April 6, 2007 - 9:51am
No Knead Bread
Where can I find this recipe?
I have seen a number of amazing photos and comments of how great the bread is. I would like to try it.
If someone can point me in the right direct to the recipe I would greatly appreciate it. And any tips from any experience with the recipe also.
Thanks!
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Here's a link to a very long thread from November about the famed article on no-knead bread from the NYT. The original recipe is for yeasted bread, but a lot of folks have also converted to sourdough. Here's how I do mine. Sorry for the metric weights, but I rarely use cups anymore, and, if I tried to do the conversion on the fly, would just screw it up:
The procedure is the largely the same as the original recipe, with just a few changes. I let it ferment for 12 hours and then give it a full stretch and fold. I let it rest 15 minutes, covered, and then shape it into a boule. I then let it rise for about 2.5 to 3 hours at roughly 85 degrees F (I've got a makeshift proofbox made of a picnic cooler, boiling water and a thermometer with a long cord). A nice slashing on top and then into a hot cloche at 500 degrees F, though a big casserole or dutch oven will do just fine.
Good luck with it!
JMonkey, now I am totally confused - in your directions you don't mention the overnight in the refrigerator much less the three stretch and folds. The ingredients are the same, so it started out as your recipe. Whatever, it made great bread and that is what counts. Forgot to ask how you are liking Corvallis? Saw it mentioned as the most secure small town in a survey done recently. Hope you all enjoy the holidays there, A.
I'm not sure where the fridge came in, but I actually do things a little differently these days. I've found that 50 grams of starter to 500 grams of flour is just fine, with anywhere from 325 to 375 grams of water and 10g flour. I do the stretch and fold thing, and then let it sit for about 12 hours total before shaping.
Corvallis is great, though a bit wet these days. It started raining Saturday morning, and isn't due to stop until sometime tomorrow night ....
Annie, you were operating from my version of JMonkey's recipe. We're all notorious tweakers around here, haven't you noticed? I like most of my breads proofed overnight in the fridge.
Thanks for the update, JMonkey.
Susan from San Diego
Susan, you might have noticed that it doesn't take a whole lot to confuse me! Thank you for explaining the discrepancy. I love the little blisters on the crust which I seem to remember are caused by the overnight chilling? So far the extent of my tweaking consists of substituting some white ww flour here and there. No doubt I will learn from the masters, A.
Good morning Susan. I had another thought about the bread - is there any reason why it couldn't be baked on the stone under the ss mixing bowl? Maybe I will try it that way. I am itching to bake but really have to work on the quilts and I have lots of bread in the freezer so can't use that excuse. Hope the S.D. get together goes well, A.
After all, JMonkey says to use a cloche, and that's basically the same thing. Remember that slack dough needs to go very quickly from proofing to slashing to oven. If you are proofing in the fridge, maybe even bake from cold dough. Anything to keep it from spreading out. Hope I haven't confused you. Just holler if I have.
Susan from San Diego
I've used a cloche, though I imagine the bread would turn out fine no matter how you cooked it: on a stone with steam, on a stone with no steam, no pre-heat on a sheet pan, etc.
Susan, I thought that the loaf using your method was less likely to spread since the extra folds gave it more strength, if that makes sense. It certainly rose in the banneton more than the other loaf I like so much. That one always looks so small in stature and it is always a big thrill to see how much it expands. Silly of me to forget that Eric of Breadtopia uses the cloche. So you think baking from cold would work? I'll give it a whirl, A.
Okay, Annie, you've finally gone and done it! Now I'M confused. Hehehehehe!
Sure you make sense. Try it from cold and see how you like it. Every change I make results in a slightly different ending. BTW, I like the little surface bubbles, too!
And I forgot to thank you for your good wishes for Saturday. Now they're calling for rain this weekend. (Don't tell anybody else about the rain, 'cause it doesn't rain in Southern California.)
Whirl away, Annie.
Susan from San Diego
JMonkey, I wonder whether reducing the amount of starter would work using Susan's version? I really like the convenience of the overnight chill and I was mightily impressed by the results. For some reason I thought my starter would fade out after such a long time. I suppose the only way to be sure is try again - goody, more baking! Don't worry, you will grow webbed feet. If I still lived in Leaburg I would be anxiously watching the McKenzie River and hoping it wouldn't reach my deck. Quite an awesome sight, the river in full spate. When my grandaughters were around Iris' age we used to play "spot the alligator". Now they would roll their eyes and tell me they are logs. A.
OK, I have to admit I've converted. A longtime sourdough home baker, I was skeptical of this no-knead craze. But I've been doing it for a few months now and the only drawback is that it makes only one loaf at a time (I used to make two and slice-and-freeze one). Of course I could double the recipe. But it's easier to make, so now I just make it twice as often and don't freeze any. No knead, no preheat, no oven-spray, no slash!
I use:
2 cups unbleached bread flour
1 cup mixed whole-grain flours (whole wheat, rye, barley, whatever you like)
2-1/2 tsp salt (yes, I thought it was excessive when I read that number in The Oregonian's no-knead article but it works great)
Mix those dry ingredients, then mix in
1/3 cup (recently recharged) liquid sourdough starter with enough water added to total 1-1/2 cups liquid.
Stir it up well, cover with plastic wrap, wrap bowl with blanket, leave about 15-20 hours, until risen and bubbly. Take it out and fold it over a few times (on well-floured or nonstick surface, with floured hands), cover with wrap, let sit 15 min, shape into ball, cover well with coarse cornmeal, wrap in towel, let it about 3-6 hours, until risen. Flop into cast-iron dutch oven, cover with lid, place into cold oven, turn oven on to 450. Bake 45 min covered, then remove lid and bake another half hour or so, until browned and hollow-sounding when tapped top and bottom. Let cool and eat.
I have been successfully baking the no-knead bread for a while now, and love it. I bake it at least once a week. But, this is the first time I have heard anything about doing this recipe without preheating!!! I thought THAT was part of what created the incredible crust. Is it really not necessary to preheat? Does not preheating change the result at all? If not, I am really anxious to try it this way. bjames
Hey, bjames, the no-preheat concept got a pretty thorough hashing out a while back. My kid's not around so I can't do the magic link posting thing, but if you search 'unheated oven' you'll find it.
I am going to try this next week with my soudough starter and in a cast iron dutch oven that I have.
Bluesbread - how would you describe a 'liquid' starter??
My starter is about the consistency of thin pancake batter (and in fact you can make excellent pancakes with it). The day before making bread, I take the starter out of the fridge, let it warm up to room temp, add flour and water to about double it, stir, let it sit overnight. I used to have to double it a few times but this new method uses much less starter (I used to use two cups), so now I can just double it once and then take out enough (1/3 cup) to bake with.
thanks for the reference to the folding link.
I am so itching to get back in my kitchen I can't stand it :-)
ahhh..a couple more days of work and then I am home free to bake!
I have the NY Times recipe, plus the commentaries by food writer Mark Bittman, in a file in Adobe Acrobat Reader format - you're welcome to view and/or download it from this link
http://home.earthlink.net/~myjunketc/no-kneadBread-Complete.pdf
It also has the original NY Times photos.
As others mentioned, many people reduced the water to 1-1/2 cups (from 1-5/8 cups) and increased the salt to at least 1-1/2 tsp (from 1-1/4 tsp).
thanks for the link. I just downloaded it and I'm looking forward to trying it.
hi tigressbakes,
This forum has an excellent discussion of the NYT no-knead recipe.
In addition, you may be interested in some posts I made to another forum after making the recipe about 5 times. The posts closely follow the original NY Times recipe; they include photos from my own efforts plus links to early blog posts. Hope you find them helpful.
resolving the "how much water should I use" question
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/358926-post73.html
Part I: on Equipment and Ingredients
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/360518-post76.html
Part II: Step By Step Instructions With Photos
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/361341-post79.html
Part III: More Links With Photos
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/361493-post80.html
First of all let me say that I tried to rate your post a 5 but for some reason it won't let me go higher than 2 - sorry about that. (Floydm do you know what the problem is? I think someone else had the problem in another thread also, I am on Firefox).
Great discussion and instructions! I also wanted to say that your simple explanation of figuring out the hydration % has helped it make sense to me for the first time! I am one of those people who's forte is art not science! The mere mention of Baker's Math makes me sweat. I've read and reread the explanations in both Reinharts BBA and Hamelmans' Bread and everytime I swear my head spins. But at least with your exlanation i now understand how to figure out the hydration %!
thanks!
Well, it seems like I am destined to stay away from my kitchen even longer than I first thought - I am stuck in NYC with a stomach virus and can't get up to the Berkshires until I get better :-(
Oh well. As soon as I can, I will try this bread.
finally got around to trying the original no-knead NYTimes recipe today, here in Japan, afer months of reading aobut it--and even with borrowed equipment and an oven with only vague connection between actual heat and the setting, it worked brilliantly. Inspired by your posts, I'll try again with my sourdough starter and various baking pots--used our son-in-law's roemertopfer clay pot here, which worked well, but want to see what kind of results I'll get with cast iron, and enameled iron as variations.
Alan
I saw this discussion, and in case it helps, I worked on an SD no-knead conversion recipe with Kippercat a few weeks ago and wrote a blog entry. I didn't do it no-preheat, but I'm sure you could use some of the hints above to do it that way.
Bill
http://www.heartofwisdom.com/heartathome/2009/10/09/healthy-bread-in-five-minutes-a-day-master-recipe/
I made my first no knead loaves with this. I'd sub some of the flour for whole wheat if you like a more healthy loaf, or all of it. :)