..let it snow & no-knead bread (again)...


I'm still here, alive, and not neglecting you.  It's snowing out, not too much, but enough that DC has shut down just about everything it thinks it can.  There are delays with work and schools and with power being out some places, I've got more time to blog for you today.



While I write, you can thinking of me with tea in hand and the background noise of kids yelling as they ride their sleds down the hill near our house.  I'm hoping for more of this snow- less wet- and more powder like in the weeks to come.  Then again, people here don't know how to deal with it, and having grown up in Ohio where Lake affect snow was a way of life, I think they're just plain silly.



In cooking news, I made no-knead bread the other day.  I've made this before, but while in California.  Baking bread there seemed so much easier.  I was able to know my house was around 70 something, and if it needed to be warmer, I simply places the bread in the sun.  Not so here.  I think I'll be placing rising dough right near our base board heat next time.



If you want to start this recipe Friday night and know Saturday will be a lazy day, I'd recommend this recipe.  It's great for bread beginners like myself, and pretty fun when you bite into bread you've made, all by yourself.





No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
via New York Times
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
Preparation:
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

2 comments

  1. I look forward to trying this recipe. I've yet to enter the bread baking world. Should I tell you that I'm wearing shorts and a tank top today? Probably not...

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  2. Thank you for sharing ... this recipe is definitely going to be saved because I love no-knead breads! They are easy and they taste so yummy good!

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