[UPDATE: I have provided photos of the steps for making No-Knead Bread here .]
Love that No-Knead bread. Still. After 120 loaves since April, I’m still baking 4 or 5 loaves each week. From what I can gather from reading all I can about this phenomenon, everybody who tries it loves it, its simplicity, its flexibility, and most of all, its taste. Who can resist warm crusty bread with creamy butter? Someone with more willpower than I.
Anyway, to continue the buzz, the January-February issue of “Cooks’ Illustrated” has an article about no-knead bread. They cottoned onto this baking revolution and decided to try to improve the original basic recipe. It was developed by Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City and published in Mark Bittman’s column in an issue of the New York Times a little more than a year ago. (By the way, the NYT has free archives now. You can find the original article here. There are also videos of the process on youtube.)
The final result of CI’s testing of a variety of ingredients and methods is the recommendation to add white vinegar and beer to the original ingredients, reducing the amount of water slightly. They also added 10 to 15 kneadings thus changing no-knead bread to “almost” no-knead bread. This reduces the holding time to as little as 8 hours from the 12 to 18 or even 24 hours recommended in the NYT article.
I tried the changes last week. The bread came out of the oven perfectly, with a slightly more tangy taste, the object of CI’s changes. It took a total of 10 hours which in some cases could come in very handy. (The 12-14 hour rising time of the original recipe is very forgiving, however. I have had success with as much as 26 hours rising although the dough needed a little encouragement with some kneading to plump back up after 26 hours on the kitchen counter!) With only 10 hours needed to rise, it becomes convenient to mix the dough in the morning and bake it in the late afternoon or early evening to have ready for dinner, nice and warm.
One of the suggestions from CI solved the problem some people have with handling the wet dough when moving it from the final rising into the cooking pot. After the initial rising time, CI recommends laying a sheet (12 x 18 inch) inside a 10″ skillet and spraying it with Pam. After kneading and shaping the loaf, place it on top of the parchment paper and spray the top of the dough with Pam. Then cover it loosely with plastic and letting it rise for a couple of hours, it’s a cinch to pick up the paper and plop the whole thing into a preheated Dutch oven to bake. No mess in the pot, no need to handle the dough one more time, so no messy hands. The skillet keeps the dough from spreading out too much, although the size of the Dutch oven or whatever cooking pot used somewhat determines how much it spreads out also. I get the tallest loaf when I use a round 3 Quart Corningware casserole with a glass lid.
Here is the recipe as printed in the magazine issue mentioned above.
“Almost No-Knead Bread”
3 c. (15 oz.) unbleached flour, plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 t. instant yeast
1 1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. plus 2 T. water (7 ounces) at room temperature
1/4 c. plus 2 T. (3 ounces) mild-flavored lager*
1 T. white vinegar
———-
1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy dough forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.
2. Lay 12 by 18 inch sheet of parchment paper inside a 10 inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer diugh, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let ruse at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.
3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6 to 8 quart heavy-bottomed Dutch Oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. (Note: make sure your pot is oven- safe to that high heat.) Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or very sharp knife, make one 6-inch long, 1/2-inch-deep slip along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20-30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.
* Use a mild-flavored lager, such as Budweiser (or mild non-alcoholic lager).
I just finished making a loaf. The crust and rise was great, but the taste isn’t quite as good as I hoped from the additions. I’d be tempted to try 5/8 cup of beer (vs 3/8 cup) and 1½ Tablespoon of white vinegar (vs 1 Tablespoon) and reduce the water to 5/8 cups accordingly. What do you think?
I wasn’t certain why they didn’t use bread flour instead, unless it was more readily available to the average cook, instead of bread baker.
I will still use this modification over the original Jim Lahey recipe. Hope to try the wheat and other variations.
I just finished baking two loaves. One without any recipe changes (for some friends), and one using bread flour, 5/8 cup of beer, 2 teaspoons salt, 1½ Tablespoons white vinegar and 5/8 cup water, plus yeast.
The original recipe appeared moister while rising and had more rise.
But in the end the one with the ingredient changes tasted slightly better, but still not as good as I had hoped. Maybe it’s just my tastes.
Still, the crust on both was really great. It’s just that the taste of the bread itself wasn’t really memorable (especially for the original and Jim Lahey recipes).
I guess I’ll modify the ratios once again the next time I make this – perhaps up to 1 cup of beer, 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar, 2 teaspoons of salt and 1/4 cup of water. I would think this is going on quite shaky ground, but I wish I had a better understanding of the science behind what these changes will do.
Maybe I’d be better off just making a starter and see what I could do with a Ciabatta recipe as cooked above.
I’d still use the original recipe if trying out their wheat or other variations.
I just wonder how many loaves America’s Test Kitchen made before being satisfied with their results.
I guess what I’m after is a bread like Zingerman’s Paesano bread. Really large crumb structure and wonderful for toast.
http://www.zingermans.com/Product.aspx?productid=b-pae
Though I’d like to try a Poilâne sourdough bread, if it weren’t so expensive (around $50 a loaf!)
But I’d be happy with the Noletti’s (local) Italian Bread from my childhood…
I tried the recipe again with 1 and 1/4 cups Miller Lite (i.e. no water), 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and the other ingredients.
This seems to have much better flavor than the Cooks Illustrated (or the original Jim Lahey) recipe, though you may find it otherwise.
Good job. I suspect that everyone who tries this bread with whatever variations will find some that they like better than others. That’s what makes it fun!
I’ll try your method sometime.
Morgana
Interesting. I cooked my first loaf of CI’s Almost NK 2 days ago & loved it. (I haven’t tried the original NYT version yet). I used a stainless steel stockpot because I was afraid I would shatter the corningware dish I had. Since the stockpot doesn’t quite “hold” as much heat as a cast iron Dutch Oven, I had it sitting on a pizza stone, but this proved to be too much heat, turning the bottom a bit darker than I would have liked.
Do you always make yours in the corningware dish? I might give that a try to see if I can get a slightly taller loaf (which would probably make for better sandwiches). I’d like to also try using that recipe in smaller dishes to make bread bowls. Nothing like broccoli cheddar or baked potato soup in a fresh bread bowl!
You might also check out http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com. These people came up with a similar recipe, though you make enough dough for 3 batches at once, and it can stay in your fridge for “up to 2 weeks”. This would require less planning, since you could have dough in your fridge anytime you need it…and supposedly the longer it sits, the more “sourdough-y” it becomes.
Jason -
I sometimes use a 5 qt. Mario Batali Dutch Oven. It is enamelled cast iron and weighs a ton. It is round and has more surface area than my oval Corningware. So the bread winds up spreading out a little more and being round, like a boule. When I have two loaves baking, I use both. I use the Corningware mostly because it doesn’t weigh as much and I often use the Dutch oven on the stove top for soups, etc.
I just received the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook this week. I ha.ven’t had a chance to read it yet.
I also liked the CI recipe and will make it again. I usually mix the dough in the morning early and hate to waste the beer, not being willing to drink the rest of the bottle at 7:00 AM! When I saved the remainder in the frig until the next day, I wasn’t as happy with the resulting bread as I was the first loaf. I think I will try it with other types of beer also, and different vinegars as well.
Good luck with your baking!
Morgana
I find the cast iron dutch oven much too heavy for me to lift
and want to use my corningware. I have a large one which would be perfect. Is it safe to heat the glass lid to 500 degrees?
Alma
I only heat my corningware up to 465. I don’t know what the safe upper limit is for the glass lid. But I’ve been using mine several times a week for a year and a half at 465.