Ever since the NY Times interviewed a baker, Jim Lahey, who generously revealed his recipe for idiot-proof no-knead bread, there's been an international buzz about it. News got to Idaho, and we've tested the recipe and some variations with consistent results: amazing, rustic, artisan, old-world style bread.
On this week's show, we asked breadmaking first-timer Kevin Bayhouse to make a loaf. It turned out wonderful!
We're helping to spread the recipe to help you get off your dependence of corporate bread (puh!). It used to be that you could get a decent loaf from a local bakery, but nowadays they have either gone out of business or cater to upscale clientele with big bucks to spare for a fancy loaf to go with their foie gras. Here's a recipe for us lumpenprole:
Step 1:
3 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp yeast
1-1/2 cups water
Mix the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Add the water and mix with your hand for a few seconds until the ingredients are combined. Cover the dough in the bowl and let it sit for at least 12 hours (we've tried up to 47 hours with success).
Step 2:
Remove the dough from the bowl onto a floured surface and fold over one or two times. Sprinkle what bran, oat bran, or corn meal on a kitchen towel and wrap the dough in the towel (the bran is to keep the dough from sticking to the towel). Let sit for 2 hours.
Step 3:
Preheat oven to 500 degrees F, and preheat an ovenproof bowl or pot in it. When it's hot, drop the dough into it and bake, covered (with lid or dish), for 25 minutes. Remove the lid after 25 minutes and bake uncovered for another 15 minutes. When done, allow the bread to cool before slicing.
Here's what Kevin's loaf looked like.
If you're fascinated and want to know more, here's a web site that has a huge online discussion about the bread, different things people have tried, and loads of photos. And here's a link to the video interview with baker Jim Lahey. He says this bread is better than any you could buy in a store, even when made by a 4-year-old.
We also came a cross a related report on the secret behind making baguettes on the fascinating Cooking for Engineers website. Looks like the slow fermentation approach is not such a big secret, after all.
Ever since we insisted that Kevin make bread for the first time ever - and it turned out great - he's become a breadmaking fiend. Here I have graphed his breadbaking activities. He's been baking, on average, one loaf every 2.5 days. He's even been photographing the outcomes.
In the meantime I've been testing proportions with whole wheat loaves. For those who have been waiting, here's what I've found:- 100% whole wheat loaf: use 1 and 3/4 cups water
- 50% whole wheat loaf: use 1 and 5/8 cups water
