No-knead bread

[mousme]

Okay, I don't have a dutch oven (yet), but I'm going to post this recipe here for my own benefit, for future reference. I'm copying it (bad Phnee!) from the NYT page, because the website is being wonky with me. Many props to urban_homestead for pointing her readers in the right direction. :)

One day, when I have the right kind of pot, I will make this bread, which looks very yummy:


Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising


3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

Comments

[joane.livejournal.com]

I tried that last month, and was not at all impressed. It might be ok for fondue, or onion soup, but it's rubbery and utterly flavourless. I'd rather spend ten minutes kneading a batch of something else and have it actually be edible.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Huh. You seem to have had very different mileage from urban_homestead's experiment.

Interesting to get a different perspective. Do you have a dutch oven? I'm jealous. :)

[joane.livejournal.com]

I do, actually - my mother gave me her grandmother's old one when I got my own place. It's red, cast iron, and weighs about 50 lbs.

And as for the bread... I dunno. I tried it twice, so it's definitely the recipe (do note that urbanhomestead has more salt in her version than the official recipe - that may make it slightly more palatable). The ones I turned out where so bad that even Rich wouldn't eat more than half a slice, if that puts it into perspective. It was like rubbery, slightly squishy matzah. Naaaaasty.

Mind you, I do tend to prefer dense bread with a fine crumb (my favourite recipe is a challah recipe that has a triple-rise), not a chewy loaf with mother-huge holes through it, so I was a little bit predisposed against it from the start.

[urban-homestead.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly - I followed the technique and liked it, but I didn't follow the actual recipe very closely. I adapted the recipe every time I made it, because I'd read other people saying exactly what you said - that it was bland. The variation I was happiest with differed from the original in four ways:
- more than double the salt
- 50% whole wheat flour
- the loaf was rolled tightly rather than just shaped into a ball
- more than double the time allotted for the second rise

All of these changed the texture and/or flavour significantly from that which the original recipe produced. But, I love chewy bread, so right up front that's going to make the biggest difference as to our relative happiness with that recipe.

[chasingthenuns.livejournal.com]

i've heard great things about this bread.

http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2006/11/24/more-no-knead-bread/

[rosy1.livejournal.com]

But Phnee, kneading is the best part.

I picture the dough it is the head of someone who has ticked me off...

well you get the picture.

When it comes to bread, you need to knead!
(oh my, I almost wrote "bed" instead of bread - it must be Friday)