No-knead bread, part 1No-knead bread, part 1

Is there any food lover in New York or the country who is not currently involved in some stage of Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread? It was hard to find a time when I knew I’d be free 12 to 18 hours later, and then another 3 hours after that. So tonight I just bit the bullet and mixed the shaggy dough.

My bread instructor is suspicious of the entire process, and she’s especially concerned with the long fermentation time. Only time (and lots of it) will tell. To be continued tomorrow afternoon…

Comments

Well, I’m on pins and needles. I used to bake a lot of bread and I’ve never seen this. Uh-oh, I’m out of the loop! Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

This recipe is intriguing, but I’m wondering about the part where you’re supposed to cover the pan in the oven; how do you know how high it will rise and who has an oven-safe domed cover that would work?

Can’t wait to hear your results – I did it today and it tastes fabulous with a pleasantly brittle crust – but the dough was outrageously sticky; I don’t know if my teacloth will ever be the same again. The problem might be that I used cake flour because that was all I had in the house; bread flour will be bought tomorrow.

For the previous poster, the bread doesn’t rise much more once it’s in the oven – I used a cast-iron bread pot (Dutch oven) and it worked fine.

I just finished my second loaf of the no-knead bread, and it’s amazing. The first loaf, I used 2 1/2 cups of bread flour and 1/2 cup fresh wheat flour (from the Greenmarket). I fermented it about 15 hours, and baked it in an old Dutch oven, about 13" in diameter. The result was fantastic.

This time, I used 2 cups bread flour, 1 cup wheat flour, and added 2 tablespoons maple syrup to the water, then fermented it for 24 hours (it was a busy day) and baked it in a smaller Dutch oven about 10" in diameter. This one is even better.

With the first loaf, I made some of the best french toast I’ve ever had. I think I could also make a bread pudding with this that would make grown men weep.

I wasn’t sure how non-stick my Dutch ovens would turn out to be, so I tossed about a tablespoon of butter into the heated pan each time, and had no problems releasing.

Use a pizza stone to cover the pot.

Add a comment