Kneading bread dough is one of those activities that you either love to do or hate to do. People in the former camp croon about how cathartic it is to get out their frustrations by punching and pounding away at the dough; people in the latter camp just want to "get on with it" and eat some fresh-baked bread. I'm in the latter camp. So, I'm beyond thrilled that I finally found the easiest, best bread recipe, and it requires absolutely no kneading, from Mother Earth News (the recipe is on page 2 of the link). I tried it yesterday, to astounding success.
Honestly, I'm still a bit shocked at how easy it was to turn out a loaf of bread that looks like the ones sold in the windows of Paris boulangeries. A loaf I could knock on for that hard, hollow crack, and slice for airy moistness and crusty chewiness. In a word: Perfection. Because the recipe recommends that the final loaf rests an hour before slicing, I took out my camera and snapped 126 (!) photos of my two loaves. That's right--I took a crazy amount of photos of two loaves of bread, dressing them up in different dishcloths, placing them on different plates. I even thwacked my head on the wrought-iron chandelier above this table while I was taking an overhead shot (how's that for a full disclosure policy?). But those golden loaves reminded me of a Caravaggio painting, or a Vermeer painting...oh, now I'm just going off the deep end, aren't I? Suffice it to say that they were almost too pretty to eat. Almost.
As I said in my post about making your own organic cookies, if you find a super-easy, super-tasty recipe for a food that's fun to make, what's the point of buying it instead? When you make it yourself, you control the ingredients (which hopefully means you'll make it healthier than a manufacturer would); you save money and gas; and you cancel out the manufacturing, packaging, and shipping processes (except for the ingredients themselves--I haven't figured out how to make my own organic flour yet and it's not high on my to-do list). With this recipe, you basically just need a lot of time--to ignore the dough while you go off and do other things. It takes a good 18 hours between that initial five minutes of mixing time and the getting-it-out-of-the-oven stage. I said previously that "life's too short for flat soda and stale donuts", and now I've got an addendum: "Life is too short for bad bread."
I think making your own bread is one of those things that seems really daunting and you just need to dive in and do it. Have you ever tried to bake your own bread? How did it turn out? Have you ever surprised yourself by making something that seemed difficult before you gave it a go?
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© 2013 by Joy Sussman/JoyfullyGreen.com. All rights reserved. Photos and text digitally fingerprinted and protected by MyFreeCopyright.com. Site licensed by Creative Commons.
Haven't clicked through the link, but it sounds like, and looks like the famous Sullivan St. Bakery No-Knead Bread recipe popularized in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?pagewanted=all
I've made this OFTEN. My favorite variation uses about 60/40 Rye Flour and All Purpose Flour with Caraway and Sesame seeds.
Seeded Rye is getting harder and harder to find in the stores, and this tastes better anyway.
Hard to get really good results with 100% Whole Wheat/Rye flour, but I think I did a RYE/Whole/Wheat/White 40:50:10 that came out pretty good. I've used Oat Bran and Corn Meal as the "non-stick" support. The Oat Bran is a little messier, but the Organic Corn Meal that shows up in our house is WAY too finely ground. I prefer the coarser corn meal.
Only problem is having any left over by the time it cools..
Posted by: Bob | 04/08/2013 at 01:05 PM
Haven't clicked through the link, but it sounds like, and looks like the famous Sullivan St. Bakery No-Knead Bread recipe popularized in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?pagewanted=all
I've made this OFTEN. My favorite variation uses about 60/40 Rye Flour and All Purpose Flour with Caraway and Sesame seeds.
Seeded Rye is getting harder and harder to find in the stores, and this tastes better anyway.
Hard to get really good results with 100% Whole Wheat/Rye flour, but I think I did a RYE/Whole/Wheat/White 40:50:10 that came out pretty good. I've used Oat Bran and Corn Meal as the "non-stick" support. The Oat Bran is a little messier, but the Organic Corn Meal that shows up in our house is WAY too finely ground. I prefer the coarser corn meal.
Only problem is having any left over by the time it cools..
Posted by: Bob | 04/08/2013 at 01:05 PM
Thanks, Bob, for what seems like the original source. The link just says its from an article/recipe that ran in The New York Times, but doesnt credit the chef or Sullivan Street Bakery (unless Im missing it somewhere), so thank you! Im also glad to learn about your variations, because as soon as I was done making these two loaves, my brain started spinning with what else I could mix in. Rosemary is my first choice to try next, but Im giving your suggestions a shot after that. On one of these two loaves, I did use corn meal--messy but still delicious.
Posted by: Joy @ JoyfullyGreen.com | 04/08/2013 at 01:50 PM