Bread at Home: Why Bother?

Let’s get this straight – I don’t make my own bread. I just don’t see the point of putting in all the time and effort when I can buy some of the best bread in the world made by professional bakers any day of the week. Iggy’s is available everywhere in the Boston area and they make the most fantastic crusty baguettes, Pullmans and a pecan raisin bread to die for. I can buy a variety of Russian, Polish and even Lithuanian rye bread from Pana-rama. If I feel inclined I can go to a store in Brookline and buy a dense and nutty rye bread imported directly from Lithuania. The most delicious challah I’ve ever tasted, from Cheryl Ann’s Bakery, is available at the local supermaket and it beats my homemade challah handsdown. You can see why I don’t think there is much to gain from making my own bread at home. Until now.

I saved this recipe when it appeared in the New York Times Food Section on November 8th because I knew it was something special, but I never got around to making it. It wasn’t until this week’s NYT Food Section carried a follow-up article with hints about how to modify and adjust the original recipe that I felt like I had to give this one a try. Mark Bittman claimed that the recipe, “has been translated into German, baked in Togo, discussed on more than 200 blogs and written about in other newspapers. It has changed the lives (their words not mine) of veteran and novice bakers.” Whew that is one serious recipe for bread, don’t you think?

Here’s the original recipe as it was run on 11/8/06:

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No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, NYC
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14-20 hours for rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
cornmeal or wheat bran as needed

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18 at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

3.Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (NOT terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8- quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When the dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2 pound loaf
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Okay, so yesterday I tried it. The dough was so wet and sticky I couldn’t really “form it into a ball” but I tried anyway. I don’t have a covered pot in any of the materials specified in the recipe so I used my All-Clad Stainless Steel Dutch oven. I’m glad Mark Bittman said it might look like a mess because mine did, but I just kept going. My loaf came out with a great chewy crust and a delicious light crumb. Here’s the real reason to bake your own bread – aside from how good it tastes – my house smelled so delicious and homey. My kids even noticed when they got home from school how wonderful the house smelled. Everyone loved the bread, it is not like any homemade bread I’ve ever made before. Believe it or not, when we finished the last piece of it yesterday I mixed up another batch and put it to rise on the back of the stove to bake today. It is that easy and that good.

The first time I baked this bread I did not pre-heat the lid to the pan I was using. The second time I pre-heated both the pan and its lid, side-by-side on the same oven shelf. The different results I got in the finished bread were dramatic. The first bread was a uniformly round disk like bread - about 3 to 4 inches high . The second bread - with the pre-heated lid rose much higher in the middle - 6 inches at its crown - and split attractively down the center. I don't particularly prefer one over the other - they were both delicious - but if you are aiming for a particular look in your finished product it is good to be aware of the difference a small thing like pre-heating (or not) the lid can make.

Another caveat you should know. I added more salt than in the original recipe – a scant Tablespoon. Also, in the follow up article they mentioned that you can substitute up to 50% of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. I’m going to try that variation tomorrow.

Look at me. Now, I’m not just baking my own bread, but I’m baking it everyday. We’ll see how long this lasts.


Here’s the link to the original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?ex=1165726800&en=55fdc83a0e7b6687&ei=5070

Here’s the link to the original recipe: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?ex=1165726800&en=76163622e0d0da6d&ei=5070

Here’s the link to the follow-up article with all of its helpful hints: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/dining/06mini.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

Happy Baking!