Sometimes you're lucky enough to find a perfect bread recipe. Most people don't have time to fool around with kneading and rising times over and over and all that, so I was very happy to find "No Knead Bread" in Mother Earth News magazine awhile ago. I fooled with it and tweaked it here and there and finally made it into my own.
There is something magical about walking into the house and smelling fresh bread baking. How can you be in a bad mood? Hunks of warm, buttery, fresh-baked bread change a simple soup dinner into a divine dining experience!
Sharon's Version of "No Knead Bread"
1-1/2 Tbs. yeast
3 c. very warm water
1 c. whole wheat graham flour
4-1/2 c. unbleached white flour
1 Tbs. milled flax seed
1-1/2 Tbs. non-iodized salt
Sea salt
Put yeast into a large bowl and then drizzle the warm water into it. Stir to get out the lumps. A wooden spoon works well because you'll need the stiffness to stir the dough at the end.
Add the rest of the ingredients - finishing with the salt. Then mix it up into a big, sloppy mess.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for a couple of hours. Anywhere from 2 - 4 hours has worked for me, but around 2 hours seems to get you a loftier bread.
Put a metal pan on the bottom shelf of the oven and a baking stone one shelf up (you may have to grease your baking stone if it isn't well seasoned). Preheat to 425-degrees (yes, I know my oven isn't spotless : ) - I've been doing a lot of cooking!).
Now's the tricky part. You have to work quickly and get this big sloppy mess, in two gloppy clumps onto your baking stone, sprinkle a bit of sea salt on the top of the bread dough, and pour about 1-1/2 cups water into the metal pan. Then push it in and slam the door shut to keep in the steam. I usually have the sink water running at a drizzle and wet my hands before I handle the dough and then rinse them very quickly before grabbing the water and salt.
Bake for about 30-35 minutes and...
ENJOY!
3 eggs
That looks delicious, I'm going to have to try that.
ReplyDelete