Read an Excerpt
Chapter 8
Comfort Zone 1: No-knead breads
Okay! You're new to baking bread. You've read “How to use this book.” You want to jump right into baking bread without cluttering up your brain with a lot of details about grains and dough development and the perfect way to feed a starter. Probably you've seen articles or read a book about no-knead bread (see Resources), and this seems like a good place to start. That's cool. Let's do it!
First, be assured that you can – and will – make wonderful bread without having to understand all the scintillating scientific minutiae about yeast and all that. However, I do think it's helpful to cover a little bit of background information. It's kind of like driving a car: You can do it without being trained as a mechanic, but knowing a few basics like why your car needs a battery and fuel tends to help.
Like any other yeast bread, simple no-knead bread requires 4 ingredients: Flour, water, salt and yeast. No sugar. No milk. No eggs. Just flour (in this case, wheat flour), water, salt and yeast. We'll get into sourdough later, when you're ready to move to another comfort zone, but for now we're using commercial yeast (see Chapter 4 for recommendations).
Quick review: Yeast is a tiny living organism that eats sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide in a process called fermentation. It's what makes bread dough rise, before and during baking. Wheat flour contains proteins that form gluten when water comes in contact with the grain (see Sexy Science Talk on page __ for a more detailed description of this process). Gluten – from the Greek word for glue – is a stretchy protein that enables wheat dough to keep its structural integrity while rising; without this gluten, the dough is soft, not stretchy, and it doesn't rise much.
What does all this have to do with kneading? Well, the reason for kneading bread dough is to “exercise” the gluten, in order to fully develop its elasticity and strength. To a point, kneading bread dough does result in improved texture in the finished bread. So why does this no-knead technique work at all, much less reward you with gorgeous, delicious, beautifully risen loaves? It works because as we've already discovered, once you add water to that flour, the gluten begins to form its magical network of stretchy cells. So you'll find, with your very first batch, that even without the additional exercise that kneading gives those little gluten molecules, enough gluten forms during the mixing process to allow the bread dough to rise and bake beautifully without collapsing on itself.
Sidebar
You may be wondering at this point why anyone would bother ever kneading their bread dough, if this no-knead technique allows sufficient gluten development to make good bread. I suspect – and certainly hope – that once you go through the no-knead process a few times, you will be thoroughly bitten by the baking bug and decide to move to Comfort Zone 2 (chapter 10) and try hand-kneading your dough. Invite a few friends over, mix up a couple batches of no-knead bread, then spend just a few minutes kneading one batch. Observe, and make notes if you wish, what differences you see as the dough rises, how it feels in your hands when you shape it, how it bakes, and what the finished bread is like. You may decide that no-knead bread is just fine for you, and that's entirely up to you. Or, you may choose to knead some breads and not others. Either way, you will be making wonderful bread!
Let's get started on a basic no-knead wheat bread. This is a simple sandwich bread with 30% whole wheat flour. Try this basic recipe first, then if you want to, try one of the variations that follow.
Timing
- 3-5 minutes to measure ingredients and mix dough
- 20 minutes for autolyze phase (see Sexy Science Talk, below)
- 1-2 hours to ferment the dough
- 1 hour to proof dough
- 35-45 minutes to bake
Equipment you'll definitely need:
- Large mixing bowl (stainless steel, glass, Pyrex, or ceramic)
- Wooden spoon for mixing
Stuff that's not absolutely necessary but recommended (see Chapter 4)
- Kitchen scale
- 2-quart dough-rising bucket
- 8” round proofing basket
- Serrated bread knife or single-edge razor blade for slashing dough
- Baking stone
Ingredients Metric US Baker's percentage
Unchlorinated water, lukewarm 350g 70
Unbleached bread flour 350g 70
Whole wheat flour, preferably stone-ground 150g 30
SAF or other instant yeast 1 tsp
Sea salt 10g 2
Mixing and fermenting
Measure the water and yeast into the mixing bowl, stirring to dissolve the yeast. Add the flours and salt, and stir the dough with the wooden spoon for a minute or two. See how that dough is already starting to feel a little bit stretchy? Keep stirring. It should be starting to come together in a solid but soft mass. Yay! The gluten is forming!
Now let the dough rest for about 20 minutes; leave the spoon in the dough. You can cover it with plastic wrap if you want to, but it's not necessary. After it's rested (maybe you did too?), stir it again briefly. Can you feel the difference? You can stir it at a leisurely pace now for another couple of minutes if you want to – aha, I tricked you into kneading it a little! – or you can just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and go throw horseshoes out back for a while while it ferments. (If you have a dough-rising bucket, use the spoon to scrape the dough out of the bowl and into the dough bucket. Put the lid on and you're done for now.)
TIP: I highly recommend fermenting your dough at a fairly cool temperature; 65-68ºF (____ ºC) is ideal. Slowing down the fermentation just a bit is easier on your schedule; also, the longer it ferments, the more flavor develops. The dough-rising bucket makes it so simple to know when the fermentation is nearing completion: A batch like this, made with 500 grams total of flour, will pretty much fill up that bucket when it doubles in volume.
[Photo of dough in bucket]
Sexy Science Talk: What the heck is “autolyze”?
The autolyze process gives both you and your dough a nice little break. If you are hand-kneading your bread dough, this rest of 20 minutes or so actually makes kneading easier because it allows for the development of gluten before you start kneading. Even with no-knead bread like this, the autolyze rest greatly improves the texture of your bread.
Shaping and proofing
So your dough is fermented. You know it's fermented because it's doubled in size, and has a lovely yeasty, slightly tangy aroma. Now what? Shape, proof and bake, that's what. In the spirit of this comfort zone, let's keep the shaping part as simple as possible.
Did you notice that I haven't yet told you to punch down your dough? That's because I don't want you to punch down your dough! You've just spent at least a couple hours of your day mixing and fermenting the stuff, and it's twice the volume compared to what you started with. Remember all those hungry little yeast cells that have been gobbling up the carbohydrates in the flour; the dough has risen because of all the carbon dioxide bubbles produced during this fermentation process. If you “punch” that dough, guess what happens to all those bubbles? That's right, they BURST. Trust me, you don't want that to happen.
Okay, here's what you want to do. First toss a generous amount of bread flour on a good-sized cutting board (or a clean countertop, if you prefer). Take the lid or plastic wrap off your bread dough and tip the bucket or bowl up so the dough starts sliding out onto the board, using your free hand to help. Some of the bubbles with break as you do this, it's inevitable and you are not to worry about it.
TIP : I like to wear nitrile gloves for the shaping process, I find the dough doesn't stick to the gloves anywhere near as much as it sticks to my hands. The less you manhandle the dough at this point, the better.
At this point you will be handling the dough gently and not for very long – keeping in mind all the tiny bubbles. The dough will be quite soft. In fact, you may be wondering how on earth that wet mass of dough will ever form something that looks like a loaf of bread. Bear with me here; you can do this, I promise. Toss a little bread flour over the top of the dough. Now slide one hand under the far edge of the dough, lift up your hand an inch or two and bring that hand toward you, pulling very gently to slightly stretch the dough. You're folding part of the dough mass over the rest of it; does that make sense?
[Photos showing steps of shaping process]
Now repeat that series of steps a couple more times, picking up and folding over a different part of the dough mass. With just a few rounds of this, you should find the dough is coming together in a much more smooth-looking ball. I should mention that no matter how many times I make a particular recipe, it seems like there is something slightly different about the result every time. I've never figured out why, and gave up long ago trying to understand it. The point is, don't expect it to look perfect. It never does. You will get better at this, these motions with the hands will feel more natural, you'll get used to how the dough feels as you shape it. Just don't stress right now about that dough ball looking exactly like the one in the photos, okay?
If you have a banneton or proofing basket, dust the inside with flour and gently lift the dough ball and put it in the basket. No proofing basket? It's perfectly fine to line a mixing bowl with a clean dish towel; linen is ideal for this. (Before I bought some proofing baskets, I “borrowed” some of David's nice linen napkins for this, and it worked great.) Be sure to dust the dish towel with flour before putting the dough in there. You can also put it in a greased loaf pan if you prefer. Cover the container with plastic wrap.
[Photo of bannetons]
So now comes the “proofing” stage. I will cut to the chase here and say that you do NOT need a proofing cabinet, or any other special apparatus or gizmo for this process. Right now, there is plenty of time, and time = flavor. You need some time to preheat your oven anyway, so just set aside the bread pan or proofing basket; like fermentation, a relatively cool temperature is your friend here. It's okay if it's warmer than 70ºF (__ºC), just be aware that you will need to watch the dough so it doesn't rise too much before you put it in the oven.
TIP: I have often thought that this is the trickiest part of baking bread: Judging when the dough is ready to put in the oven. It has helped me to consistently make the same size batch of dough; over time (and a lot of trial-and-error) I've gotten used to how much the dough rises in the proofing basket before it is baked. It is better to err on the side of under- rather than over- proofing!
Baking
For free-form loaves, I highly recommend using a baking stone, a good thick one. In my kitchen, which is quite consistently less than 70ºF, I like to turn on the oven, then shape the dough. I've found that the hour that it takes to thoroughly heat up that baking stone is the per ect amount of time to proof that dough. Be aware that the dough will not double this time; it may get to about 1-1/2 times its original volume, but it won't double. You don't WANT it to double. You want enough of those yeast cells to still have the energy to keep raising that dough once it's in the oven.
I like to bake this bread at 475ºF. If your bread is in a loaf pan, and assuming your oven thermostat is accurate, it will take 40-45 minutes to bake. Free-form loaves baked directly on the baking stone might be a few minutes less. You will have to make a few test runs to see what works best with your oven, but most 500-gram loaves should bake nicely within, say, 35-50 minutes at this temperature.
TIP: We'll talk later about adding steam to the baking process. For now, just concentrate on getting comfortable with the basic shaping, proofing and baking processes.
I have a wooden pizza peel that I use for getting my bread in and out of the oven (see photo). It may not be traditional, but I much prefer putting a piece of parchment paper on the peel first. It makes it so much easier to slide the bread off the peel and onto the baking stone! (If you don't have a peel, you can use a rimless baking sheet.) Take your proofing basket or bowl (plastic wrap off), and quickly tip the bowl over to turn the dough onto the peel. If you want to slash it, now is the time. I like a serrated bread knife for this; quickly and confidently make 2 or 3 slash marks on your loaf. 1/4”-1/2” is the depth to aim for. It's important to get the dough in the oven promptly, so don't spend a lot of time on slashing.
Using a jerking motion with the peel, slide the dough, on the parchment paper, onto your baking stone and quickly shut the oven door. Set your timer for 35 minutes and take a break. Resist the temptation to open the oven door until the timer goes off.
Check the bread after 35 minutes. It will have risen nicely and should be at least starting to brown. You will probably want to bake it a few more minutes; if you slashed the dough, the edges of the slash marks will be getting darker now, and may even look almost black. That's a good time to take it out of the oven. Use your peel again for this, helping the bread onto the peel with tongs or a wooden spoon if needed. Put your beautiful loaf onto a cooling rack, stand back and admire it. Please let it cool for at least 45 minutes, preferably an hour, before you cut into it. (I force myself to do dishes and clean up the kitchen at this point; if that doesn't take enough time, there's always a New York Times crossword somewhere.)
I know it seems like there was a lot of detail here for just one simple loaf of bread. I can tell you from my own experience that it won't be long before this will all seem like second nature. You have made a loaf of bread with your own hands! If you never thought of yourself as a bread baker before today, well, now you ARE a bread baker. Enjoy this moment. Be proud of yourself.
[Photo of bread dough on pizza peel]
[Photo of dough being slashed]
[Photo of finished bread on cooling rack]
Variations on basic no-knead bread
Long-fermented no-knead bread
This method gives you the advantages of long-fermented sourdough bread, with the convenience of no-knead yeast bread. This also allows you a lot more flexibility in fitting bread-making into your schedule; once you've mixed up your dough, you simply set it aside for 8-12 hours or even more, before shaping and proofing it.
It's quite simple: Just decrease the amount of yeast to ¼ teaspoon. The smaller amount of yeast results in a slower rise, which allows for more flavor development. Plus you can just mix it up in the morning, go off for your day's work, and finish it in the evening. Or mix it at night and bake it first thing in the morning. And remember, if you want to slow the process down even more, you can simply pop the dough bucket into the fridge at any point after the dough is mixed. Take it out 2-3 hours ahead of when you want to shape and proof it, to allow it to come back to room temperature. Then proceed as usual with shaping.
(additional variations coming)