I Take It All Back...

No-Knead Bread

I admit it. I didn't think it could be done. I thought the no-knead revolution was absolutely absurd. Unfortunately, my increasingly busy schedule has kept me from making some of my traditional breads. So I tried a no-knead bread from from The Fresh Loaf and it worked just as it did in the pictures. I could not believe my eyes.

Crust is crisp and thin.

The crust was thinner that I usually like but is crunched and shattered beautifully. Also, although all of my breads have sung recently, this one I could hear cracking all the way across the room. It was beautiful.

Beautiful Crumb.

The crumb inside was fantastic. I had no idea it would turn out this well. The beginning stages did not look promising.

Yum!

The one thing this bread lacked was the lovely sweetness of the sourdough I like. It was nutty and flavorful, but neither sour nor sweet. This may have been the semolina.

It may be gone by morning.

Ingredients

• 30g Whole Wheat Starter
• 346g Water
• 300g Bread Flour
• 105g Semolina Flour
• 45g Whole Wheat Flour
• 9g Salt

Directions

• Mix water and starter and stir vigorously until starter is fully dissolved. Mix flour and salt to fully distribute salt. Put flour and salt together and use a dough scraper to work the flour into the water. Continue working around the bowl scraping dough from the side toward the center and pushing it down in the center, until you have a shaggy mass.
• Wait 5 minutes.
• Do a few stretch-and-folds.
• Place dough in covered bowl to rise at 75F for 4 hours.
• Place the dough in the refrigerator overnight. For about 16-30* hours.
• Take the dough out and let it sit for 2-3 hours or until it starts to warm to room temperature and bubble.
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and pre-shape.
• Let the dough bench rest for 30 minutes.
• Shape the dough and put it into a linen-lined bowl dusted with rice and wheat flour.
• Let it have a final rise for two hours.
• Turn it onto a peel, slash, and bake as follows.
• After a 30 minute preheat at 500 degrees F, bake the bread under steam at 450 degrees F for 30-35 minutes and then bake for 20 minutes or until 100 degrees C (212 degrees F) on the inside and chestnut brown and crispy on the outside.
• Wait for at least 1 hour before cutting.

I am a convert. I will try this bread again.

* - (Note 10/7/11) I tired this bread again and I did not let it bulk rise for long enough so the crumb was really lackluster and unfortunate.

I also made some bread the other day. I tried to make Frankie Olive's City Bread, but I made every possible mistake so it came out misshapen. It still tasted fantastic. I will try again.

Crust: A little thin, but good.

 We ate it last night and this morning.

Irregular holes, but a little dense in spots. Still good.

Now I need to go study Sallust and Latin meter (not at the same time, obviously).