So I've posted a few bread recipes
here, but this post is more about my technique, since I've gotten it down to
enough of a science that it makes less mess than most bread recipes, and the
results are always really good.
I personally do not find
"no-knead" recipes to be any less work than "kneaded"
recipes - you usually have some step that involves scattering corn meal across
half the kitchen, and dish clothes covered in bits of dough. This recipe requires
very little kneading, but a lot of time (really, benevolent neglect). However,
if you're gonna be home anyway, it doesn't require much effort, so I often make
this on a Saturday while grading. I got the basic idea for this approach from a
couple books on bread baking. The main thing is that everyone seems to agree
that a wetter dough tastes better, has a nicer crumb, etc in the end, and so my
approach aims to make a wet bread dough with almost no interaction with it
using my hands, and to minimize the amount of counter space that gets covered
with flour.
Here's the basic recipe I use to
make a really nice, hearty sandwich bread, but hold in mind I mostly eyeball
these quantities. This makes 2 two-pound loaves of sandwich bread.
Ingredients:
4 cups white flour
3 cups wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
(I also add some flax meal)
1.5 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp molasses
3.5-4.5 cups warm water (approx.)
2 Tbsp oil
2-3 Tbsp salt
2 big bowls
1 strong spatula
More oil for greasing things.
Step 1: Mix
First mix the dry ingredients. If
you're worried about the viability of your yeast, proof it with 2 c. water and
the molasses. Start by mixing in ca. 3 cups of the wet ingredients (incl. oil)
with the dry using a strong, preferably silicone, spatula, stirring really well
or else you'll get dry chunks in your final bread.The dough should still be a
bit dry at that point - keep adding water until the dough is pretty moist, much
wetter than you'd normally let the bread get if you were going to mix it with
your hands - it will get drier. Do not add salt at this point. I've
tried to take a picture of that here to give you a sense of how wet I normally
make it:
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| Moist |
Step 2: "Autolyse"
In theory, 'autolyse' is letting the
flour sit mixed just with water, so enzymes start to break things down. In
practice, the internets seems to suggest that it works just fine if you mix
everything except the salt, and then let the bread sit. Supposedly in blind
taste tests, this improves the flavor of the bread, but most importantly for
me, the dough absorbs the excess moisture, AND it basically gains the
cohesiveness you'd otherwise get from kneading.
So after mixing the bread, go do
something else for 20 minutes. Eat breakfast, whatever.
Step 3: "Kneading"
Once 20 minutes have passed,
sprinkle the salt across the dough and mix it in using just the spatula. I
normally leave the salt container next to the bread during the autolyse phase
to keep myself from forgetting to add it. To mix, I use a sort of 'folding'
motion, and normally it doesn't take more than about a couple minutes before
the dough is really pretty cohesive and holds together.
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| Can we really be kneaded enough? |
Once the bread is decently cohesive,
grease up another bowl and move the bread into that bowl, trying to get as much
of the dough out of the first mixing bowl as possible. Cover with a wet cloth
or a greased piece of saran wrap, or if your wife is awesome and got you a
giant tupperware, use that. Soak the used mixing bowl in cold water, since hot
makes the dough stickier. Use the spatula to clean it as much as possible -
avoid dish sponges for cleaning, since the dough can get stuck in them,
especially the scratchy side.
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| Giant tupperware! |
Step 4: Fogeddaboutit
In the books on breadmaking that I
read, when talking about whole wheat breads, they say that instead of worrying
about getting the dough really kneaded at first, they just let the rising
develop the gluten connections in the bread. So I've taken that to heart, and
it works just fine. Let the bread rise as many times as you want until you get
around to baking it. When it rises about double its volume, smack it around a
bit with a spatula, and then go about your business until it rises again. I
usually end up letting it rise 3 times or so. I haven't tried letting it rise
only once, cause the whole idea of this setup is benevolent neglect - it's not
for if you're in a hurry.
Step 5: Shape and bake
This last step is the only one that
requires getting flour over everything. If you're REALLY slick, you could avoid
that too, but it's more pain than it's worth I find.
Get a 1/2 cup of white flour in a
measuring cup. Use the spatula to knead the dough a bit and remove some air
bubbles. If you're going for sandwich bread, getting those air bubbles out is
important, but if you are going for a more 'rustic' style you can leave more in
there.
Grease/corn meal/etc whatever thing
you're going to put the shaped loaves into. I use two metal loaf pans, so I
grease them.
Put a bit of flour on the
countertop, flip the dough onto the counter, add more flour on top. Knead
briefly to reduce air bubbles. I then cut the bread in half using a sharp
knife, and shape it into two loaves, adding flour as necessary. I find that
it's best to scrape up excess flour with the spatula before wiping up with
water.
At this point, I set the oven to
preheat to 425. Our oven takes almost exactly as long to preheat as it takes
for the shaped loaves to approx. double in size, so as soon as the oven dings I
put them in - if your oven is faster, wait till the loaves are about doubled in
size, preferably a little less. I bake them about 30-40 minutes, or until
tapping on the loaves gives a very hollow sound.
I cool the bread on a rack, and once
it's sufficiently cool I usually freeze one of the loaves in a plastic bag.
This way, I only really do this once every 2-3 weeks.
This recipe always turns out well,
and I think it's a bit easier than the standard 'flour a counter and knead'
recipe that you often find. I also find this recipe less work than 'no-knead'
recipes.
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| Final product |
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