no knead bread

No knead bread happened a bit ago. It results in a moist, holey, crusty, artisanal loaf of bread. It's quite delicious, but perhaps a little bland. I discovered, after trying it a few times, a recommendation (that I can no longer find) to add additional flavour to the bread is to let it rise at room temp overnight, and then put it in the fridge for a few days for a slow, cool ferment. This allows the yeast to do what it does and add some flavour.

 

I've been feeling like having some lately (maybe with a nice, hearty soup *), so decided to whip up a batch. It's quite simple, really.

Flour

Sugar and salt and yeast

Water

Mix

Add more water (this isn't usually necessary)

Rise

A surface of tiny bubbles is what you're looking for

Rest

Warm up, re-rise, salt and then bake

Uncovering

Cooling

Hello, gorgeous!

This time, I decided on a whim to use part whole wheat flour (1 c), just to give it an earthy flavour and some actual nutrition. I guess the ww flour sucks up a bit more water, as I needed to add a smidge more water to make it the right consistency, maybe another tablespoon or two.

Also from my previous tries, I determined I was simply no good at using flour to shape an amorphous mass. I ended up incorporating too much additional flour. I also determined the whole thing was in desperate need of more salt, but you can't add too much salt to the dough or you inhibit the growth of the yeast. I solved this problem by sprinkling the dough blob with sea salt just before baking, and folding some in. I then just pour the whole mess into the heated dish and bake. Delicious.

No knead bread:

3 c flour

½ t salt

¾ t sugar

¼ t yeast

1½ c water

Mix together the dry ingredients, then mix in the water. Allow to sit/rise for 12-18 hours (I usually just do overnight). When ready to bake, heat oven to 450°F with heavy, lidded dish (like a dutch oven) inside. Shape dough, using a minimal amount of flour, as necessary. Place dough in heated dish, cover, bake ~30 minutes. Remove lid and bake an additional 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven, cool on rack. All bread recipes say to let it cool completely before cutting into it, but I have a hard time doing this. Devour.

* this soup was very good! And it even looks reasonably good for you. Jer even liked it (he put cheese on it, too). I omitted the olives (Jer doesn't like them and I'd have ended up eating a whole jar of [fatty, fatty] olives) and added some chopped crimini mushrooms (sauteed them up with the onions at the beginning) because mushrooms are delicious. I think, in the future, if I serve it with bread like this time, I would omit the grain/starch. I also wasn't in love with the quinoa in it, so if I made it without bread, I'd probably put some small pasta (orzo, acini de pepe) in it. But really very good. The mushed up butternut thickens it up nicely.

Between the soup and the chicken salad, I was having some serious cooking win, which was nice after the semi-failed short ribs.