Wednesday, April 28, 2010

No Knead Bread - updates

I have been making this bread all the time lately. We've made it for our new neighbors and we've been making the dough and using it for our weekly make-your-own pizza night. So here's the thing... when I make this recipe and I'm using it for a loaf of bread I use almost 2 cups of water plus the 4 tablespoons of evoo... when I make it for flat bread and/or pizza dough I have to cut back to the water or it is just too sticky to spread out in the pan... so for pizza I use 1 1/2 cups of water (but I still use all that lovely olive oil).

Too sum up:
Bread: 2 cups water
Flatbread/Pizza dough: 1 1/2 cups water

-----------------------------------------------
No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery, NYC (he now has a book out called: My Bread: The Revolutionary No-work, No-Knead Method... I'd recommend it if you try this and get really interested in doing more)
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14-20 hours for rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting (I've been using bread flour lately)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt (I use a scant tablespoon of sea salt for bread/ 2 teaspoons for pizza)
1 5/8 c water (I used closer to 2 cups for the bread/ 1.5 cups for pizza dough)
[I also add 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil]

cornmeal or wheat bran as needed (I use flour here instead - whatever you prefer)

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 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... including the lid. 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

No comments: