It's cold, snowy, and soooo ... time for a bread experiment, right? I've been hearing and reading a lot about "no knead bread" lately (and, I'll admit, shuddering a little every time I do). Recently, "My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method" (shudder) went on sale for a couple of bucks for the Kindle version so I bought it ... sort of a "keep your friends close and your enemies closer" thing, I guess.
The first thing I discovered is that the author (and the most recent "father" of no-knead bread) isn't just suffering from laziness. He's been studying bread making methods of Ancient Rome, Pompeii, etc., for a while now and has concluded that, back before there were "bakers", people just mixed flour, water, salt (probably together as sea water), and whatever they used as yeast together ... plopped it in a container so it could ferment for a day or so, then cooked it in an enclosed pot inside a larger oven. Thus, "no-knead" (they'd never thunk of such a thing back then) bread was born.
Skip to Thanksgiving weekend 2023 and, having no desire to venture outside, I thought I'd give Lahey's Basic No-Knead Bread technique a try.
I have to say that I'm not unimpressed.
I mixed a total of 700 g of flour, water, salt, and yeast together and let it do its thing at room temperature for 18 hours. Sorry that I didn't snap a "before" pic ... but it ultimately expanded to four times its original volume:
After a second 90 minute rise/proof (things rise faster at higher altitudes), the goopy 82% hydration mess was coaxed into the lid of an inverted 5-qt Lodge DO, then baked at 475º F covered for 30 minutes before being uncovered and baked nekked for another 20 minutes:
Ultimately, I didn't let it brown as much as Lahey seems to like (a.k.a. blackened in my book) and it popped out looking pretty OK:
My conclusions:
All-in-all, I'm forced to admit that the "no-knead movement" isn't totally nuts. Personally, I'm unlikely to give up on my slightly more modern (by a few thousand years 🥸) approach to baking bread ... but this was a pretty darn pleasant surprise (made even better by copious amounts of butter for taste-testing).
The first thing I discovered is that the author (and the most recent "father" of no-knead bread) isn't just suffering from laziness. He's been studying bread making methods of Ancient Rome, Pompeii, etc., for a while now and has concluded that, back before there were "bakers", people just mixed flour, water, salt (probably together as sea water), and whatever they used as yeast together ... plopped it in a container so it could ferment for a day or so, then cooked it in an enclosed pot inside a larger oven. Thus, "no-knead" (they'd never thunk of such a thing back then) bread was born.
Skip to Thanksgiving weekend 2023 and, having no desire to venture outside, I thought I'd give Lahey's Basic No-Knead Bread technique a try.
I have to say that I'm not unimpressed.
I mixed a total of 700 g of flour, water, salt, and yeast together and let it do its thing at room temperature for 18 hours. Sorry that I didn't snap a "before" pic ... but it ultimately expanded to four times its original volume:
After a second 90 minute rise/proof (things rise faster at higher altitudes), the goopy 82% hydration mess was coaxed into the lid of an inverted 5-qt Lodge DO, then baked at 475º F covered for 30 minutes before being uncovered and baked nekked for another 20 minutes:
Ultimately, I didn't let it brown as much as Lahey seems to like (a.k.a. blackened in my book) and it popped out looking pretty OK:
My conclusions:
- It was a smaller than usual loaf. There wasn't enough of it to "crawl" up the sides of the DO while covered.
- Oven spring was therefore a bit minimal (but consistent with pics I've seen online and in Lahey's book).
- The crumb was really nice. Tender, sweet, and with none of those ugly "mouse holes" that just really tend to bug me.
- The crust was equal parts crunchy and chewy.
All-in-all, I'm forced to admit that the "no-knead movement" isn't totally nuts. Personally, I'm unlikely to give up on my slightly more modern (by a few thousand years 🥸) approach to baking bread ... but this was a pretty darn pleasant surprise (made even better by copious amounts of butter for taste-testing).
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