No-Knead bread made the rounds online back in ’06 when Bittman made it famous writing for the New York Times. It wasn’t the first such recipe, but it definitely popularized the technique. Since then, there have been myriad variations and of course I have my own. I’ve also experimented with combining this technique with a similar one I learned about in Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, called pain a l’ancienne, which I’ll talk more about later.
No-Knead Boule
-14 oz. or 2 1/2 c. all purpose flour (you know I love my King Arthur)
-2 oz or 1/2 c. Whole Wheat flour
-1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
-1 teaspoon table salt
-1 1/2 c. water
The mass appeal to this recipe lies in the high fiddliness to tastiness ratio. By which I mean, it’s really tasty and really easy. The only problem with this recipe is that you need a cast iron or enamal Dutch oven. A steel stock pot will not work.
Step one is just mix all this together, cover and leave at room temperature for at least 12 but not more than 16 hours. For some reason leaving it longer than 16 hours has a slightly detrimental effect on the flavor. UNLESS you want to let it go a solid 24 hours, in which case you can also employ the pain a l’ancienne technique by making the dough with iced water, and leaving it in the refrigerator for 12 hours then moving it to room temperature for another 12 hours. The advantage here is a more complex flavor due to enzymes and stuff. Try it out, it’s fun.
12 to 24 hours later, you’re going to have a big, wet, bubbly mass of dough. It looks pretty thin, that’s alright. Using a rubber spatula, maneuver the dough onto a well-floured surface into a round-ish shape. I like to use the whole wheat flour for this, and I’m serious about the well-floured part, you’re better off using an extra couple of Tablespoons of flour than having the dough stick to the counter. Let is sit for 15 minutes, it’s not going to look any different afterwards, but the glutens will relax and the dough will be much easier to work with.
Run your fingertips under the edge of the dough to make sure it’s not sticking, then fold the dough into thirds like a letter. ‘Cause you know, that’s still a relevant turn-of-phrase. Now fold it in thirds the other way, so you have a nice looking ball. Do your best to brush off any major lumps of flour.
Flour up a piece of fabric (butter muslin, a linen napkin or even a tee shirt, but not terry-cloth) which you can transfer the dough, seam side down, onto. Fold the corners up to loosely cover the dough and let sit 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Whatever you do, don’t let it get wider than the base of your Dutch oven. Speaking of which, put the Dutch oven in your oven now and pre-heat to at least 500F, or higher if your oven goes higher.
No comes the fun part. When the oven is heated and the bread is risen do these in this order:
-Unwrap the bread, make sure the edges aren’t stuck to the fabric.
-Take the super-hot Dutch oven out of the oven, take the lid off, leave the oven door open.
-Pick up the dough, with your hand under the fabric.
-Flop the dough, seam side is now up, into the pot. Shimmy the pot a little to center the dough. It’s fine.
-Lid on the pot, pot in the oven, shut the door, set timer for 20 minutes.
After the first 20 minutes, take the lid off the pot and set your timer for another 20. Depending on your oven you may need 25 minutes, the bread is done when the crust is brown and crunchy.
Remove from Dutch oven, let cool to room temp, enjoy. Feel free to knock off any excess flour.
This bread makes a particularly excellent grilled cheese sandwich, by the way.
Related articles
- Fresh Homemade Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (simplystrikingblog.com)
- Dutch-Oven Boule Using Basic Bread Dough (thebittenword.typepad.com)
- No-Knead Bread Recipes (thedessertcourse.wordpress.com)
