No-Knead Bread, Bread in the Time of Corona
The Hubs, Jorge, Sammy, and I are home while Jeffrey is in The City, and Mui is in Houston. Like most folks, we are finding ways to occupy our time during the quarantine. Yoga on YouTube, Wes still woodworking in the garage, and the boys playing Fortnite. Me? Let’s see what have I been doing?
Baking, Cooking, Blogging, Eating
Unfortunately, too much of the last. Baking has become a respite from the outside world. Judging by Instagram posts and Facebook posts, not to mention the empty flour shelves at the grocers, a ton of people are feeling the same way.
On our daily family Face-time, Mui raved about the No-Knead Bread she had made (her post here!) It was so easy and so delicious, she convinced me to give it a go. Although she used the recipe from King Arthur Flour, I perused the internet and found what might be Ground Zero for No-Knead Bread. Way back in the day, Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey of Sullivan St. Bakery introduced No-Knead Bread via the New York Times. It has become a classic and convinced non-bread bakers, like me, to give it a go.
If you are hankering for a classic Wonder Bread loaf try this Maple Buttermilk Bread made easy with a bread machine. But, if you are looking for a loaf of bread that reminds you of that little European bakery you visited or your own favorite neighborhood artisanal bakery, this is it.
Best of all, it is stupid easy and amazingly tasty. Impress your friends and family, don’t tell them how crazy easy it was to make. No kneading required. Really, the major investment is time. Five minutes to combine the three ingredients, flour, salt and yeast, to which you add water, but then twelve to eighteen hours of waiting before the next step.
Plan on when you want fresh bread…a day in advance. I throw my batter together around four o’clock in the afternoon, get a good night’s sleep, have my morning coffee, putter around and about ten in the morning I pour the wet dough out on a floured board, shape it, and let it sit another hour. The original recipe calls for placing the dough on a tea towel after proofing, but I use parchment paper that I can then grab to transfer the dough into the heated dutch oven. Paper and dough gets plopped in the pot in one fell swoop. Easy peasy.
Danger, BAKER ROBINSON, Danger! PLEASE USE POTHOLDERS FOR THE NEXT STEPS!!!!
Pull the pot out of the oven, PLOP that baby into that SUPERHOT dutch oven and bake it covered for 30 minutes. Uncover the pot (GLOVES PLEASE) and bake for additional 10-15 minutes to crisp and brown the crust. Remove the loaf and let it cool. It will be a little tough to cut the loaf when it is warm, so try to resist if you can before cutting.
Loaf #1 seen above, I didn’t score. Loaf #2 I used a serrated knife and lightly slashed the top of the loaf. (Banner pic)
Don’t loaf around, make this bread!
No-Knead Bread
Equipment
- Dutch Oven or oven proof pot
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour more for dusting
- ¼ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- Cornmeal or flour as needed
- 1-5/8 cup water approximately 70 degrees
- cornmeal for dusting
Instructions
- 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.
- The 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.
- 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.
- 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 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
- * I place the dough on floured parchment paper and used the paper to rransfer the dough into the pot. So easy. Score the top of dough lightly if desired for that cool fissure on top.