Sunday, January 6, 2013

No Knead Bread

Found a recipe for this easy to make bread a while back and I finally got around to trying it out. Bread making the easy way. You make it up the night before you bake it.

The recipe calls for:

3 cups of regular flour
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast
1 & 1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 & 3/4 cups of water.

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the water mix up cover with a kitchen towel  and let sit at room temp for 18 to 20 hours. It will rise and triple in size. Dump it out on a floured counter and then flatten a bit and fold on itself a couple or three times. Pull the underside tight so you have a smooth top on it and set on a piece of parchment paper on a bread peel o a rimless cookie sheet. Put a couple of slashes across the top with a  very sharp knife and paint up with a bit of olive oil. Invert the bowl over it and let it rise for an hour and a half at room temp. In the mean time warm up your pizza stone in the oven to 450 deg F. If you don't have a pizza stone. You can buy a large granite flooring tile for a couple of bucks at your local home improvement center and use that. Alternatively a large cast iron pan or dutch oven will also work. what wee need here is a big mass that can be heated and cook the bread from underneath.
This is what the bread looks like right before it goes in the oven after it has risen for about an hour and a half under the inverted bowl.
Pop it on your hot stone in the oven and 450 deg F and don't forget to put a pan of hot water on the lower rack as the steam will make for the nice crunchy crust on the bread.
30 to 35 minutes later. . . . . .
now the most difficult part. . . . . let it rest for 30 minutes at least before you cut in to it. . . . . . if you put your ear to it you can hear it sing.
then the best part.
I like mine with a bit of butter and a sprinkle of salt.




10 comments:

  1. Sounds great Michael! I'll give it a try as I'm an avid bread maker. I might go easier on the salt however. Not a big fan...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Man that looks good! I dont think there is many things in life as good as fresh baked bread!
    I keep thinking about trying to make some bread, in fact one of the books I'm reading is on bread making, but I haven't got round to it yet. It's all the waiting times that knacker me up - I know I'd forget!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really is dead-nuts-simple, no mess no fuss. Mix it all up the night before, next day about mid morning flip it out and fold over itself a couple or three times, let it raise for 1.5 to 2 hours and pop it in the oven about noon time. The parchment paper makes handling easy but the purists use cornmeal to keep it from slicking. Use a pizza stone or a tile in the oven. The hard part is not eating the whole darn thing. It is by far the easiest bread I have made. Wintertime is the time to bake and keep the house warm. A loaf like that from the bakery around these parts is $4.50 and it usually goes hard before we finish it. This cost about 40 cents total.
      here is one of the links where I got the recipe:
      http://theitaliandishblog.com/imported-20090913150324/2010/2/26/amazing-artisan-bread-for-40-cents-a-loaf-no-kneading-no-fus.html

      Delete
  3. I'll ask Alejandra to try your recipe. I'll let you know how it tasted provided I survive.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Try it Doug you'll enjoy it.. though 45 deg C temps in Argentina this time of year may make it a bit much to bake indoors.

      Delete
  4. You can also dust your peel with flour and put the loaf directly on the stone. The bottom crust comes out a bit crispier that way,
    Bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Bob, because this recipe is much wetter the dough is much more gooey and sticky than regular bread so the flour alone won't work. Some seem to find cornmeal works but the parchment paper pretty much guarantees that you will get a perfect slide-off after it has sat on the peel for an hour and a half.

      Delete
  5. I wish that my love affair with gluten had not ended so tragically. This.looks.delicious!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mark, Did you have a bad reaction to bread?...that is a shame, Nothing better than fresh baked bread.

      Delete