Continuing this food thread and my NY Times bias, I just completed making a loaf of the "no knead" bread described below about 18 hours after I started. That's what you read: 18 hours. That's a good average time for this recipe. However, it involves almost no labor and a short baking time. Basically you mix flour, salt, yeast and water and leave the mess covered for 12-20 hours. I used cornmeal in place of wheat bran in the recipe.
http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
I used a very average flour, Gold Medal not King Arthur, and it is absolutely delicious. I'm not just saying this. I was used to my bread, especially anything whole wheat, having a slightly moldy taste. I was astounded when I tasted this. I think this is a result of the extremely long time it spent "cogitating." The taste was faintly like Triscuits crackers but without all the salt. Unbelievable crust. Crunchy, thick and chewy. You need a good bread knife to cut this thing. Astonishing. I have never baked anything better, and I have been trying a long time! See photo at bottom...
Note that you'll need an iron dutch oven with top because you dump the dough, which is moist and flaccid, into a super hot dutch oven (which gives the loaf shape) after 12-20 hours and cover it and bake for 20-30 minutes on 500. Then another 10-20 uncovered. That's where the crust comes from.
My only caution would be with regard to the burn potential from handling the Dutch oven and its top. Be sure you have good pot holders/oven mitts...and maybe the cold tap water running.
This is the kind of bread that seems like a complete food. As if this is what those proto-Brits might have been eating 8,000 years ago (if they could have made flour like this and didn't just turn it all into alcohol!) It uses almost no leavening (.25 tsp of dry yeast) Cost for this loaf (absent the heat) about $.90
You can mix it before bed and bake it the next afternoon when home from work.
1 comment:
The bread looks yummy!
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