Basic Bread (no-knead)

This is one of those "no-knead, easy, 5 minutes a day" bread recipes that I've always been dubious about...I tried a recipe from Mother Earth News this week and LOVE it. Be aware, this produces a very crusty-crusted loaf excellent for dipping in soups, or even for making bread boules to hold dip, soup or stew. If you want a softer crust, try the basic bread recipe.

This recipe produces about 4 1lb loaves. You can gauge your usage visually as you use the dough.

INGREDIENTS:
7 1/2 c. all purpose flour*
1 1/2 tbsp (2 packets) granulated yeast
1 tbsp salt (or to taste)
4 c. lukewarm water (about 100 F) **
cornmeal

MATERIALS:
baking stone
roasting pan
tub for in the fridge, at least the size of a large shoebox
pizza peel, cutting board or sheet pan to slide dough into oven
Serrated knife
FRIDGE SPACE!!!

Mixing and Storing the Dough

1. Measure the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, and salt) into a resealable, lidded (not airtight) plastic food container or food grade bucket.

2. Mix water into dry ingredients, do not knead, using a spoon, food processor, or stand mixer. You may need to use your hands to get the dough uniformly moist without any dry patches. The dough should be moist and loose enough to conform to the shape of the container.

3. Cover with a lid (not airtight) or loosely with plastic wrap. Allow mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse (or at least flatten on top), approximately 2 hours. Longer rising times -- even overnight -- will not change the result.

Do not punch down dough. Ever.

4. Refrigerate risen dough for at least 3 hours (overnight is better). The longer it rests in the fridge, the deeper the flavor will be (think sourdough). The dough will sink onto itself and will not rise again in the container.

On Baking Day

1. Prepare a pizza peel, cutting board or back of a sheet pan to hold the dough while rising and slide it easily into the oven. To do so, sprinkle it liberally with cornmeal to keep the loaf from sticking.

2. Dust the surface of your dough with flour and pull up then cut off (using a serrated knife or scissors) a grapefruit-sided piece of dough.

3. Hold the mass of dough in your flour-coated hands and gently stretch the surface of the dough around the the bottom on all four sides, rotating a quarter-turn as you go to form a ball. The correctly shaped loaf will be smooth and cohesive on top, it's OK for the bottom to be ugly, that'll fix itself. This step should take no more than 20-40 seconds or your loaf will get dense.

4. Shape your loaf: leave it a round boule, make it narrow and oval shaped by stretching gently to elongate and rolling ends to taper them, poke a hole in the middle and stretch for a large circular loaf...be creative but handle the dough quickly and with a minimal of air-bubble breakage.

5. Place the loaf on the cornmeal coating, close to the edge for easy sliding (it won't rise a ton during resting, but leave at least an inch of space to the edge of the surface). Allow it to rest covered loosely with an inverted bowl or other draft-blocking jobbie for 90 minutes.

6. 30 minutes before baking, place a baking stone on a rack in the middle of the oven, and a empty broiler tray or other heavy baking dish anywhere in the oven where it won't impede the rising bread. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

7. Just before baking, slash the loaf with quarter-inch-deep parallel cuts across the top, using a serrated knife. (if desired, before cutting the loaf can be "painted" with water and sprinkled with seeds, nuts, or other toppings).

8. After a 30-minute preheat, you're ready to bake. Quickly slide the loaf off the resting surface and onto the hot stone. Quickly and carefully pour about a cup of HOT water into the broiler pan and close the oven door to trap the steam. Be prepared to move quickly, because you want that accumulated heat to stay in the oven.

9. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is richly browned and firm to the touch (smaller or larger loaves will require adjustment in resting and baking time).

10. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool completely, preferable on a wire cooking rack. The crust may "sing" (crackle) when exposed to air, and will initially soften, but will harden again when cool.

Additional dough can be stored in the oven and used over the next couple of weeks. You'll find that teven one days storage improves the flavor and texture of your bread. When your bucket is empty, don't wash it! Instead, mix another batch in the same container to get a head start on the sourdough flavor. Alternatively, incorporate up to 2c. of your old dough.


*or 4 c. whole wheat and 3 1/2 c. high gluten; or 5 1/2 ww + 2 c. ap + 1/4 c. vital wheat gluten
** you can add herbs & other ingredients to the water for flavored breads


Recipe from "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" by, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Visit www.healthybreadinfive.com for more ideas.