lululu

It’s not often that a recipe makes the NY Times most emailed list, but this no-knead bread recipe was an exception. I rarely bake and have never attempted actual bread (as opposed to more cake-like banana and pumpkin loaves). But bread is among my top three foods (see also: cheese), so I was ready for an adventure.

Don’t be fooled by its misshapen appearance, this bread is Awesome.

So awesome, in fact, that after Clare, Bryan and I finished lunch, the loaf looked like this:

Make it. Seriously.

Here’s my annotated version of the recipe [and here's a pdf of article and recipe].

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast [my packets were called "Rapid Rise"--I got a pack of three for about $3]
1 1/4 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. [I let mine sit for 18; before and after pics are on gallery.]

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. [The dough stuck to everything. This was intimidating but did not seem to be a problem.]

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. ["Ball" implies something more spherical than what my very wet, very loose dough would allow. "Circle" was about all I could do.] 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. [I thought I had coated the towel—okay, fabric scrap—generously, but the dough was stuck to it like glue when I came back two hours later. Next time I'm going for a quarter inch of flour on the damn thing.]

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) [lacking all of these, I used a regular metal pot, which worked fine] 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. [Though your final loaf will also look like a mess.] 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. [or in my case, a cutting board, propped up with a fork.]

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

TO DIE FOR. Check here for better pictures and a more photogenic loaf.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Recipes. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.