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La Dolce Vita: No-knead bread is a rising trend

I wrote about making pizza using a no-knead dough recipe, which reminded me that I had read about same approach to making bread...
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No-knead dough and specific baking conditions create excellent loaves of bread.

A few weeks ago I wrote about making pizza using a no-knead dough recipe from New York baker Jim Lahey (no relation to the fictitious security guy on Trailer Park Boys). It reminded me that I had read about his same approach to making loaves of bread in a New York Times story in 2006.

Not wanting to let the idea slip away for another six years, I dove in and began experimenting, adjusting the recipe and using different pans.

The recipe itself is ridiculously simply. To three cups of flour add 1 ¼ tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. of regular yeast. Mix them together and add about 1 2/3 cups of water, enough so that a moist dough can be roughly mixed into a ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 24 hours (though up to 72 hours is fine).

Turn what should be a bubbly, gloppy mess out onto a floured board and sprinkle the dough with a bit more flour. Push the air out of the dough with a few pushes and turns, then form it into a ball (I used a dough scraper to make the process easier), cover with a floured cloth and let rest for two hours.

At least a half-hour before baking, preheat the oven to 500 degrees and place in it your large baking container of choice. Lahey says enameled cast iron ware, pyrex and ceramic containers are all fine, as long as they have a fitted lid. When the oven reaches temperature, pull out the pot, remove the lid and carefully drop in the dough, seam-side down. Replace the lid, return the pot to the oven and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and continue baking for 20-30 minutes, until the internal temperature of the loaf is about 200 F.

The result is a beautifully browned, crunchy-crusted bread with a chewy exterior. The covered container (which needs to hold about six quarts) and high oven temperatures are key. Inside the container, the dough’s moisture is trapped and it works to form the crust.

I made my very first dough, then went to pre-heat the oven and discovered that I didn’t have the large container and lid I thought I had. So I cut the dough in half and put one Pyrex casserole dish and a three-quart enameled cast iron pot into the oven. Because the loaves were smaller, I reduced the cooking time by about a third and the results were perfect.

Some more reading revealed that some bakers use the stainless steel cookware. I also wanted to experiment with terracotta, so I splurged and bought a plain $6 pot. I mixed another batch of dough and used it, putting a round of parchment paper in the bottom to cover the drain hole and covering the top with tin foil once the dough was dropped in. The loaf was beautifully shaped and cooked and that particular experiment was a success.

Over the next few days I continued, usually mixing one batch in the morning and another in the evening. I used different combinations of flour, including local whole wheat and hard spring wheat, added rolled oats and even chopped dates and walnuts. I made loaves in the plant pot and in my large stainless steel pots, and did some by putting the dough on parchment paper on a cookie tray and putting on a stainless steel pot or the terracotta planter upside down for a cover.

Invariably, the results were edible and attractive. This is a recipe that is very hard to go wrong with. Follow the instructions for ingredients fairly closely and then make sure to use the hot oven and cover the loaf — other variables seem to work fine.

Personally, I am quite happy to make bread in the traditional way, but I’ll admit that the lack of work is a great appeal in the no-knead process. My guess is that I will use it more often.

If you are a bread machine user, I challenge you to try the no-knead process and see just how different the results are.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.