The Bread Policy

When we got married and moved to the country, Bob said he wanted only one thing from me.  A real wife, he said, will bake her husband bread every day.

I guess he thought I had more time on my hands than I did.  Maybe between the paper making and rubber tree growing he figured there were a few hours to kill kneading dough.  He damn sure never baked bread before.

And so for the first years of our marriage bearing and rearing children I was a Bread Failure.

And then I found a No Knead recipe.  It wasn’t very good – dense, soggy.  Then I tried another and failed at that one, and pretty soon we had a freezer full of bread-gone-wrong that I might eventually use for crumbs or stuffing.  My husband begged me to stop.  “We can’t afford all this flour!  Why do you keep trying to make bread, you’re terrible at it.”

Then one day it all clicked, and beautiful rustic loaf after loaf came out of the oven.  I could bake blindfolded, drunk, while watching Jersey Shore.  Nothing could get in the way of warm bread, butter, and me.

I was a success.  My husband ran in from the yard that first perfect bread day.  “I thought I smelled bread.  You aren’t cooking bread again are you?”

I was.  And it was fabulous.

That perfect recipe was in fact a no knead recipe.  I have it below, taken from a terrific Italian cooking blog, The Italian Dish, and you can find that here: http://theitaliandishblog.com

The recipe in its entirety, along with my notes, is below:

Notes.

1.  I use more yeast and less salt.  2 TBS of yeast and 1 TBS of salt.
2.  I let the bread rise in the oven with the light on for several hours in a metal bowl covered with plastic wrap loosely.
3.  If you can’t find instant yeast, you can use bread machine yeast.  You can use any yeast really, but the rise time will be affected.
4.  I make the mix at night, sometimes at midnight, and then cook at about 8 am.  I leave it in the oven rising overnight.  Then I divide the dough in half, cook that,  and refrigerate the other half for later in the day (family of 5 – this would last a family of 2 for 2-3 days I should think.)

Here’s how I cook the bread:

I have a covered pot, the Le Creuset type that I use.  I also use a non stick roast pan.  sometimes I preheat the pot, sometimes I don’t.  I always throw a little oil on the bottom.  I heat the oven to about 450.  The dough goes in a slop on the bottom of the pan.  If I want it more “formed,” you can do that too, but in this case it benefits from some refrigeration.  Mostly I just leave it rustic looking.  You can also cook it in a bread pan and it will be more traditionally shaped.

I let the bread cook covered in the pot until it sets up and starts to get a crust on the top.  Then I uncover it and let it brown.  I don’t know if the covering is necessary, but it’s how I do it.  I have also thrown the water in like the site says, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.  The whole shebang takes 20, maybe 30 minutes.  I never leave it unchecked for more than 15 minutes.

~~ This bread turns out even better if you refrigerate it after rising for at least 24 hours ~~
The air holes are more even, and it’s softer in texture.

When I refrigerate the bread, I’ll divide it in half or thirds, and make it longish, like a French loaf.  I wrap it like a sausage in saran wrap, and pop it into the fridge.  It will slowly continue to rise against the saran wrap.  when I’m ready to cook, sometimes what I do is heat a pan (I use slate) at about 500 degrees, then put the dough on the pan.  I slice 3 slits in the top and cook it for, oh, 20 minutes or so (30 seems to be fine).

A hot oven is important, and I’m beginning to really see the merits of the latter method.  The dough rises very quickly with all that bottom heat from the hot pan and is less dense.

If you’ve ever made bread, you also know that it isn’t like following the recipe for brownies or a cake.  It’s like a marriage or friendship.  You have to get comfortable with one another, figure out where it likes to rise, what pot it likes, how it sounds when you thwack it on the crust when it’s done.  You’ll waste some flour and some yeast, but keep at it.  Eventually it clicks and you sink into each other and make Your Bread.

The Recipe:

3 cups lukewarm water
1-1/2 tablespoons granulated fast acting yeast (2 packets)
1-1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6-1/2 cups unsifted, unbleached all purpose white flour *

The below instructions are, in their entirety, from the Italian dish Blog at http://theitaliandishblog.com/imported-20090913150324/2010/2/26/amazing-artisan-bread-for-40-cents-a-loaf-no-kneading-no-fus.html
1.  Warm the water slightly. It should feel just a little warmer than body temperature, about 100 degrees F. Warm water will rise the dough to the right point for storage in about 2 hours.

2.  Add yeast and salt to the water in a 5 quart bowl or a plastic container with a lid.

(Note: I dump all this in my KitchenAid mixer, let it mix it for just about 10 seconds and then put it in the plastic container.  I just find it easier to let the mixer do this part).

3.  Mix in the flour – kneading is unnecessary.  Add all of the flour at once, measuring the flour by scooping it and leveling it off with a knife.  Mix with a wooden spoon – do not knead.  You’re finished when everything is uniformly moist, without dry patches.  This step is done in a matter of minutes.  The dough should be wet and loose.

4.  Allow to rise. Cover with a lid (not airtight).  Lidded plastic buckets designed for dough storage can be purchased many places.  (I used a plastic square food storage container at my local grocery store.  I just punctured a small hole in the top).  You want the gases to be able to escape a little.  You can also do this in a large bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and puncture a small hole in the top. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flattens on top), about two hours. Longer rising times will not hurt your dough.  You can use a portion of the dough any time after this period. Fully refrigerated wet dough is less sticky and is easier to work with than dough at room temperature.  So, the first time you try this method, it’s best to refrigerate the dough overnight (or at least 3 hours) before shaping a loaf.

Baking

5. Shape your loaf. Place a piece of baking parchment paper on a pizza peel (don’t have a pizza peel – use an unrimmed baking sheet or turn a rimmed baking sheet upside down).   Sprinkle the surface of your dough in the container with flour.  Pull up and cut off about a 1-pound piece of dough (about the size of a grapefruit), using scissors or a serrated knife.  Gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball as you go.  Dust your hands with flour if you need to.  This is just to prevent sticking – you don’t want to incorporate the flour into the dough.  The top of the dough should be smooth – the object here is to create a “gluten cloak” or “surface tension”.  It doesn’t matter what the bottom looks like, but you need to have a smooth, tight top.  This whole step should take about 30 seconds!  Place the dough onto your parchment paper.

6. Let the loaf rise for about 30 – 40 minutes (it does not need to be covered).  If it doesn’t look like it has risen much, don’t worry – it will in the oven.  This is called “oven spring”.

7.  Preheat a baking stone on the middle rack in the oven for at least 20 minutes at 450 degrees F.  Place an empty rimmed baking pan or broiler pan on a rack below the baking stone.  This pan is for holding water for steam in the baking step.  (If you don’t have a baking stone, you can use a baking sheet, but you will not get the crisp crust on the bottom.  You will still have a great loaf of bread.  Baking stones are cheap and easy to find – Target carries them – and are a must for making pizzas, so go out and get one as soon as you can.)

8. Dust the loaf with a little flour and slash the top with a knife.  This slashing is necessary to release some of the trapped gas, which can deform your bread.  It also makes the top of your bread look pretty – you can slash the bread in a tic tac toe pattern, a cross, or just parallel slashes.  You need a very sharp knife or a razor blade – you don’t want the blade to drag across the dough and pull it.  As the bread bakes, this area opens and is known as “the bloom”.  Remember to score the loaves right before baking.

9. Bake. Set a cup of water next to your oven.  Slide the bread (including the parchment paper) right onto the hot baking stone.  Quickly pour the water right into the pan underneath the baking stone and close the oven door.  This creates the necessary steam  to make a nice crisp crust on the bread.  Bake at 450 F for about 25 – 30 minutes.  When you remove the loaf from the oven, you will hear it crackle for a while.  In baking terms, this is called “sing” and it is exactly what you want.

10.  Cool. Allow the bread to cool for the best flavor and texture.  It’s tempting to eat it when it’s warm, and that’s fine, but the texture is better after the bread has cooled.

11.  Store the remaining dough in the refrigerator in your lidded (not airtight) container and use for up to 14 days. Every day your bread will improve in flavor.  Cut off and shape more loaves as you need them.  When your dough is gone, don’t clean the container.  Go ahead and mix another batch – the remaining bits of dough will contribute flavor to the next batch, much like a sourdough starter does!

* tip:  If you are using King Arthur All Purpose Flour, I would use slightly less water (about 1/4 cup) than the recipe calls for.  King Arthur AP Flour is higher protein flour than regular AP Flour, like Gold Medal or Pillsbury.