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Gave it a shot today, shat out this monstrosity (with dramatic lighting!): That was my attempt at doing a no-knead bread based on the recipe in the archived thread. I don't have a scale so I had to do it by volume. I used roughly 2 1/4 cups flour to 1 1/2 cups water. Let it sit for 14-15 hours. I still had a goopy mess that was impossible to fold properly at that point, but I rolled with it anyway. It tasted fine, if a bit too salty, but obviously didn't rise enough, and the crumb came out pretty doughy. I may have used 1/8 teaspoon yeast rather than 1/4 which probably didn't help. So I rolled up my sleeves and started kneading a new loaf to give that a shot instead! It came out much nicer:  Complete with bread-vagina:  And crumb shot:  I couldn't tell you how much flour I used because I tried the 3:2 flour:water ratio again, found it too goopy once again, so just started throwing in flour until it was possible to handle/knead without it sticking much. I also used less salt than I had in the no-knead up above, and instead of throwing the active dry yeast into the dry ingredients, I tried my hand at activating it in some warm water with a bit of honey. I doubt it changed much, but this loaf came out pretty, fluffy, and moist as hell, if a bit bland. All-in-all a fun way to spend a day off from work. Definitely going to keep experimenting.
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Jan 17, 2014 03:10
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| # ¿ Apr 23, 2024 19:49 |
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copen posted:This can sit in the fridge for a week covered and can pull dough off. It makes about 3 medium size loves. That sounds neat. I'm not sure I could go through quite that much bread in a week, but maybe if I made it tastier I'd chew through it faster, too! Or toss some at my friends/neighbors. copen posted:What did you bake it on? what temp? did you make steam in the oven? I baked both on a metal cookie sheet for lack of anything better, with a dish of water tucked beside in the hopes it would actually give me proper steam. For the first loaf, I followed the instructions in the archived thread pretty closely and baked it at 450°F for around 20 minutes, then took it off the sheet and left it on the oven rack at 375°F for another 20 minutes. The second loaf I left at 450°F the entire time, baked for maybe 30 minutes on the sheet, took it out to check it, then threw it back in for another 20-30 minutes on the oven rack itself. I probably shouldn't have changed every variable I could if I was going to properly experiment, but I really wanted a swelling loaf to show off at the end of the day. 
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Jan 17, 2014 03:53
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I have a cast iron pan I received for the holidays that is begging to be used. It wouldn't be much different from the metal sheet given it's flat and open (i.e. not a covered pot), but would it make much of a difference if I threw the dough on the preheated iron to bake? Also, at 60%+ hydration, doesn't the dough come out extremely runny and difficult as hell to work with, or am I doing something wrong/not being patient enough? That issue is why I decided to just toss flour at the kneaded loaf until it was workable. It had started as a 3:2 flour:water ratio but I know it probably turned out to be closer to 5:2 once I was done with it.
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Jan 17, 2014 04:14
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Fair enough. I'll probably stick to regular kneaded bread for now while I try to find a method/ratio that works for me, and I'll give the no-knead a try again later down the line. Thanks for the pointers and suggestions!
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Jan 17, 2014 04:32
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I lack a dutch oven at the moment, but I do have a nice cast iron skillet and some oven-safe glass bowls that fit well enough in the skillet when turned upside-down. I've taken to heating the skillet in the oven, throwing some parchment paper on it, then the dough, then covering the dough with the glass bowl to make a makeshift dutch oven. I keep it that way for ten minutes, then remove the bowl for the last 15-25 minutes. This is all done assuming the dutch oven is meant to help keep moisture in for steaming. Is the skillet+glass bowl a good replacement for this? Should I still try to get steam in the oven using water in a pan or something? I have an electric oven and rent my place so I'd prefer not to risk screwing up the coils by spritzing water into oven for steam, or something similar.
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Mar 1, 2014 02:22
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