The concept of no-knead bread is influential and revolutionary. J. Kenji López-Alt at the New York Times recently revisits this popular recipe on Wednesday, May 5th. It’s worth a read. It summarizes everything you need to know about no-knead bread. Armed with an unique approach, home bakers everywhere can produce artisan loaves with ease. No prior baking experience may be necessary. By any measures, it’s democratizing bread-baking. Moreover, as an experienced baker, I’ve found the no-knead bread recipe to be indispensable in our repertoire.
It doesn’t matter where you are, or what baking equipments you have on hand. As long as you have access to an oven, and perhaps, a Dutch oven, you’re in business. With just one bowl and a few essential ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water, you can make the bread you see here.
I am intent on not using my usual baking tools and equipments. Imagine you’re quarantined in a distant location. Or try going back in times for a few centuries. You are provided with just the basics. No electric mixer, no plastic rising bucket, no bench scraper, no proofing bannetons, no bread lame or serrated knife, no instant-read thermometer. It’s liberating you can make bread just using a glass bowl and two kitchen towels. Of course, assuming you get the bread ingredients which are the essential building blocks.
Here, I set out to demonstrate that the no-knead striped-down version of bread-baking is very doable.
It’s a breath of fresh air to reimagine that the no-knead and minimalist method to bread baking is so accessible. I’ve concluded that anyone, anywhere, can do this. It makes me think seriously how I can streamline my breadmaking process — meanwhile no compromising in the results of an airy finished loaf with crackling crust and custard crumb.
In the end, one guiding principle in breadmaking stands out to me. Allow the bread ingredients the benefit of time (24 hours, more or less) to work its magic. This recipe involves minimal handling: just mix the ingredients, and leave it alone overnight. No folding, but some shaping on the next day. It’s as straightforward as any. Everything will fall in place; no fancy equipments required. This is how the process progresses:
- Rest the dough ingredients mix at room temperature for at least 12 hours. The schedule of mixing the flour, salt, yeast and water all together before I go to bed works for me. I let the dough ferment overnight. No folding in the interim. Really!
- Preshape the bubbly dough, let it rest for 15 minutes. Then stretch and shape the dough into a loose ball. Excessive handling is not recommended: 15 to 30 seconds of shaping is a reasonable amount. Proof the dough in a bowl covering with floured kitchen towels top and bottom, seam-side down for about two hours.
- Turn the dough over. Drop it into a reheated Dutch oven with the seam-side up. No slashing at this point. Finally, bake it in the Dutch oven at 460°F for about 40 minutes.
One big takeaway from Covid: we need a pared-down alternative in every aspect of our life. Breadmaking included.
No-Knead Bread — NY Times Classic Recipe from Jim Lahey, Adapted by Mark Bittman
Ingredients
- 3 ⅓ cups/430 grams all-purpose or bread flour, plus more for dusting
- Generous 1/4 teaspoon/1 gram instant yeast
- 2 teaspoons/8 grams kosher salt
- Cornmeal or wheat bran, as needed
Instructions
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups/345 grams 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.
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 about 15 minutes.
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.
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. When 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 OK. 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 a rack.
Notes
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-bread
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