No-Knead Bread

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  • Bruce Taylor
    Eardstapa
    • Aug 2000
    • 9225

    No-Knead Bread

    Seems to be a craze, and, having made a few loaves, I can see why. It's serious bread, with a serious crust --very similar to a French country loaf -- and it's dead easy to make.

    It's baked in a closed container (I've been using a Creuset stew pot). Strongly recommended:

  • uncas
    Ancient Mariner
    • Sep 2004
    • 11649

    #2
    Well, that is gonna take the fun out of making bread....

    Comment

    • Paul Girouard
      Banned
      • May 2005
      • 16591

      #3
      My wife uses a bread machine , it does the kneading , good bread , pretty easy . Well real easy for me , she won't even let me wash the bread maker pan/ dealie , sez I'll scratch it And ya know she's probably right

      And I'm not going to try and change her mind on that

      Comment

      • uncas
        Ancient Mariner
        • Sep 2004
        • 11649

        #4
        Paul G.. Yup.. I got one of those.. actually two.. I use them if I find myself running out of time.. Much prefer the old fashioned route....Knead...knead some more.. let it rise.. knead some more....

        Comment

        • Bruce Taylor
          Eardstapa
          • Aug 2000
          • 9225

          #5
          I've got a bread machine too, but the "bread" it makes doesn't come close to this stuff.

          I guess I'm particular about bread (grew up in France). I like a thick, chewy crust, big air holes w/ an elastic interior. To get that without a steam-injected oven isn't necessarily easy. Apparently you can get there with wet bricks, pans of water, etc., but I've never wanted to mess around with all that. This method works beautifully, and it's a snap.

          Comment

          • Paul Girouard
            Banned
            • May 2005
            • 16591

            #6
            [quote=Bruce Taylor]
            I guess I'm particular about bread (grew up in France).

            I like a thick, chewy crust, big air holes w/ an elastic interior. quote]

            Where in France ?

            The Frog's really like /make good bread.

            Ours is fresh , so much better than the stuff at the store.

            Comment

            • uncas
              Ancient Mariner
              • Sep 2004
              • 11649

              #7
              When I bicycled through France.. there was nothing better than a loaf of french bread.. an apple and a lot of cheese for lunch.. Damn'd good bread.... Fond memories.. I have come close to replicating it.. with sourdough but have never reached the point where I could not tell the difference.

              Comment

              • ssor
                Senior Member
                • Jan 2005
                • 3390

                #8
                That will work! a very wet dough, a long ferment. Bake in a very hot oven with steam for the first half of the baking. The heavy pan acts like a stone hearth and helps to hold the shape.

                Comment

                • Bruce Taylor
                  Eardstapa
                  • Aug 2000
                  • 9225

                  #9
                  Where in France ?
                  Paris. This isn't much like classic French bread, tho'...more like the big country loaves you get in the South.

                  And not to diss the machines...it's just a different product.

                  Comment

                  • Bruce Taylor
                    Eardstapa
                    • Aug 2000
                    • 9225

                    #10
                    I have come close to replicating it.. with sourdough but have never reached the point where I could not tell the difference
                    My in-laws went to the trouble of buying special French-style flour (and cooking in heavy pans, w/ wet bricks on the oven). Worth it, if you have the time (I don't).

                    Comment

                    • ssor
                      Senior Member
                      • Jan 2005
                      • 3390

                      #11
                      Different grocery chains sell slightly different blends of flour and unbleached is quite different then bleached from the same chain.
                      Baking on stones produces bread the is distinctly different then bread baked in/on pans. The quantity and the quality of the yeast and the time and temperature of the ferment have strong effects on the bread. I find that the brand King Arthur is different but not better than chain unbleached. The high protein "bread flour" is too strong for European rustic loaves . Kneading helps to develop the glutten and the dough should stretch like bubble gum when it is ready.

                      Comment

                      • Bruce Taylor
                        Eardstapa
                        • Aug 2000
                        • 9225

                        #12
                        Sounds like you know your stuff, ssor.

                        According to the Mark Bittman article, the relatively wet dough and long ferment time of the no-knead method allow the gluten molecules to go where they're supposed to go. Certainly the dough stretches like gum at the end of the process.

                        I've been using unbleached bread flour.

                        Comment

                        • ssor
                          Senior Member
                          • Jan 2005
                          • 3390

                          #13
                          I find that I get the most consistent results when I can weigh the flour. If you sift it into a measure rather than just scoop it up with the cup you get very different quantities of flour. In a receipe this small, a couple of tablespoonful of flour will alter the result.

                          Comment

                          • Paul Girouard
                            Banned
                            • May 2005
                            • 16591

                            #14
                            Well we find no need to knead , the bread maker does it fir ya

                            ssor your serious about yer bread

                            Comment

                            • Nicholas Carey
                              Flâneur • Seattle
                              • Feb 2001
                              • 20330

                              #15
                              The very-little-yeast, very-slow-rise technique is nothing new -- Elizabeth David discusses it at length in her epic tome, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, the best reference work on baking bread I've ever seen. This technique is at the root of traditional baking's "quarter-sponge" system, where a baker produces several hundred pounds of dough on something like an ounce of yeast. The quarter-sponge starts with a very wet, almost batter-like sponge, with 4 additions of flour and water over the course of a couple of days.

                              The long rise develops the gluten.

                              Increasing the amount of salt in the dough (as noted in this week's minimalist column) acts as a yeast retarder, too.

                              All that being said, I'm about to fire up a batch of this. I'll report back tomorrow sometime about the results.
                              “The big joke on democracy is that it gives its mortal enemies the tools to its own destruction,” Goebbels said as the Nazis rose to power—one of those quotes that sound apocryphal but are not.​
                              — Adam Gopnik

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