

Serving and storing: This taste good warm but will cut better when cool. Cool completely before storing. To maintain the crisp crust, store in a large bowl draped with a clean tea towel or in a heavy paper bag. Or store airtight in a plastic bag or foil: The crust will soften, but can be crisped by heating the loaf, uncovered, in a 400 F oven for a few minutes. The bread will keep at room temperature for 3 days, and may be frozen, airtight, for up to two months.

“This would benefit poor children who would no longer have to eat a meal seasoned by shame, and it would benefit middle-income children for whom healthy school meals could become the norm. It would benefit our overstressed, time-staved working families by taking one more task, and one more parent-battleground, off the table. It would benefit food service staff, who could turn their attention from accounting to cooking. And in the long run, it would benefit us through savings in health care costs and better educational outcomes.”

How much would this cost? Using Congressional Budget Office figures, Poppendieck does some back of the envelope calculations and determines that universal lunch would total an extra $12 billion annually. If that sounds like a lot, it is. (President Obama has asked for $10 billion for all child nutrition programs over the next decade in his current budget.) But, notes Poppendieck, it is also the amount that the president’s budget specified for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan each month in 2009.

“I understand that we cannot simply, miraculously, redirect the expenditure from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to school food. My intent is to give some sense of the size of the funding increment that would be needed … and to point out that there do seem to be ways of ‘finding’ money if we really want to.”

The argument for universal school lunch is a convincing one. Finding the money? According to my sources on the Hill, it’s a political non-starter. Twelve billion a year ends up as closer to $150 billion over 10 years. Obama’s jobs bill might total $100 billion. The Republican prescription drug benefit, which was supposed to lock in the senior vote for GOP in perpetuity, was $300 billion. And remember, kids don’t vote. Still, Poppendieck’s ideas and idealism should inform and stimulate debate as Congress moves forward to reauthorize school lunch program and Michelle Obama launches her all-star childhood obesity initiative. (The announcement is Feb. 9. Stay tuned here and on All We Can Eat, the WaPo Food blog.)