Is the sugar noticeable? Seems a little high.
I've been doing the no knead breads - I just like the rustic look, feel, taste of it. There's very few breads I dislike though.
4 cups of flour
2 cups of water
1 - 1.25 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
Stir it up with a spatula, cover, leave on counter overnight - come back about 3 hours before you need it the next day.
Flour the counter very well, fold the dough a few times, then form a ball and let it rise again for two hours.
I bake in a dutch oven (cornmeal on bottom), covered for 30, uncovered for 20 at 450 degrees.
Mine is drier than the original recipe as I can't get a good rise, it is also a bit of a bigger loaf by 30% to force it to rise up instead of just spreading out to cover the bottom of the dutch oven and remain rather flat.
I make the no knead bread too. I was skeptical at first as I actually enjoy the process of kneading. However it makes it easy to have fresh bread everyday, and I do make a loaf nearly everyday.
A couple of points on how I make it.
First, there is no need (ha!) to add yeast after the first time making the dough. Dedicate a bowl (or bucket) to dough making. Each day just add flour salt and water to the container after you remove the dough to bake. There is sufficient yeast and eventually other micro-flora in the bowl and you end up with a sourdough type of bread.
When forming the loaf use wet hands. Fold the dough mass in on itself by lifting the edges up and folding over. Place it on a towel (smooth weave) or a piece of cotton/linen fabric that you have rubbed a good amount of flour on. I then place the whole thing in a basket or brotform to rise. I have found that you can actually get away with not letting it rise very long at all depending on how long it has been fermenting. If you catch it at the right time.
I have used a few containers for baking. The one I have best luck with is a 1.5 quart pyrex bowl. I have a lid from a pyrex casserole dish (what i used to use) that fits on it fairly well though I have also just stuck a pan on top. Preheat the bowl with lid for 10 minutes or so. Plop the dough in there and set it in the oven. No cornmeal or anything. I bake for 30 with lid on and 12-15 with lid off, sometimes even removing from the bowl for that last bit. The casserole dish i had been using was also 1.5 quart but it was shallower so I got a wider lower height loaf. The bowl gives it more room to spring upwards. It also seemd to make the inner dough lighter and moister.
Lately I have been keeping a portion of dough back in the cambro bucket I ferment it in. When I feed it I use the following bakers percentages. 100% flour, 69-75% water (depending on how long I have let the dough go without baking) and 2.2% salt. I find you get much more predictable results weighing and using percentages.
Topic: Bread (Read 4936 times)
