Mmmm. Bread.
Originally posted August 17, 2007
I didn’t work today or yesterday, so I guess I have to blog about food. (Seeing as how work and food are the only things I really blog about.)
A few months ago, I ran across a recipe on the internet for an extremely simple no-knead bread. The recipe said that with about fifty cents’ worth of ingredients and an oven, any person without any prior breadmaking experience could easily make delicious restaurant-quality bread.
My initial reaction was that it was too good to be true. I’ve never been under the impression that breadmaking was impossibly difficult, but I know that there’s a knack to it. Proper dough mixing and handling, not over-kneading, rising and proofing conditions, and a handful of other factors can conspire to turn the amateur breadmaker’s loaf into an inedible rock.
Anyway, at the time I didn’t have a proper oven or baking vessel (dense, lidded,) to try it out for myself. So I read the thread in which I found the recipe, in which everyone who tried the recipe themselves (even the culinarily challenged) experienced excellent results every time.
Then, a month or two later, joy!! We got a bigger toaster oven. The other day I went out and bought a suitable baking vessel, went home and mixed up some dough.
I’ve just finished my third batch. The first one came out really well, and each successive batch has been better and better. Oh, here it is:
3C all purpose flour
1/4t rapid rise yeast
1 1/4t salt
1 5/8 C water (weird, I know, just trust me.)
wheat bran (or whatever. It’s just to coat the outside of the loaf to keep it
from sticking, so you could use flour or cornmeal or oats or whatever suits
your fancy.)
Mix the dry ingredients (except the wheat bran) thoroughly. Add the water. Mix until it’s dough. Cover with plastic wrap. Leave it for 12-18 hours. Resist the urge to knead. It’s not necessary. He he. There’s no need to knead.
Dump the dough onto a floured surface. Flour your hands and pat the dough down and fold it in thirds, then in thirds the other way. Coat with wheat bran and put seam side down in a towel. Cover with towel for one and a half to two hours.
Preheat oven and dense lidded baking vessel (cast iron, pyrex, ceramic, whatever) to 500 degrees. After the dough has proofed, dump it seam side up into the vessel. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from vessel. Consume.
Pictures below:
It’s every bit as delicious as it looks. (Not bragging here, the recipe is so simple that I’m confident my ten year old brother could make it just as well.) It’s really versatile, too. Tomorrow I’m doing wheat, but one could do rye, sourdough, and I’ve even heard of it being adapted to make biscuits. Multigrain, cinnamon raisin, oat nut, the world is our loaf pan.
So yeah, I don’t think I’m going to buy bread anymore.
