no-knead bread (take 2)
Here is the update on the no-knead bread, as promised. I baked the bread on a baking sheet today instead of the stone and it came out fantastic! Instead of making a loaf, I made 6 small rolls.Prior to making the slits in the bread, I made sure my knife was super sharp and coated well with flour (that super wet dough is sticky and makes slicing difficult). I cut an X shape into each roll and went really deep. I cut about half way through the roll! There is so much moisture in this dough that the steam makes them poof up quite a bit while in the oven. Despite the slits being so deep, they had completely expanded and filled out 15 minutes into the cooking time. The rolls looked like little poof balls with four little points where the slits used to be.
Thanks to all of the readers for giving great suggestions and advice for this method! If you've got more, keep it coming! Redforever made a good point about the rising time. I had let my dough rise for almost an hour before but since I was using refrigerated dough, the first half of my rise time was probably used just to get the dough up to room temperature! So, if you're making your bread with refrigerated dough, you may want to let it rise longer. I did notice, however, that because the dough is so wet, it never really gets BIG during the rise. The big expansion comes in the oven. You can see the effect in this video.
Step By Step Photos
After taking the second half of my dough out of the fridge, I turned it out onto a super floured surface. I cut it into 6 equal pieces.
I shaped each piece into a nice little ball and placed them all on a baking sheet that I had sprayed with non-stick spray and sprinkled liberally with corn meal. I LOVE how the cornmeal tastes on the bottom of the rolls.
After they had risen sufficiently (about an hour, they warmed up faster than a single loaf) I used a VERY sharp knife to cut the slits in top.
This is 15 minutes into baking... see how the deep slits have already completely filled out?
And after about 30 minutes they were finished... with the most wonderful crispy/chewy crust in the world!!
15 comments:
I seriously LOVE this recipe! I actually got "healthy bread in 5 minutes a day" in the mail today. I also just ate the bread with a pat of butter :)
I can't remember where I saw it (I've been doing it for years), but making the slits with a serrated knife is the way to go.
Oops, I wasn't done yet. Check out this one from ATK; you know how they always research everything to death:
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=11829&extcode=M**ASCA00
I'm not sure that the beer does much, but the trick with the parchment paper is awesome. I make mine in a 4.5 quart oval LeCreuset-type pan. I think my large 7.5 quart LeCreuset makes it too large and flat.
I love this recipe, too! The dough can also be used for pizza dough or even pita bread!
I didn't read teh comments in the other post, but here's a tip: I also use a baking sheet to bake the bread. Someone (I think on one of the book's blogs) said to bake the last 10 minutes of the bread with the bottom side up to get the bottom nice and crispy, too.
The long rise time is really important, which, of course, makes it hard to make after work. I think I also once saw a modification where you can form the shape in the morning and let it slowly/partially rise in the fridge during the day and then you can take it out to rise for less time once you get home.
Good luck! I haven't made the bread all summer (the oven's too hot), but now that fall is around the corner, you've reminded me to get a bucket of dough back into the fridge! Thansks!
I'm excited because I'm about to make this right now! Went and got the yeast on my lunch break today and have been waiting all day to get home! So glad you shared this with us! I'll let you know how it goes.
Peggasus is correct. I always use a sharp serrated bread knife to slash my breads.
Oops, also meant to add that for wet doughs, I use a wet serrated bread knife as well.
and I forget, yet again:((( to add something else.
Don't bake breads on an aluminum foil surface. Inverted pan is fine, but not foil. It redirects the heat funny and you wont get even browning. If you are worried about messing up your baking pan, invert it, put on a piece of parchment paper, if you are using cornmeal, sprinkle on the parchment, put your bread dough or rolls on top the parchment and bake like that. The parchment wont burn. And if you want a nice crunchy crust, you can even just slice the parchment (bread remaining on the parchment) and finish baking that way. That will guarantee a nice bottom and top crust.
But you should not have a problem with a nice bottom crust baking on top the bare baking sheet or on top the parchment placed on the baking sheet.
typo - sliDe, not slice the parchment. So slide the parchment and the loaf of bread off the baking sheet onto the oven racks, and finish baking that way. But don't do that until the bread is at least half finished baking...or the bread might collapse.
I made a sort of flatbread pizza a few days ago, and the proportions of the dough were more or less the same as this sort of bread, so I decided to make a loaf out of what I had left.
You can accelerate the warming process in the microwave. Just heat the dough on very low power (I started out at 10%, got impatient and did a few minutes at 20%). It'll get the dough warm and get the yeast working. This way you don't have to wait too long for it to come to room temperature out of the fridge.
Anonymous - Using the microwave is a good idea, but here is the best way to accelerate the proofing time for bread in the microwave, or the oven for that matter too.
Put your bowl of dough (covered) in the microwave, and then put a big mug of boiling water in the microwave. Close the door and the hot steam from the boiling water will warm the temperature in the microwave nicely.
If using this method in the oven, same idea, put the bread (covered) in the oven, and then put a baking pan of boiling water on the shelf below the bowl of bread.
I have an almost commercial oven, with very good digital control, so I preheat the oven to 100F, turn it off, and then put in my bowl of covered bread. If your oven can't be set like that, you could turn it on normally, and just let it heat enough so you can feel the heat, sort of baby bottom temperature. That will work too. But, the oven is then turned OFF when the bread is proofing.
Yeast is a living organism, and using liquids or rising temperatures that are too hot will kill the yeast before it has had enough time to grow and give off gas, that is what causes bread to rise. If it dies early on, the bread won't rise any further. On the other hand, too cold, and it goes dormant. Cool, it rises just fine, but of course takes longer, it needs to wake up first to get active.
Hello Budget Bytes!
One of my loyal readers said that he now follows your blog so I thought I'd check you out:). Just wanted to comment that I have Artisan Breads in 5 minutes a day, and the recipe is super easy and it is amazing! The bread tastes gourmet.
P.S. Your bread photos look scrumptious--yum!
Hi Beth - First time commenter to your blog! Do you know if you can use strong bread flour in this recipe? That's what I usually use for bread but my stand-by recipe uses a rise-knead-rise method. Yours seems easier!
Can you please post a bread bowl recipe? I wonder if your current bread recipes will make do for bread bowls :).
If you make the X with kitchen shears then dust lightly with flour they should come out a bit better shaped.
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