Well! I don't think I've ever made bread before. Recently I've wanted to, but my hands are too sore for all that kneading. Lo, I come across a recipe for no-knead bread that you store in the fridge and just pull off a hunk to rest, then bake, when you want it.

So... I gave it a try.




Could have been worse!





Food safe plastic bowl
1.5T yeast
1.5T kosher salt
3 C lukewarm water
6.5C all-purpose flour

(I used sea salt and I have to say that I would -definitely- reduce the salt in this. Personally, I would have done under a tablespoon, but that's just me...)


Action shot! : D Hubby cuts open the yeast pack. I went to Costco with a friend and got a mondo bag of flour for 7$ and the most insane amount of yeast for 3-4$, so I hope I really like baking bread...


Put yeast, salt, and water into a bowl. As any breadmaker knows, the water is warm to activate the yeast, but not too hot to kill it. .... I'm no breadmaker though, so I hope I don't screw up...




Hubby takes the laptop and shoots me stirring up the mix after adding the flour. We needed to add a touch more water because we couldn't get it to a wet dough. There were too many dry spots. I added about a quarter cup more to the big bowl. All you do is stir up this mix until it's wet and sticky and leave it sit with a loose lid on for 2-5 hours on the counter. Ours was bubbling up even before 2 hours. I think it all has to do with your climate and home temperature.




I'm hoping this turns out because I want to bake a loaf from each, test mine, and if it works, give the other loaf and the rest of the dough to my neighbor who is always super sweet to me. :D They expanded so much! At least I know I didn't break it... We heard pops coming from the kitchen though, forcing the lid off as the gas expanded. Oops! I guess leave the lid cracked. n...n;;

After you have let the stirred dough sit, you can put it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. I found out that letting the dough sit in the fridge for a few hours after this proofing will make it easier to work with. I found that out AFTER shaping my first ball. Oh well. The longer it sits to 2 weeks, the more like a sourdough bread it will become.

Sprinkle some flour over the top and dust your hands and pull up a ball, slicing it off. Carefully shape it -without kneading- to make it smooth, but not to lose too much of the gasses built up in it.




If you want to make pita, flatbread, or pizza dough, just pop it in the oven after shaping it. If you want risen bread, then you'll want to let it sit on the counter for another 40-90 minutes. Ours was ready before 40 minutes, having easily doubled in size. It says you should dust some cornmeal down and put the dough on that to help slide it in, but I only had flour and thought I'd be okay. I should have been a lot more liberal with the flour because it stuck a bit, despite best intentions. I sliced the top of the bread, as per directions, then tried to slide it onto a pan and ... eek. Well, I did my best to pry it loose, but I'm still sure I must have loosed a lot of gas it wanted to keep. I kind of suck. x...x Oh well, first lesson!


(Use more anti-stick powder than is shown here! : D This is pre-rising. It doubled.)


Although the author of the recipe turns out crisper and fluffier loafs than I did, It was cooked all the way through and turned out alright, I suppose! I unstuck the dough onto a well floured pan and put it in the oven with a dish and added 2 cups of water to it (although the recipe calls for 1, someone had recommended 2...) and let the water put a little steam in. The recipe calls to be baked on a baking stone that has been heated in the 450 degree oven for 20 minutes and that the stone draws out excess moisture in the bread which is what will make a crisp loaf. Since I don't have that stone, I think I may reduce the water to 1C next time and to be sure I've better dusted the rising surface so that it wont' stick...


(They shrunk down to only a little bigger than the pre-raise size, which was a disappointment. I was worried I'd ruined it and would have a dense hockey puck!)

After 10 minutes resting time, I cut it and thought for a moment it might be just slightly underdone, but I think it's actually just that it's a very moist kind of bread. The bread didn't gum up when I sliced it, so it does seem cooked. It has some density, but isn't dry and heavy like bread machine bread. I think it's a little heavier than it would have been if I hadn't gotten it stuck and killed some of the rise trying to get it off or if I had less moisture going on in the oven from the steam bath or maybe been using a baking stone... and the sweet jam helped balance the saltiness a bit.



Woo! Still some bubble pockets in there! At least it's not a bread brick!

I'm not sure if I feel confident giving my neighbor the bread and dough with it being this salty and imperfect, but it was nice to have tried something new and I think I'll try it as toast tomorrow and see how it all goes. :D I hope with practice, I'll get better.




The recipe for the bread was posted online by the authors of this book: http://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919 , which has all different kinds of common and specialty bread. I think that, considering the only home-made bread I've ever made dry bread machine bread or 'takes six plus hours' hand kneaded doughs, that I was able to get something this decent my first time, even screwing up as I did... I'm really pretty interested in the book. If getting dough ready can really be this easy, I'd love to get the recipes for rye, whole wheat, sweet breads and rolls, and all the other stuff they have in there!

Even doing all the steps in one night, I was barely in the kitchen and I still have fresh bread. I'm pretty excited about that! Admittedly, when I smelled fresh bread baking, I was kind of surprised that not long ago, I stirred up some flour slop, and now it was smelling like real food. I think the whole time I was expecting it to totally fail... But it didn't! And knowing I already have a whole bucket ready to go that will last so long in the fridge is pretty cool business, if you ask me! It seems almost like it's too good to be true. I hope you all try it. (With less salt! XD)