11/21/08 | More Bread
[ Currently Eating: Some Tea ]
Dang, I’m glad it’s Friday. Well, ever since I had a major FAIL while breadmaking, I vowed to regroup and try out some different techniques. You see, I’m not a baker. But I always wanted to make bread.
Cue the No Knead Bread music please.
Yeah, I’m not even going to try and convince you. Look at the picture. I couldn’t fricken believe it.
It really does work. I’m going to try work up a full article over on Cheaplander about the process soon. I’ve also “graduated” to trying to make homemade yeast water as well, and incorporating it into the no-knead recipe. A little scary, but the science experiments are still thriving in their respective mason jars after a few weeks.
For now, here is the article where a lot of the publicity for no-knead bread came from. I pretty much followed it exactly. (By the way, that link probably won’t work - NY Times is stupid like that. However, just do a search for “no knead bread” and it’ll come up.)
See you all next week.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:26 am
I’m with you! I was never never a baker. Then I got a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day and I’m a total convert. Their method is so easy, I’ve got a new loaf going every day. It’s delicious and cheap. Two things that are crucial for me!
November 21st, 2008 at 6:34 am
Bread wasn’t an easy one for me to master. Quick breads like biscuits and tortillas are a no brainer but yeast breads are a challenge. But you don’t have to resort to a bread machine just yet. The trick to getting good bread is twofold.
First you must have good yeast so buy it right before you use it. The second thing is that you have to activate the yeast properly. Put it in hot water with some sugar. If it doesn’t start looking like the top of a cappuccino within a few minutes just toss it and try again. You’ll usually need hotter water than the package says. It took me two packs to get it right the first time. Good thing yeast is cheap enough to get it right.
Now I know you’re big on these no knead recipes but trust me when I say that the yeast is really the hard part. The trick I learned with kneading is that you want the dough to be strong enough to stretch without tearing. The easiest way to check is to stretch it till it’s slightly opaque if it doesn’t tear, it’s ready.
I’ve been baking since I was old enough to stand at the counter and I can tell you that the only real thing required to be a good baker is practice. I wish you the best of luck.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:08 am
Just as a quick tip on the yeast water. If you don’t want to use raisins, currants also work fine.
My mother used to make her own starters by setting a mixture of just water and flour outside on the deck for a few days. At some point it occurred to her to feed them, so she’s had the same starter 20-some-odd years now. But that’s how she used to do it.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:03 pm
START WITH WHITE BREAD! HA, that’s my advice for learning to bake. I still don’t make the tastiest loaves of bread, but I think my path to learning was inhibited by my initial insistence on making 100% whole wheat. My artisan bread hasn’t turned out nearly as well as yours and I think that’s because I have yet to invest in an ovensafe pot.
BTW, you do really good product shots. Do you have a photography background or does your dining room just have really good light?
November 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 am
@robin - just looked up that book, looks very interesting!
@cj - I think I may try some of the “kneading” recipes again. It was just great to have the no knead bread come out decently. I think it helped to build confidence for me, especially after the massive FAIL earlier - to a lot of people baking bread is some sort of mysterious art =)
@allie - I’ve also been thinking of trying to keep a “starter” around too. One thing - my raisin water after awhile (over a 2 weeks now) smells more “fruity wine-ish” than “yeasty”. Does this mean its effectiveness has gone down? I noticed the last couple I made using the homemade raisin yeast did not rise as much. I could remake the water, but I was hoping it would be possible to keep the yeast going by feeding it fresh raisins and more water.
@kirk - I think you’re right about using standard white flour to start. Almost every recipe I saw, even for the homemade yeast ones, said use wheat flour. I didn’t have it, so I used all purpose white flour. It’s come out fine. The ovensafe cast iron pot is pretty important in the no-knead recipe i think - i tried making one in unheated glass Pyrex pot and it didnt come out as well. Oh, thanks for the compliments! I’m actually not a very good photographer and just use a point and shoot cybershot, but there is a place in the house where the light is good, plus I use photoshop to compensate =)
November 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Hm… Now that’s a good question. I’ve never actually seen anyone keep the yeast water longer than a day or two. My thinking on this one would be to send Peter Reinhart an email asking - if anyone knows, it’d be him (his blog URL is here and I believe contact information is stuffed in there somewhere).
As for starters, they’re super easy, all things considered. You feed them regularly and you’ve always got a good amount. Some people rinse them, some don’t. Some stir the hooch back in, some pour it off. I think it’s really just a matter of preference. Back when I kept a starter, I had a pretty huge jar for it. My mother bakes more regularly, so her jar is somewhat smaller than mine was (in fairness, I often forgot to feed mine, and when I remembered I’d feed it a lot and sometimes my jar would overflow, so I had to get a huge one).
Either way, good luck! Starters are a fabulous way to get a ton of flavour for a relatively small amount on cash.