I love bread. I love baking bread. I love the way the house fills up with the glorious small of baking bread. I love the anticipation of pulling a golden loaf out of the oven and having to wait until it is cool enough to eat. There is nothing simpler or better than a loaf of homemade bread warm from the oven sitting on the table at breakfast time. Whilst I have a couple of go to white roll and basic loaf recipes that work really well, I haven't had much luck with wholemeal or loaves that you can add things to.
I found this book of Jim Laheys at the library and flicked through it less for the no knead part as I really don't mind kneading dough and feeling it all come together and become soft and silky in my hands, but I was attracted to it because of the long rise time. Since Libraries let ne take home more books than I can possibly read, I thought Id throw that one into the pile and give it a go and see what I thought.
The bread is great! I made the basic white loaf and it came out like a "shop loaf"! I was thrilled!
Here's what I did...
Jim prefers that you weigh everything rather than use volume (cups/tblsp) and so far I have weighed the ingredients each time as its really no hardship to do. So I pop the bowl on the scales and tare it to zero and add the ingredients in the order below.
Bread flour : 400gms (3 cups)
Table salt : 8gms (1 1/4 teaspoon)
Instant Yeast : 1gm (1/4 teaspoon)
Cool water : 300gms (1 1/3 cups)
Mix together with a spoon. It should be a tacky dough. If its not, add another tablespoon of water.
Leave it in the bowl and cover for 12- 18 hours and let it rise. I used a plate but you could use a tea towel.
I have been leaving mine for 24 hours and have had no problems with the bread results at all.
After 12-24 hours is up tip the dough onto a well floured bench in one big stringy blob and generously flour your hands. Now shape the bread by bringing the sides up onto the top one quarter at a time.
Then flour a tea towel and place the dough onto the tea towel and leave for another couple of hours - until it retains the indent of your finger when you poke it! if the hole pops out, leave it a bit longer.
Once it has risen again, pop the oven onto 475F or 246C and heat up a cast iron Dutch oven. I simply couldn't lay my hands on one ( I was reluctant to buy one for this experiment) and ended up using a ceramic casserole dish with a lid. Once the dish has been in the oven for about 1/2 an hour, take it out (carefully - its real hot) and upend the dough from the tea towel into the dish. Pop it straight back in the oven.
If you have a Dutch oven, the instructions are to cook it with the lid on for 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for another 15-30 minutes until the crust is a dark mahogany. I used a covered casserole dish for the first one and mine never get as dark as his do. Since then I have been using a ceramic loaf shaped dish and you can see the results above. I pop mine in for at least 1/2 and hour - until it looks and feels cooked like a normal loaf. Then I take the dish out of the oven and the bread out of the dish and pout it back into the oven. I usually leave it there for at least another 15 minutes. Until the bottom looks like its cooked. I find the bottoms don't cook very well in the ceramic dishes. I suspect its not hot enough.
This has been working for me for the last few weeks and we have been enjoying really yummy bread each day. I did do a free form loaf in the BBQ when we made pizzas and it too turned out well - flat though rather than a dome. The dough is really wet and doesn't hold its shape like kneaded dough's do.
I have been emptying the bowl of dough and making the new one straight into it unwashed - a sort of yeast and sourdough mix...? I have been washing the bowl every few days but wonder if the left over bits would gain a different flavour like sour dough. I suspect with such a long rise time you would probably have some wild yeasts in it anyway. So far there is no difference between an reused and a washed bowl...
Jim recommends that we wait till its cool before we eat the bread. I have to agree with him. The one we cut open before it was cool was a bit "gummy" inside. Once it was cool, the rest of the loaf was fine.
There is a great video on YouTube with Jim and a journalist that gives you a good idea of how it all goes together, but I think the book is better as it gives you more information on what you are doing and why. There are also step by step instructions and photos to follow. Its a six page recipe as there is so much information about what you are doing and why rather than just a 1/2 page do this that and your done.
If you can lay your hands on the book (and a Dutch oven) it wont be long before you are churning out great bread everyday!
Score card:
Green-ness: 5/5 for producing your own simple homemade food!
Frugal-ness: Worked out at something like less than dollar a loaf to make!
Time cost: 24 hours - or about 10 minutes three times.
Skill level: Beginner bakers!
Fun-ness: Really, really good fun to pull out of the oven and cut open!
I found this book of Jim Laheys at the library and flicked through it less for the no knead part as I really don't mind kneading dough and feeling it all come together and become soft and silky in my hands, but I was attracted to it because of the long rise time. Since Libraries let ne take home more books than I can possibly read, I thought Id throw that one into the pile and give it a go and see what I thought.
The bread is great! I made the basic white loaf and it came out like a "shop loaf"! I was thrilled!
Here's what I did...
Jim prefers that you weigh everything rather than use volume (cups/tblsp) and so far I have weighed the ingredients each time as its really no hardship to do. So I pop the bowl on the scales and tare it to zero and add the ingredients in the order below.
Bread flour : 400gms (3 cups)
Table salt : 8gms (1 1/4 teaspoon)
Instant Yeast : 1gm (1/4 teaspoon)
Cool water : 300gms (1 1/3 cups)
Mix together with a spoon. It should be a tacky dough. If its not, add another tablespoon of water.
Leave it in the bowl and cover for 12- 18 hours and let it rise. I used a plate but you could use a tea towel.
I have been leaving mine for 24 hours and have had no problems with the bread results at all.
After 12-24 hours is up tip the dough onto a well floured bench in one big stringy blob and generously flour your hands. Now shape the bread by bringing the sides up onto the top one quarter at a time.
Then flour a tea towel and place the dough onto the tea towel and leave for another couple of hours - until it retains the indent of your finger when you poke it! if the hole pops out, leave it a bit longer.
Once it has risen again, pop the oven onto 475F or 246C and heat up a cast iron Dutch oven. I simply couldn't lay my hands on one ( I was reluctant to buy one for this experiment) and ended up using a ceramic casserole dish with a lid. Once the dish has been in the oven for about 1/2 an hour, take it out (carefully - its real hot) and upend the dough from the tea towel into the dish. Pop it straight back in the oven.
If you have a Dutch oven, the instructions are to cook it with the lid on for 30 minutes, remove the lid and bake for another 15-30 minutes until the crust is a dark mahogany. I used a covered casserole dish for the first one and mine never get as dark as his do. Since then I have been using a ceramic loaf shaped dish and you can see the results above. I pop mine in for at least 1/2 and hour - until it looks and feels cooked like a normal loaf. Then I take the dish out of the oven and the bread out of the dish and pout it back into the oven. I usually leave it there for at least another 15 minutes. Until the bottom looks like its cooked. I find the bottoms don't cook very well in the ceramic dishes. I suspect its not hot enough.
This has been working for me for the last few weeks and we have been enjoying really yummy bread each day. I did do a free form loaf in the BBQ when we made pizzas and it too turned out well - flat though rather than a dome. The dough is really wet and doesn't hold its shape like kneaded dough's do.
I have been emptying the bowl of dough and making the new one straight into it unwashed - a sort of yeast and sourdough mix...? I have been washing the bowl every few days but wonder if the left over bits would gain a different flavour like sour dough. I suspect with such a long rise time you would probably have some wild yeasts in it anyway. So far there is no difference between an reused and a washed bowl...
Jim recommends that we wait till its cool before we eat the bread. I have to agree with him. The one we cut open before it was cool was a bit "gummy" inside. Once it was cool, the rest of the loaf was fine.
There is a great video on YouTube with Jim and a journalist that gives you a good idea of how it all goes together, but I think the book is better as it gives you more information on what you are doing and why. There are also step by step instructions and photos to follow. Its a six page recipe as there is so much information about what you are doing and why rather than just a 1/2 page do this that and your done.
If you can lay your hands on the book (and a Dutch oven) it wont be long before you are churning out great bread everyday!
Score card:
Green-ness: 5/5 for producing your own simple homemade food!
Frugal-ness: Worked out at something like less than dollar a loaf to make!
Time cost: 24 hours - or about 10 minutes three times.
Skill level: Beginner bakers!
Fun-ness: Really, really good fun to pull out of the oven and cut open!
Comments
Bon appetit!
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