So, yeah, I totally whipped together a homemade loaf of bread last Thursday. I started the bread in the morning (literally stirred the ingredients together and walked out the door), then finished it when I got home. I had homemade bread on the table at 7pm. If you haven't heard of it already, "no-knead bread" is THE thing this year. It was quick (as far as hands-on time goes, less than 10 minutes), and it was delicious. I even substituted regular all-purpose flour for bread flour, with no discernible sacrifice in taste or texture. It also makes excellent toast, when it starts to go stale. Plus, something really neat is that you can cook it in a Dutch oven, a casserole dish, or any number of round-ish vessels of the right volume. It was so easy, I'm thinking of doing away with buying sandwich bread and instead making this every week. Here's one of many recipes available on the interwebs:
No-Knead Bread makes 1 loaf
3 cups bread flour
3/4 teaspoon regular yeast (not instant)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups water
Mix all the ingredients in the morning before you go to work. This should take about 3 minutes and leave you with a thick, slightly goopy dough. Cover with a towel or some plastic wrap and leave it in the warmest spot in your kitchen. It should get a 6 to 8-hour rise.
When you come home from work, lightly mist a counter or baking sheet with spray oil and turn dough out on it. Shape it roughly into a ball (a bench scraper is useful here), mist with oil again, and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Let proof for about an hour, or however long you have.
Heat the oven to 450°F. Put a Dutch oven (or an alternative vessel with similar volume) in the oven to heat. When the dough has doubled in size, put it in the pan. You may have to pour it, pry it off the baking sheet, or just roll it in - the dough is very wet. Don't worry if it looks a mess. Cover the pot with a lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for another 15 minutes to let it brown.
You can be really sure that the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted into the side of the loaf reads 210-220°F.
3 comments:
What a coincidence. I just busted out my bread machine to make bread today and realized I did not have bread flour. That sounds like a great idea. Although I don't have a dutch oven, hmmm maybe my pampered chef casserole dish would work.
I used a round Anchor Hocking casserole dish (one of those white ones with the glass top). It was fine.
That is super close to the recipe we use and we sub in whole wheat flour and it's still good. Yours is WAY prettier though. No-knead is magical. As is Pyrex, which we cook it in.
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