Well, ok, no you probably didn't. I first read about the No-Knead Bread recipe somewhere on the web a couple weeks ago while researching making bread the "real way" - with lots of kneading etc. I paid no attention to it.
Then today I saw FarmGirl had recently posted about the No-Knead Bread dough and how much she loved it. FarmGirl is, among other things, a Kitchen Goddess - if she says it's gonna be good, it's gonna be good. You trust her.
And she had links! Other blogs were also chattering about the amazing No-Knead Bread recipe...plenty of them! So I traced them back to their origin, which was adapted by Mark Bittman and came from the NY Times nearly two months ago I believe. Only problem? You have to register and PAY for the recipe now!! It's only $4.95, but hello - it's a recipe! I believe in copyright protection (and sometime I believe in copyright breaking!), but it's a recipe - this is the kind of thing to pass on from one friend to the next, you give it to your children - recipes live on throughout familial generations. You shouldn't have to pay to access one recipe online when everyone's making and raving about it. Publish it in a book if you really want to make money for it, and people will buy your collection of recipes. 'Sides, if someone posts their TWEAKED verison of the recipe, is it still the recipe that is being charged for?
Anyhow - off my soapbox now! - I figured I had to try this. Nice thing is it has a resting/rising period of 12-18 hours in a 70F home. Brett keeps us chillier than this - so it'll have a slightly longer period - when I get home from work and the gym tomorrow - perfect!
They weren't kidding in the recipe - it IS a shaggy dough (see pictures below). I tampered with it some (as many have), going with roughly 1/2 cup AP flour, 1 1/2 cups bread flour, and 1 cup whole wheat flour. I'm wondering if I should've added some sugar to it? Hm. Well, we'll see how it is the first time. Oh, and I dumped in a couple palm-fulls of flax seed (and they were in the freezer - that'll slow it down a little more)....which I recently bought to start adding to homemade bread doughs to drastically improve our health! ;-)
And then I tampered a bit more - nervous about how wet it was (it was "flowy", not "shaggy"), I DID add just a small handful more of AP flour. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow...I DO understand that more artistan (and rustic looking) breads start with VERY moist doughs (thanks to one of my Christmas presents from Brett!), so I'm still leaving it real wet (again, see pics below).
I'll report back after making and baking the stuff - we'll see how it turns out. For one thing, I'm not expecting a very tall/round loaf, but instead a more flat one - it's not a huge amount of dough, and I have the larger dutch oven....so it's not going to get too much "crawl" up the sides. Cross your fingers for me (and my wet dough!).
5 comments:
I'm really curious about this. I know that a long slow rise can be beneficial, but doesn't the kneading develop the highly-desirable glutens for the bread?
Well aren't you just too sweet. : )
As far as the recipe, I had no idea about the fee thing. Before I put up my post the other day I was able to access the original NY Times article (I think from the link on Becks & Posh) just by signing in (I registered a few months ago--it's free). I'll have to check again now.
I assume you found the original recipe somewhere, but just in case, I know there was a post about it by Nicole (of Bakingsheet fame) on http://slashfood.com and the complete recipe was left in the comments section.
Curious as to how your bread came out. Happy New Year to you both!
P.S. Peter--the long, slow rise develops the glutens, too. : )
I'm baaack. Okay, I just successfully got to the original article again by using this link.
I did have to sign in first but then it popped right up. Btw, there's now a link to your post on Becks & Posh. : )
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