tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Jun 28, 2017 17:23:56 GMT 10
A while back the NYT published a recipe for a delicious Artisan style bread that requires very little work - a quick mix the night before, then baking the next day. It is a great recipe to use when you don't want to put the time into kneading or just when you want that delicious hard crust type of bread. I don't think the original article is still available free online, but here's a link to the recipe reposted. cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/11376-no-knead-breadAnd another link that has discussion about it and some variations. www.astackofdishes.com/the-famous-ny-times-no-knead-bread/If you google "Lahey NYT no knead bread" you will find many other links about it including videos showing how wet the initial dough is and the process for cooking it - it really is very easy though. |
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Jun 28, 2017 17:32:57 GMT 10
Here are my notes from when I was making this bread a lot - I wanted to do it without commercial yeast at all. I love sourdough bread but am not good at keeping a sourdough going as you have to use it or feed it often or it goes off, and sourdough takes longer to make than normal bread. This method lets you get a sourdough starter going easily, but you start it with yeast the first time, then making the bread is really easy.
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PLAIN WHITE NO KNEAD WITH SOUR STARTER
Preparation: Make a batch of the no knead bread, but multiply the recipe so you
are using 4 cups of flour (ie a tiny bit extra yeast etc too). When you make
the bread the next day, take out one cup of the dough and save it for your next
loaf. Use the rest of the dough to make a normal no knead loaf.
Then for the white sour loaf: Make as per the normal no knead bread, but don't
put in yeast, just use this cup of starter. I find it easiest to mix the
starter with most of the water at the start, then add the dry ingredients. Its
a little hard to get the rubbery starter to mix through evenly otherwise, but I
just throw it into a bowl with the water and use a wooden spoon or bamix to quickly mix it evenly.
So, the method is -
1 cup dough from previous loaf
1&2/3 or so cup water
3 cups bread flour
1 ts salt
Mix wet then mix in dry. Leave covered for 12 hrs or so (btw, I use a plate to
cover the bowl so I don't have to use plastic wrap). Take out one cup of
mixture to be used for the next sour loaf. Turn onto floured board and roughly
shape. Turn onto floured tea towel (one half) then cover with other half of tea
towel. Leave 2 hrs. 1/2 hour before end of this heat oven to 230 deg C with
covered casserole heating as well. Turn dough into covered casserole and cook
30 min. Remove lid and cook further 15 min.
These are just my very brief instructions. The original recipe for the NYT bread has much more detailed instructions.
Now, for the RYE SOURDOUGH LOAF
This is based on one of my favourite recipes for a sourdough loaf. The way I
use to make it used the sour starter that I kept fed in my fridge, and took
about a day with all the rising, kneading, etc. Here is my shortcut method.
As for the white sour loaf, you need a cup of dough from a previous no knead
bread. You can use a cup from a white loaf, then just save a cup from this loaf
for your next one.
Same basic method, although a few different ingredients -
1 cup dough from previous loaf
1&2/3 or so cups water
1 cup rye flour
2 cups bread flour
1 ts salt
1 tablespoon molasses
2 ts caraway seeds
You will also need polenta and cornflour, but don't put them into the initial
mix.
Mix wet ingredients, then mix in all the dry. Leave covered for 12 hrs. Take
out one cup mixture to be used for next sour rye loaf.
Turn onto floured board and roughly shape. Turn onto floured teatowel.
Sprinkle top with polenta. Cover with second half of tea towel (you want
polenta to end up on the bottom of the loaf but not on the top). Leave 2 hrs.
1/2 hour before end of this time, heat oven to 230 deg C with casserole dish
heating as well - doesn't need a cover. In microwave or small saucepan, cook
together 1 TB cornflour with 1/2 cup water so its thick (boil it until clear)
then allow to cool.
Open oven and sprinkle casserole dish with extra polenta. Quickly turn dough
into dish. Brush top with cornflour mixture. Don't put a lid on. Cook about
10 min then brush with cornflour mixture again and cook until rich brown colour.
If its browning too quickly, you may need to turn the oven down after the first
10 to 20 minutes.
EXTRA POINTS:
You can just use flour instead of polenta with the rye loaf and cook with the
lid on - same was as for the white loaf. It still tastes great. I just like it
to be a bit more "different" and its more of a traditional type crust then too.
If I'm using the sour starter the same day, I leave it out of the fridge. If it
isn't going to be used for a day or more, refrigerate it (covered) and get it
out the morning that you'll use it so it will be out of the fridge all day
before being used. You want it to be room temp and nicely alive! I would aim
to use it within a week though or else you should start "feeding" it etc. You
could probably freeze it if you really wanted to, then defrost for a couple of
days, but I don't see the point. I'd just chuck it out and start off a new
batch.
For all bread when using white flour, I use plain white flour with a little
gluten flour mixed in rather then bread flour. White flour with a little gluten
will be the equivalent of bread flour. This no knead loaf seems fine with plain
white flour, but I haven't tested the rye loaf with plain white flour rather
then bread flour or white+gluten.
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tomatoes
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Post by tomatoes on Jun 28, 2017 17:44:54 GMT 10
And finally - this is the bread that I use more often now for things like pizza bases, flat bread, etc or loaves when on holidays. I don't think it works well for wholemeal (which is what we use during the week at home). Its great to keep a tub of the dough in the frig and pull out handfuls of when you want a pizza, loaf of bread, flatbread for a felafel wrap, or whatever - keeps a week or two in the frig.
It is from the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Hertzberg and Francois. This book was one of the first like this that came out after the NYT recipe was published. There have been quite a few similar ones since then, but I don't know what they're like.
My notes follow:
With this recipe, you mix up a huge batch of dough and it will make 4 reasonable sized loaves. You can also use the dough for pizza, savoury scrolls, naan, and various other breads. It is best for a nice, crusty, freeform loaf, rather then a square sandwich loaf. It is also best for white bread rather then wholemeal. You mix up the bulk batch of dough and then store it in the refrigerator, breaking off dough as you need it. This is very convenient and time saving.
It isn’t hard to mix by hand. Mix it up in a huge container with a lid. It needs to be about 10 litres. Alternatively, you can mix it in a big bowl and then divide it into 4 smaller containers (2.5-3 litres each) for storage. The advantage of dividing it into 4 smaller containers is that you can use a whole container for each loaf of bread. Also, as you use the dough, the amount of space it takes up in your refrigerator reduces. The advantage of one large container is that you can mix it and store it in the one container, reducing washing up. You also don’t have an empty dough container to wash after each baking.
So here is the basic dough recipe:
Ingredients:
1 & ½ litres warm water
2 & ½ tablespoons dry yeast
2 & ½ tablespoons good salt
2 kilograms plain flour
2 tablespoons gluten flour (leave this out if you don’t have any)
*When I have limited frig space I use half the quantity.
Method:
• Put warm water into bowl. Add yeast and salt and mix.
• Mix in the flour and the gluten flour. It takes a while (a minute or two) to mix it through and you’ll probably have to use your hands because it is such a big quantity, but you don’t have to knead it at all.
• Cover and leave out of the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
• Refrigerate, covered, until you need it. You can use some straight away if you need to.
Basic Loaf using the Bulk Dough
You will need:
Some of the made up dough – about ¼ or 1/8 of a batch.
A flat baking tray that has one side without a rim
Some polenta
A pizza stone if possible, or use a flat baking tray
A baking dish that can hold water in the oven
Method:
Use about a quarter of the dough, or you can make a smaller loaf using about an eighth of the dough. To break of your lump of dough, sprinkle the surface with flour and break off a lump.
Shape it by holding it and turning it in your hands, pulling sides down and under as you go, so that you end up with a smooth top.
Sprinkle a bit of polenta onto your baking tray, and put the dough on that. Leave for about 40 minutes.
After about 20 minutes, turn on your oven to 220 degrees C to heat up. Put the pizza stone into the oven to heat, and put your baking dish for water on a rack under the pizza stone – empty.
After the dough has sat for 40 minutes, you need to put it into the oven. Get a measuring cup with 1 cup of water ready. Cut 3 slashes about 1 cm deep in your loaf.
Open the oven, slide your loaf off the tray and onto the pizza stone. Pour the water into the hot baking dish (the steam with shoot up) and close the oven quickly.
Bake for 35 minutes. Check it after about 20 minutes and turn it down to about 180 degrees C if it is browning too fast.
*You can also just bake the bread in a regular loaf pan*
Naan Bread using the Bulk Dough
You will need:
A good heavy frying pan or cast iron grill plate (or you could use a barbeque)
A cover for the frying pan or a way to cover your bread on the grill plate
A little oil to prevent sticking in the pan
A rolling pin
Some of the basic dough mix – each naan bread uses about 125 grams of dough
Margarine (non-trans fat)/butter – plain or with some crushed garlic mixed in
Flour for rolling the dough
Method:
Heat the frying pan over medium heat.
Break off a piece of dough for your first naan bread. Roll it out quite thin using a little flour to prevent sticking.
Put into the oiled frying pan, press down gently with an egg flip. Cover with a lid and leave about 3 minutes. Keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn’t burn – you may find you need a lower or higher heat.
When the first side has started to brown in a couple of patches, turn it over and leave another minute or two – just until it is starting to brown on the second side.
Move to a cooling rack and move onto the next naan. Spread or brush each naan with margarine while still hot. If you’re just using the naan for roll up sandwiches you might want to leave off the marg.
Other things to make with the Bulk Dough Mix
Note: To break off dough, sprinkle the surface with flour first, break off a lump, then shape it by turning it in your hands and pulling the dough from the sides to the underneath as you go. You should end up with a nice, smooth topped, ball of dough – ready to use.
Pizza: Just break off a lump of dough and roll it out. Use it like normal – add tomato paste or sauce, toppings and cheese if wanted.
Savoury scrolls: Break off a piece of dough and shape to a rectangle. Roll it out. Spread with tomato paste, cheese or cheese substitute, olives and other fillings, leaving about 3 to 5 cm along one long edge with no filling. Brush a little water on that empty edge. Roll the dough up. Slice into about 4 cm scrolls and turn with the scroll face up. Put the scrolls into a baking dish (oiled and floured, or with baking paper underneath) with a small gap between them. Leave to rise about 20 to 40 minutes. Heat the oven to 220 degrees C. Bake for about 15 minutes.
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Post by Peter on Jun 28, 2017 18:08:07 GMT 10
Thanks for sharing. I'll try it when I next light up the pizza oven.
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