Friday, January 3, 2014

no-knead artisan bread

I am beyond excited.

I stumbled upon this recipe a while ago and bookmarked it as something for the LAM to try to make one day. At that time, I wasn't into bread-making, but the idea of a NO-KNEAD bread fascinated me to no end. It all boils down to laziness, I guess.

Can you blame me? Totally zero kneading, and yet the outcome is a loaf of bread that looks like this!


Have I got your attention yet? :)

Let me show you how easy it is to make this bread, using only 4 ingredients. Yes, I kid you not!!

In a bowl, I added flour, salt and instant yeast.




Using a whisk, I mixed the ingredients together.


Then I added water.


And using a whisk, I mixed to form a dough.

Here, I used my Danish dough whisk, but you can use any old whisk to do the job. A Danish dough whisk is great for the mixing of thick batters and yeast doughs.

If you bake often, you would notice that thick batters and yeast doughs cause wooden spoons to get all sticky and stick to the spoons, and that wire whisks tend to get balls of batter trapped inside.This used to drive me absolutely nuts because I would have to spend loads of time digging everything out and start again, only to have to repeat the process.The dough whisk has a long wooden handle mounted with a wire coil which has been cleverly designed to stir and whisk without clogging.

Anyway, if you do not have one of these, just use a wooden spoon or a wire whisk. The end-result will be the same. :)



Once the batter had been mixed (do not over-mix), I covered the bowl with cling film and left it to rise for about 12 hours (or up to 24 hours). The dough should look like this.


I floured my work surface - I used baking paper so I could move the dough easily later - and using a scrapper, I transferred the dough onto the baking paper. This is a VERY sticky dough, so make sure everything is well-floured.

I shaped the dough into a ball. GENTLY.



I covered this with cling film, and pre-heated my casserole in the oven.


After 30 minutes, I carefully placed the bread dough (with the baking paper) into the very hot casserole. Then I covered the casserole tightly, and placed it back into the oven.

Remember, DO NOT grease the pot or the bread!!


If you do not have a casserole, use any pot that has a lid. Just be sure that the pot can withstand high temperatures!!

The bread was baked, covered for 30 minutes.


Then the lid was removed, and it was baked for an additional 15 minutes.


That's it!!


Now anyone can make bread.

There really is no more excuses to buy bread from the stores!

RECIPE
No-Knead Artisan Bread
Adapted from simplysogood

Ingredients:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon instant or rapid rise yeast
1 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups cool tap water

Method:
1. Mix flour, salt and yeast in a bowl. Add water. Mix until combined. Do not over mix.
2. Cover bowl with cling film and let dough rise 12-24 hours.
3. Flour a piece of baking paper. Place dough on paper. Shape and smooth gently with hands. Do not knead. Cover with cling film and let dough rise for another 30 minutes.
4. Pre-heat casserole or any heat-proof pot at 230C for 30 minutes.
5. VERY carefully, place dough in pot. Cover with the lid and bake at 230C for 30 minutes.
6. Remove the lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Check if bread is baked by tapping the bottom of the bread. It should sound hollow.
7. Remove from oven, let the dough cool in the pot for 15-20 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.


14 comments:

  1. Sky blue for my youngest boy this 13 march.

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  2. Best goes with soup n stew :)

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  3. btw where did you get your dough whisk? tks

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  4. Hi there, just how much in grams are 3 cups of flour? I had varied answers online. Thanks for your advise. David

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  5. Hi there....is it ok to let the dough rise in fridge?

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  6. Instead of all purpose flour, is it okay to use high protein (bread flour) or wholemeal flour? If yes, then do you use the same weight i.e. 140g (=1 cup)? Thanks :)

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  7. BTW did the baking paper come off the bread easily? Baking this soon!

    ReplyDelete