Bread to go with those Veggies

[COgarden]

I'm sure some of you have made the recipe for no-knead bread that was printed in the New York Times a couple of months back. I've been experimenting with it for a few weeks now, and I can't believe how good it is! For those of you who aren't familiar with it, a copy of it follows. A search on the New York Times website will turn up the recipe as well as a video of how it is made. Another video of a very similar recipe which is a little easier to find is here:

http://www.breadtopia.com/

New York Times
November 8, 2006
Recipe: No-Knead Bread

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.


I've found that it needs about 2 1/2 tsp. of salt instead of 1 1/4 tsp. I've also used up to 3/4 tsp. of Dry Active Yeast. I've used up to 30 % rye flour and up to 50 % whole wheat flour with great results. I've also used various combinations of seeds and different rising times etc. all with amazing results. If you've made lots of bread as I have or if you've never made bread before you will have amazing results using this recipe. I'd love to talk with anyone else who has tried it. If you've never tried it, give it a go. Please post here or if you have any questions, suggestions, or experiences.

Kurt

[michael johnson]

A very good friend of mine who was the chief cook on a merchant ship for 20 years told me that to make perfect bread, forget the salt you usualy put in, and instead they used to just throw a bucket over the side of the boat and use seawater instead- apparently it has just the right amount of raw salt and minerals in it to make perfect bread-fine tasting that everyone loves,

If you happen to live near a bit of (Clean Sea) try it, otherwise bottle up a five gallon drum next time you visit the seas and take it home with you, especialy to make bread and rolls etc with- its amazing the difference it makes to the flavour,

[Rena]

I don't eat wheat but my whole family does :wink: I am going to try this!

[feldon30]

You don't mention the temperature of the water that you're adding. I'm assuming it should be warm water (but not over 150 as that kills the yeast)?

So far I have been using a bread machine which I am reasonably happy with, but I'd like to start making more interesting breads and since it's 33 degrees outside, it's a perfect day to run our whole-house heat pump, er, I meant our gas oven.

Remember kids, when shopping for home appliances you want a gas stove, but the oven better be electric or you will have to add an A/C unit for the kitchen. Of course in a perfect world I'd have 4 gas burners and 2 electric so I'll stop burning sauces.

[bonekittyslug]

Kurt, my laziness thanks you!!!

Must try this out real soon!!

[COgarden]

As far as water temperature goes, it doesn't matter a bit as long as it isn't so warm as to kill the yeast. I started out using slightly warm spring water in order to avoid chlorine, but plain old tap water, cold is fine, works just as well. A lot of the things in the recipe defy normal bread making rules. The most important thing I've found is using a container that has a good fitting lid. Be sure to preheat the baking pan and lid in the hot oven. I usually use a cast iron Dutch Oven but I've also used a heavy aluminum sauce pan that has a well fitted lid. Both ways turn out great although the Dutch oven produced a more chewy/crunchy crust, which is what I love.

PS Be sure anything you put in your oven can take the heat! I've read several places where people put lids in the oven that melted down!

Kurt

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by IMISSCOLO

I don't eat wheat but my whole family does :wink: I am going to try this!

For those of you who are gluten intolerant, or those who like to experiment, there are many other types of flour. Try your local Chinese stores.

dcarch

[akgardengirl]

Could you move this recipe over to the recipe forum so more can see it? I like to experiment with sourdough, which I have 3 different types of, making breads and flatbreads so far. It is good winter fun.
Sue B.

[COgarden]

Sue
I posted here because this isn't really a tomato recipe or a gardening recipe. Doesn't matter to me where it gets moved. I kinda thought more people would see it in the conversations area. Perhaps more cooks would see it in the other location though. I dunno...


I found a sourdough version of this no knead recipe at http://www.breadtopia.com upper left hand side under Bread Baking Videos. I've only made it once, came out quite good, but I needed to increase the amount of starter used or the rising time to get more sour flavor.

Kurt

[michael johnson]

the only problem with home baked bread is-that it doesnt last very long after you cut it, especialy if you happen to have a pat of real farm butter to spread on it- Yummy.

[Mischka]

Reprinted with permission of the author.

This is a recipe by my friend Johann Blank.

Gentle reader, it is assumed that you know from bagels. The bagel, in its peripatetic history, has moved from the shtetls of Eastern Europe to the delis of the United States, survived the onslaught of many a foreign formulation and flavoring, and also has managed to remain relatively dignified in the face of mass-production, freezing and other procedural adulterations and ba$tardizations. In the United States, however, most people's idea of a bagel seems to be of a vaguely squishy unsweetened doughnut, possibly with some sort of god-awful flavoring mixed into it (with the "blueberry bagel" being perhaps the most offensive), generally purchased in lots of six in some supermarket... possibly even frozen.

These are not those bagels.

These bagels are the genuine article. These are the bagels that have sustained generations of Eastern European Jewish peasants, the bagels that babies can teethe upon (folk wisdom has it that the hard, chewy crust encourages strong teeth), the bagels about which writer and humorist Alice Kahn has so aptly written that bagels are "Jewish courage."

This recipe makes approximately fifteen large bagels, The bagels are made without eggs, milk or any type of shortening or oil, which makes them pareve according to Kosher law. These bagels are plain, but I will provide suggestions as to how you may customize them to your tastes while retaining their Pristine and Ineffable Nature. May you bake them and eat them in good health.

INGREDIENTS:

• 6-8 cups bread (high-gluten) flour
• 4 tablespoons dry baking yeast
• 6 tablespoons granulated white sugar or light honey (clover honey is good)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups hot water
• a bit of vegetable oil
• 1 gallon water
• 3-5 tablespoons malt syrup or sugar
• a few handfuls of cornmeal

EQUIPMENT:

• large mixing bowl
• wire whisk
• measuring cups and spoons
• wooden mixing spoon
• butter knife or baker's dough blade
• clean, dry surface for kneading
• 3 clean, dry kitchen towels
• warm, but not hot, place to set dough to rise
• large stockpot
• slotted spoon
• 2 baking sheets

HOW YOU DO IT:
First, pour three cups of hot water into the mixing bowl. The water should be hot, but not so hot that you can't bear to put your fingers in it for several seconds at a time. Add the sugar or honey and stir it with your fingers (a good way to make sure the water is not too hot) or with a wire whisk to dissolve. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the water, and stir to dissolve.

Wait about ten minutes for the yeast to begin to revive and grow. This is known as "proofing" the yeast, which simply means that you're checking to make sure your yeast is viable. Skipping this step could result in your trying to make bagels with dead yeast, which results in bagels so hard and potentially dangerous that they are banned under the terms of the Geneva Convention. You will know that the yeast is okay if it begins to foam and exude a sweetish, slightly beery smell.

At this point, add about three cups of flour as well as the 2 tsp of salt to the water and yeast and begin mixing it in. Some people subscribe to the theory that it is easier to tell what's going on with the dough if you use your hands rather than a spoon to mix things into the dough, but others prefer the less physically direct spoon. As an advocate of the bare-knuckles school of baking, I proffer the following advice: clip your fingernails, take off your rings and wristwatch, and wash your hands thoroughly to the elbows, like a surgeon. Then you may dive into the dough with impunity. I generally use my right hand to mix, so that my left is free to add flour and other ingredients and to hold the bowl steady. Left-handed people might find that the reverse works better for them. Having one hand clean and free to perform various tasks works best.
When you have incorporated the first three cups of lour, the dough should begin to become thick-ish. Add more flour, a half-cup or so at a time, and mix each addition thoroughly before adding more flour. As the dough gets thicker, add less and less flour at a time. Soon you will begin to knead it by hand (if you're using your hands to mix the dough in the first place, this segue is hardly noticeable). If you have a big enough and shallow enough bowl, use it as the kneading bowl, otherwise use that clean, dry, flat countertop or tabletop mentioned in the "Equipment" list above.

Sprinkle your work surface or bowl with a handful of flour, put your dough on top, and start kneading. Add bits of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking (to your hands, to the bowl or countertop, etc....). Soon you should have a nice stiff dough. It will be quite elastic, but heavy and stiffer than a normal bread dough. Do not make it too dry, however... it should still give easily and stretch easily without tearing.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, and cover with one of your clean kitchen towels, dampened somewhat by getting it wet and then wringing it out thoroughly. If you swish the dough around in the bowl, you can get the whole ball of dough covered with a very thin film of oil, which will keep it from drying out.

Place the bowl with the dough in it in a dry, warm (but not hot) place, free from drafts. Allow it to rise until doubled in volume. Some people try to accelerate rising by putting the dough in the oven, where the pilot lights keep the temperature slightly elevated. If it's cold in your kitchen, you can try this, but remember to leave the oven door open or it may become too hot and begin to kill the yeast and cook the dough. An ambient temperature of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit (25 centigrades) is ideal for rising dough.

While the dough is rising, fill your stockpot with about a gallon of water and set it on the fire to boil. When it reaches a boil, add the malt syrup or sugar and reduce the heat so that the water just barely simmers; the surface of the water should hardly move.

Once the dough has risen, turn it onto your work surface, punch it down, and divide immediately into as many hunks as you want to make bagels. For this recipe, you will probably end up with about 15 bagels, so you will divide the dough into 15 roughly even-sized hunks. Begin forming the bagels. There are two schools of thought on this. One method of bagel formation involves shaping the dough into a rough sphere, then poking a hole through the middle with a finger and then pulling at the dough around the hole to make the bagel. This is the hole-centric method. The dough-centric method involves making a long cylindrical "snake" of dough and wrapping it around your hand into a loop and mashing the ends together. Whatever you like to do is fine. DO NOT, however, give in to the temptation of using a doughnut or cookie cutter to shape your bagels. This will push them out of the realm of Jewish Bagel Authenticity and give them a distinctly Protestant air. The bagels will not be perfectly shaped. They will not be symmetrical. This is normal. This is okay. Enjoy the diversity. Just like snowflakes, no two genuine bagels are exactly alike.

Begin to preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Once the bagels are formed, let them sit for about 10 minutes. They will begin to rise slightly. Ideally, they will rise by about one-fourth volume... a technique called "half-proofing" the dough. At the end of the half-proofing, drop the bagels into the simmering water one by one. You don't want to crowd them, and so there should only be two or three bagels simmering at any given time. The bagels should sink first, then gracefully float to the top of the simmering water. If they float, it's not a big deal, but it does mean that you'll have a somewhat more bready (and less bagely) texture. Let the bagel simmer for about three minutes, then turn them over with a skimmer or a slotted spoon. Simmer another three minutes, and then lift the bagels out of the water and set them on a clean kitchen towel that has been spread on the countertop for this purpose. The bagels should be pretty and shiny, thanks to the malt syrup or sugar in the boiling water.

Once all the bagels have been boiled, prepare your baking sheets by sprinkling them with cornmeal. Then arrange the bagels on the prepared baking sheets and put them in the oven. Let them bake for about 25 minutes, then remove from the oven, turn them over and put them back in the oven to finish baking for about ten minutes more. This will help to prevent flat-bottomed bagels.

Remove from the oven and cool on wire racks, or on a dry clean towels if you have no racks. Do not attempt to cut them until they are cool... hot bagels slice abominably and you'll end up with a wadded mass of bagel pulp. Don't do it.

Serve with good cream cheese.

TO CUSTOMIZE BAGELS: After boiling but before baking, brush the bagels with a wash made of 1 egg white and 3 tablespoons ice water beaten together. Sprinkle with the topping of your choice: poppy, sesame, or caraway seeds, toasted onion or raw garlic bits, salt or whatever you like. Just remember that bagels are essentially a savory baked good, not a sweet one, and so things like fruit and sweet spices are really rather out of place.

[shelleybean]

Well, I'm just an old Presbyterian girl myself, but I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland with lots of Jewish friends. I never saw them eat a cinnaomon raisin or blueberry bagel. I don't care for those either. I like the onion ones best. Thanks for sharing the story of a TRUE bagel.

[Earl]

To really get with it, translate that recipe into one for the bread machine dough cycle. :-)

[Earl]

Here's my even easier version of the No Work Bread:

Even Easier No Work Bread
This bread is so easy to make it like stealing it!

3 cups bread or all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons rapid rise yeast
1 and 5/8 cups warm water

Mix above ingredients in a bowl and put in a warm spot. Leave about 6 or 8 hours for it to rise, then spray a bread pan with Pam type oil and drizzle in some olive oil. Dump dough into pan and spray top of dough with Pam. Then spray some plastic wrap with Pam and cover dough. Let rise an hour or 2. Bake in hot oven at 450 F. for 20 to 30 minutes or until browned to your liking.

I use a pizza stone and just as the bread starts to brown take loaf out of pan and finish it on the stone. Wonderful crunchy crust.

[neoguy]

Earl,
You shouldn't post pics like that when folks are hungry.

The bread looks fabulous. Question, can the bread be made in a cast iron Dutch Oven as the original poster suggests?