No-Knead Bread
No-Knead Bread (from NY Times, Nov 8 2006, Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery)
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1⁄4 tsp instant yeast
11⁄4 tsp salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed (optional)
1) In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups 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 hours, at warm room temp, about 70 ̊F.
2) Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly four 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 min.
3) 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.
4) At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat over to 450 ̊F. 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 O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 min, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 min, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 11⁄2-pound loaf.
Ideas for fine tuning:
Weight vs Volume: The original recipe contained volume measures, but for those who prefer to use weight, here are the measurements: 430 grams of flour, 345 grams of water, 1 gram of yeast and 8 grams of salt. With experience, many people will stop measuring altogether and add just enough water to make the dough almost too wet to handle.
Salt: You can use more salt and it won’t significantly affect the rising time. (Just under a tablespoon?)
Yeast: Instant yeast, called for in the recipe, is also called rapid-rise yeast. But you can use whatever yeast you like. Active dry yeast can be used without proofing (soaking it to make sure it’s active).
Timing: About 18 hours is the preferred initial rising time. Some readers have cut this to as little as eight hours and reported little difference. Also, can go nearly 24 hours without a problem. Temp of the room will affect the rising time, and so will temperature of the water you add (start with tepid?). But any temp is fine as long as you wait until you see bubbles and well-developed gluten (long strands cling to sides of bowl when you tilt it).
The 2nd Rise: Mr. Lahey originally suggested one to two hours, but two or three is better. However, it can also be skipped altogether.
Other Flours: Up to 30% whole-grain flour works consistently well, and 50% whole- wheat is also excellent. At least one reader used 100% whole-wheat and reported “great crust but inferior crumb.” Rye (difficult to get to rise) is best at <20%.
Flavorings: The best time to add caraway seeds, chopped olives, onions, cheese, walnuts, raisins, or whatever is after you’ve mixed the dough. Or you can added before the 2nd rising.
Shapes: Baguettes in fish steamers, rolls in muffin tins, or classic loaves in loaf pans: it will work.
Covering between rises: A Silpat mat under the dough is a clever idea. Plastic wrap can be used as a top layer in place of a second towel.
The Pot: The size matters, but not much. About 3-4 quarts is ideal (?)␣produces a higher loaf, which many people prefer. (especially cast iron but other materials are good.)
Baking: You can increase the initial temp to 500 degrees for more rapid browning, but be careful. You can also reduce the length of time covered to 20 min, and then increase uncovered baking an additional +30 minutes.
