Wednesday, September 12, 2007

No-knead Bread

I read about this no-knead bread last year and every bloggers seems to be making it. I am not good at making bread so I am not so keen of doing it until I saw the this bread again at Jaden's blog and even her 4 year old son able made this. This bread is so easy to make and I encourage every bread lover to try it out. All you need to do is mixed all the ingredients and let it proof for 15-20 hours and hardly need any work at all. But you do need a heavy cast iron pan with a cover for baking the bread. I used my Le Crueset.

A baker name Jim Lahey, of Sullivan Street Bakery develop this recipe and is in New York time website. The bread is crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. It's the best loaf of bread I've ever made. Is excellent to eat it with salad of just slab some butter on it. I will be making this bread again and this time maybe with different kind of flour, herbs, nuts and dried fruits.

To those who make this bread do let me know how it turn out and the version you use or any kind of modification.

Ingredients :

3 cups of unbleached flour
1/4 tsp of yeast
1 tsp of salt
1 1/2 cup of warm water




After 15 hours it should look like this





1) Mix all the above ingredients in a mixing bowl until it all comes together.
2) It should be wet and messy.
3) Cover with a plastic wrap and let it sit for 12-20 hours on the counter top.
4) The next day the dough will be wet and bubbly. Dump the dough on a floured counter top. Fold the end of the dough a few times with your hand and dust your hand with some flour.





5) Dust a cotton towel generously with some flour. Set the dough seam side down on the towel, cover and let it proof for another 2 hours.
6) When you've got 1/2 an hour left, slip your heavy cast iron pot with cover into the oven and preheat to 450 F.
7) You dough should be double in size. Remove pot from oven and holding the towel, dump the wobbly dough into the pot.
8) Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the temperature in the middle of the loaf is around 210F.
9) Remove and cool on wire-rack.





Note : You might need a little extra of water if the dough is too dry. The dough will be really sticky and wobbly. Don't worried about it. Is supposed to be that way. The orginal recipe call for the dough to be placed on a towel but I find it very sticky. The next time I will use the parchment paper. Please be careful when you remove the hot pan from the oven. Remember the bread don't have to be nice or perfect. It is supposed to be rustic loaf of bread. Resist the temptation of cutting into the bread. It must cool down for at least an hour before cutting into it.

15 comments:

Cat Cat said...

Gert,
Your no knead bread looks so good. Can we use the normal pot instead of the heavy cast iron pot?

ICook4Fun said...

Cat, normal pot might not be able to with stand the intense heat. Do you have any deep heavy pyrex dish?

Jun said...

wah Gert, dah wat roti plak...o ya, my mum always make her own syrup...malay, normally cook this for kenduri..just boil water+sugar(a lot)+ red coloring+daun pandan...cook til thick..but this one no rose flavor ..if u want, replace the pandan leave with a few drops of rose flavor/essence...

Beachlover said...

Gert,I'm sure going to try your recipe.Thanks for sharing.I know where is Suvillan St Bakery but never know such bread exist.Maybe next time you're in NYC ,we should visit WEST 4th St and West Village:).I just bought heavy cast iron but without the lid.Ok.Let me check again in Macy's.

aiyah nonya said...

That is interesting. Sounds easy but I must find a cast iron pot first !

Rita Ho said...

Gert ... I so love "no-knead" and "hardly any work at all" recipes! LOL. Ignorant Q - what is unbleached flour? I also don't have such a deep cast iron pot. Corning ware can??

Lia said...

oh really great idea, sounds easy without kneading, thanks for share, i'd like to try this soon :D

Anonymous said...

dear mdm.wan,

oh my god!!i love your blog so much!! Dahla stumbled upon it on the 1st day of Ramadhan..meleleh air liur ni.

Thank you for sharing all those great recipes. Keep on sharing. :)

ZazaHardy said...

sounds really simple but what's unbleached flour gert? bread looks really good. you can open a bakery lah!!

Zaza

ICook4Fun said...

Jun, I thought to cook ros syrup kena pakai rose petals to masak :)

Beachlover, we should go and visit the bakery the next time we are there in NY.

Nonya, beside cast iron pot you can use any ceramic, pyrex, stainless steel or enamel pot as long as it can take the high heat.

Rita, when you buy flour on the packet they will state 'bleached' or 'unbleached'. Bleached flour has been treated with bleaching chemical 'benzoyl peroxide' to make it look whiter. For all my baking I will usually used 'unbleached' flour.

You can use corning ware as long as you can bake in high temperature with it.

Lia, hope you will try it out. You will love it.

Silentcikenit, thanks for dropping by. Hope to see you often here.

Zaza, here in US we have 'bleached' and 'unbleached' flour. Bleached flour is more for cakes and cookies and 'unbleached' is more for making bread or pastries. You can use bread flour or any high gluten flour for this bread.

Retno Prihadana said...

Wow...15 hours..to wait the dough. But it looks really good.

pearly said...

another gud one you post very gud bread weldone

ICook4Fun said...

Retno, you just mix the dough up and the next day you just have to bake it. Is easy.

Pearly, thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hi!! what do you mean by "fold the end of the dough" sorry for my ignorance but I want to make it and don't know how u do that :)

ICook4Fun said...

Anon, it means tuck in all the edges of the dough underneath. This way you can get a round shape of dough.