No-Knead Bread

Friday, 22 October 2010 13:37 Written by Administrator

So I started baking bread of all things... I know kindof a strange hobby, but bear with me. Its ridiculously easy to create boules (artisanal round loaves of bread) of spectacular quality.

I've probably baked +30 loaves at time of writing, making notes and adjusting accordingly. I have primarily learned what to expect when certain things happen. For example, dryer/wetter dough, longer/shorter rises, multiple knockbacks, etc. I haven't made any mistakes that produced a truly poor product. Most have rivaled anything the grocery store has. There is always room for improvement, best advice is to pay attention to what you did and what the result was, then guess what variables to change. Try it, reassess & repeat.

You'd be shocked how little work is actually involved. I use a Lahey's No-Knead method that is all over the web. Total hard work couldn't exceed more than 5 minutes, its mostly waiting around. Admittedly there is a lot of that. It takes about 18hrs, most of which is the yeast working hard for you.

Basically the process is as follows:
Measure and combine all ingredients.
Mix by hand for <30 seconds.
Let it sit for 16 or so hours.
30 seconds to Knock back the dough (a term to describe folding the bread)
A half hour later, pre-heat the oven with dutch oven inside. (yes a dutch oven is required)
A half hour after that, toss in the dough into the blazing hot dutch oven, close the lid.
A half hour after that, remove the lid.
Fifteen minutes later, remove the bread and put it on a cooling rack.
Force yourself to wait at least 45 minutes. (the crust and structure develop during cooling)
Slice into it & enjoy.

Sound easy? It is. Wanna try? You should. Here is plenty of info about doing it.