Good, fresh bread is one of life's great pleasures, at least in my opinion. I love to go to a great bakery and pick up a loaf for a special occasion. I wish I could do that every day, but I know it would go bad in my house. We just don't go through bread fast enough.It would be even better if I could bake bread at home. I love to bake. Bread is usually just so time consuming and it rarely turns out at home like it does at the bakery.
I was reminded this week of an article I read in the New York Times food section from about a year ago that may change my mind. The Minimalist, Mark Bittman, interviewed/apprenticed with the owner of Sullivan Street Bakery, Jim Lahey. Together, they made a loaf using Mr. Lahey's innovative new method for making bread. The idea is to stir everything together(no kneading or anything), let it ferment (the yeast eats the flour to make alcohol and carbon dioxide) for a very long time, then bake it in a cast iron or ceramic covered pot.
The covered pot becomes a steamer once in the oven so you can get bakery level results from stuff you probably already have. The Minimalist had said that this is innovative, and it is. The only thing you need to make good, fresh bread at home is time, and a few things you more than likely have in your kitchen. The recipe and procedure are after the jump.No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 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 1 1/2-pound loaf.
May is National BBQ Month and National Hamburger Month
Cupcakes, not for dessert (unless beef is your idea of a treat)
Because eating French Fries in the car is so tough
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-07-2008 @ 8:39PM
maggiedowns said...
Well, the story you linked is from November 2006, so it's not exactly new. I've heard so much about this approach ever since that article appeared, and a couple weeks ago I finally tried it. I could not have mistreated the dough more, and yet the loaf turned out perfectly -- crusty on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside.
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3-07-2008 @ 8:58PM
heather said...
the date on that nyt article is november, 2006
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3-07-2008 @ 9:02PM
Jennifer said...
What do you mean "this week"?
That recipe has been making the rounds of the internet for 2 years.
Go to Chowhound and search for "No Knead Bread"... you'll find hundreds and hundreds of posts.
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3-07-2008 @ 9:41PM
Doctor Electro said...
There is also the Dutch oven method. You can buy a cast iron Dutch oven cheaply at your local Wal-Mart if you don't already have one. It's worth the investment from day one.
Using the no knead bread recipe, you can make doughballs half the size of your palm and just drop them into the Dutch oven in layers. The resulting biscuits are heavenly, especially with sausage gravy.
The same method can even be used with canned biscuits, your regular biscuit recipe or any other bread dough. If you are going camping, take the Dutch oven and your bread dough recipe along. Make a fire in a deep (8" or deeper) fire pit. Let it burn down to a deep bed of coals. Set the Dutch oven in the fire pit and cover the sides with coals but don't put any on top. Go away for an hour or so and come back to biscuits that are to die for.
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3-07-2008 @ 10:02PM
Shayna Glick said...
I knew that sounded familiar. Thanks for catching that. The post has been modified.
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3-07-2008 @ 10:17PM
Karen said...
I find the "new" 5-minute bread recipe a million times better-tasting and easier than this one. I keep dough in my fridge and make a small fresh boule every night! I bought the book, and the variations are all wonderful too:
http://verbatim.blogs.com/verbatim/2008/01/bread-revolutio.html
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3-08-2008 @ 2:32AM
Kitt said...
Yes, long a devotee of Lahey's no-knead recipe, I'm now totally addicted to the five-minute version. I bake it a dutch oven or a terrine, too. (If you have cast-iron terrine, it makes a perfectly shaped loaf for slicing.)
Examples here: http://kittbo.blogspot.com/search/label/bread
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3-08-2008 @ 12:00PM
Doctor Electro said...
I hadn't thought about using a terrine. I'll have to get one.
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3-08-2008 @ 12:04PM
Silver_Potato said...
Try using bread flour, regular yeast and let the dough do it's thing in the refrigerator for two days.
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3-08-2008 @ 12:16PM
Lauren said...
I second the love of the five-minutes-a-day version! It's just me and hubby at home, so each night I bake a little version of pain d'epi. Sounds fancy, but it's just a string of fresh dinner rolls! Yum!
http://lloydandlauren.com/?p=1419
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3-08-2008 @ 12:16PM
Lauren said...
I second the love of the five-minutes-a-day version! It's just me and hubby at home, so each night I bake a little version of pain d'epi. Sounds fancy, but it's just a string of fresh dinner rolls! Yum!
http://lloydandlauren.com/?p=1419
Reply
3-08-2008 @ 12:17PM
Lauren said...
Amen to the five-minutes-a-day stuff! It's just me and hubby at home, so I bake a tiny little loaf of pain d'epi every night for dinner. (It's really a string of 4 - 6 dinner rolls, depending on how ravenous I am.) Yum!
Can I put a link here? http://lloydandlauren.com/?p=1419
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3-08-2008 @ 3:33PM
CHP said...
Hello? Oh hi 2006. What's that, you want your post back? Ok sounds good.
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3-10-2008 @ 10:35AM
Fash said...
I love the Cook's Illustrated recipe that adds beer and vinegar to this bread. It really does make a huge difference!
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3-10-2008 @ 3:14PM
Nick said...
How about Marlene Parrish's no-knead, no-wait Beer Batter Bread?
3 c self-rising flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 12oz can or bottle beer (the darker, the better)
Preheat the oven to 350F, mix the dry, and stir in the beer just until it's incorporated (overmixing is a Bad Thing). Turn the resulting sticky, goopy mess into a well-lubed 9x5x3in loaf pan and bake on a rack in the lower third of an oven for about an hour or until a toothpick or skewer comes out clean. Turn out on a wire rack, let cool for about an hour, and enjoy!
It has a nice crunchy crust and a dense but tender crumb. It's all about the beer, this recipe is.... I use fine Shiner products, but a friend tried it out with Miller Lite (it was all he had) and was predictably disappointed.
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