I use a wet towel. Works just fine. Wet & wrung out.
It was for NK bread, but yes, exact measurements as usual.
Is it possible that you didn’t mix the dough thoroughly enough? Last week I made another no-knead loaf. As always, I let it rise in a plastic bag, or else covered with plastic wrap, sealed with a rubber band, and it came out well. I was very careful with handling it, and I got better height than last time.
This is interesting. When I go to bakeries that make their own bread, they have racks of bread dough rising, and the dough is never covered. And they are not kept in a special humidity-controlled environment or anything. Maybe I’ll ask next time I pick up bread.
you cover it to stop from drying up creating crackled lump in the dough and an inferior rise later .
I second those who say that some doughs will dry out on top without covering, but the high moisture of no-knead doughs might make that happen slowly enough that you could get away with it.
For risings, I take a few approaches. If making a very big loaf, like 3lbs., I keep the dough in a large mixing bowl and cover it with a plate, plastic wrap, or even just get a 13-gallon garbage bag and wrap up the whole bowl. No plastic or paper or cloth contacts the dough.
Restaurant supply places (and King Arthur) have useful gallon plastic containers. Those are cool.
When doing the second rise, I often place the formed loaves on parchment dusted with corn meal and then cover them with an inverted mixing bowl (also, using the bottom of a salad spinner, inverted, is good, as you can see the dough rise.
I’m always afraid a larger bag will have enough air left inside of it that the dough can still dry up. Is that not how it works?
Not how it works in my experience: if the container is sealed or very close to sealed, then evaporation is effectively halted.
