I must say, things are looking up.
Sometimes, all a girl needs is some freshly baked whole wheat bread slathered in Earth Balance.
Besides releasing endorphins via carbohydrates, I also spent the entire weekend getting my life in order!
Santa approved.
I cleaned. I organized. I did Holiday prep. I bubble bathed.
I cleaned off the kitchen desk that was covered for 3 months…
I rocked my to-do list…
- Paid bills/business banking
- BUBBLE BATH
- Cleaned main level of house
- Organized kitchen supplies, clean out baking drawers
- Donated all items not in use (got 2 boxes worth to donate!)
- Clean/tidy office
- 3-4 loads Laundry
- Baked 2 recipes for blog
- Bought new bed
- Finish X-mas shopping
- Wrapped all gifts + ship out gifts
- Grocery shopping
I am starting to feel like my life is sloooooowly getting back on track. This week I need to make time for the dentist and a much needed hair cut, two things I have not had time for over the past few months. I also need to work on my business tax prep and email catch up before the holidays arrive on Friday.
But, back to this bread.
You may have heard about this famous ‘No Knead Bread’ recipe from Jim Lahey at the Sullivan Street Bakery. The recipe was published on the New York Times website in 2006 and the bread has graced many food blogs over the past few years.
I finally decided I would give it a shot myself!
While I have admitted that I love kneading dough, my curious nature just got the best of me. I also wanted to try this recipe using 100% whole wheat bread flour to see if it would still turn out.
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4 Ingredient No Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups 100% whole wheat bread flour (note: this is not the same thing as regular whole wheat flour)* see note
- 1/4 tsp instant yeast
- 1 + 5/8 cup warm water
- 1 + 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- Additional flour for dusting
Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. The mixture will be very sticky and shaggy, but this is normal. Place into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise at room temperature for 12-18 hours.
After rising, turn out the sticky dough onto floured surface and fold the dough a couple of times. Place back in the bowl, covered, for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, grab the dough and lightly flour your work surface if need be. Only use enough flour to prevent the dough from sticking because you don’t want to dry out the dough. Fold corners into the middle to shape it into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal. Place the 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.
30 minutes before the rise is over, preheat oven to 450F and place a 5-8 quart cast iron pot (or other sturdy pot that can withstand this temperature) with lid in the oven while it heats.
After 30 minutes of preheating, carefully remove the pot from the oven. Place a square of parchment on the bottom of the pot and place the dough ball seam side up into the pot.
Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on at 450F. Remove lid and bake for an additional 10-20 to brown. Cool for about 10-20 minutes.
Note: Using 100% whole wheat bread flour resulted in a fairly dense dough that did not rise as much as the white flour version. This version also did not have air holes or pockets throughout the bread. With that being said, if you don’t mind a denser and hearty bread, then this one may be for you. You could also try using a mix of whole wheat bread flour and white bread flour to see if that lightens things up.
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First things first, mix all 4 ingredients together and let it rise for 12-18 hours, covered in plastic wrap.
My dough mess looked like this after about 14 hours…
Hot mess.
Turn the hot mess onto a lightly floured surface and fold the dough a couple of times. Place back in the bowl, covered, for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, fold the corners into the middle to shape it into a ball.
Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal. I used flour and it was one heck of a mess!
Place the 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.
Tip: If you use a tall narrow bowl, the dough should rise higher as the walls will force the dough to expand upward.
Sketchie hibernated.
After 2 hours, place the dough ball seam side up into the preheated pot.
Do as I say not as I do, apparently. I placed it seam side down by mistake. I’m not sure how much this impacts the final outcome! Maybe it doesn’t rise as much when it is seam side down?
Bake for 30 minutes covered with the lid, and then carefully remove the lid and brown the bread for 15-20 minutes.
Voila.
Rustic, wholesome, goodness.
The result is a very crispy outer shell with a moist and dense interior.
The crumb was a bit spongy for my liking, but it was nothing a slather of Earth Balance couldn’t fix. Our favorite part was the crisp outer crust…it was incredible and made this bread so rustic.
Eric and I proceeded to eat half the loaf for lunch.
Is there anyone who actually makes fresh bread and does not inhale it when it comes out of the oven?
My overall impression of this no knead bread is that it was more work and mess than it initially seems.
I probably would opt for making kneaded bread next time, only because there is not a 12-18 hour wait period and I think the whole wheat dough might rise better using a traditional method. I’ll have to test out a kneading recipe soon to compare! If anyone has some good whole wheat bread recipes, please shoot em my way.
Either way, Eric and I still very much enjoyed this bread and if you don’t mind the 12-18 hour rest time, it might be a good option for you! You may also want to play around with the flour too using a mix of white and whole wheat bread flours as this one was a bit dense.
PS- I found this quote on an old bread post and I’m re-posting it because it makes me laugh and it is TRUE!
“Any human being is really good at certain things. The problem is that the things you’re good at come naturally. And since most people are pretty modest instead of an arrogant s.o.b. like me, what comes naturally, you don’t see as a special skill. It’s just you. It’s what you’ve always done.”
– Stephen Jay Gould, evolutionary scientist
This bread looks crusty & delicious! & with melted earth balance! Yummy :).
This looks gorgeous! The melting butter is making me salivate :)
I make no-knead bread too, but I use this recipe from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day cookbook. Honestly, it is SUPER easy, no big mess, and makes just fantastic bread. I had a batch of it in my fridge from 2 weeks ago, and I pulled it out and made up a loaf yesterday morning to take a holiday potluck yesterday evening and I have everyone telling me it was the best bread EVER. I use 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 white bread flour, and when the dough sits in the fridge for a week or so it really develops a yummy sourdough flavor.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx
Basically, you mix the dough, let it rise for at least 2 hours on the counter, transfer it to a container that is NOT air tight and keep it in the fridge until you are ready to bake. Take a chunk out for however large of a loaf you want, shape it and let it sit on the counter to rise for 45-90 minutes (I usually dust my wooden cutting board with a little flour and just let it sit there), and then bake it. Done! Yum! Also, the recipe calls for a pizza stone which I don’t have. I use a cookie sheet turned over so it has no rims and a piece of parchment paper on top. Very little mess, you have bread dough that lasts up to 2 weeks in the fridge for whenever you want it, and it is just amazing results.
So if you still want to make 4 ingredient no-knead bread, you might want to give this recipe a try. Confession – I don’t have their cookbook yet but I am hoping to get it for Christmas…they have 2 books out, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day and Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a Day. I want them both!!
Ive heard great things about those books…I’ll have to try it out. Do you find that it rises a lot?
Not a ton, although it does rise more in the oven than it does on the counter. I am still working out my ratio of liquid to dry because using the whole wheat flour it needs more liquid than white flour would. When it is the perfect ratio of liquid the loaf rises really nicely, when it is too liquidy it tends to resemble foccacia bread more :-) I have heard that because this is their “master recipe” you can use it in a bread pan to make more of a sandwich type loaf. I am still playing around with it.
ok, mayyyjah carb cravings right now!! love your santa! :)
Hmmm looks good!
Hey Angela,
To decrease the mess after the initial rising period, just flour the top of the dough and dump it onto a piece of parchment paper. When it’s ready to go into the oven, score the top (pretty!) lift the dough into the hot pot and bake, parchment and all. The crust will still get crispy, and you can easily transfer the loaf in and out of the hot pot by grabbing the corners of the parchment.
I like rising and storing an all-purpose dough in the fridge so I have it on hand for quick dinner rolls, loaves and monkey bread. It’s really handy to have around!
great tips, thank you! So if I understand correctly you don’t need the cotton towel?
Right, just let it rise on the parchment covered with a damp towel or saran wrap to keep things from drying out.
Yeh, no cotton towel. I do the parchment paper thing too. First long rise in a covered mixing bowl, then dump the lot on the parchment and into the cold pot for the last rise (the lid will keep it from drying out), then put the cold pot in a cold oven and heat it up as hot as it goes (taking the lid off near the end). The dough will separate from the parchment during baking.
I might have to talk my husband into making this =) I love a good crusty bread!
I used to make bread in my bread machine once a week back in my gluten eating days and it would be decimated the second it came out. Bread is just…different after a few hours. It changes somehow. :) Nothing that butter and a microwave can’t fix though.
I like that bubble bath is on your to-do list. That’s my kind of prioritizing.
Yum this looks delicious! You don’t get Earth Balance where I live so I’m not sure what I’d slather it in… but either way I’m definitely going to try it.
im not sure if you are looking for something vegan but Becel just came out with a vegan spread too.
Thanks for the advice! But sadly I live in Bangladesh so these brands aren’t available. I’ve been thinking about making my own nut butter though! :)
By the way I used one of your recipes in a recent blog post in case you want to check it out :) http://www.leiasdelights.com/2010/12/vegan-peanut-butter-cookies.html
“Besides releasing endorphins via carbohydrates”
Bahaha… I love that! That’ll be my excuse next time I want carbs… just need to release some endorphins, is all!
sometimes exercise is not the preferred method!
i’ll most definitely will be trying this! super easy breads are always winners to me :)
you inspire me so much!
I think NOT inhaling fresh baked bread is illegal in some countries…… or that may be my opinion on fresh baked bread. Butter please : ) mmmmmm
yes I believe you are correct
I’m glad you tried the bread! I used to make this all the time! My suggestion would be to make it a couple more times before you decide not to make it anymore…in my experience, the first bread you make is good, but it gets much better once you start personalizing it a little more. My favorite way to make it was with walnuts, rosemary, and a drizzle of honey in the dough.
As for the long wait, I find that is one of the best things about this bread because I work outside the home. When I make it, I start it right before I go to bed on the first night, let it rise overnight, stick it in the fridge during the day (more on that in a minute), and bake it the next evening, which is really convenient for me.
As for giving it some time in the fridge, when I’ve left the bread out for longer than about 10 hours, I find that it becomes overproofed (basically, it become too puffy and is weakened to the point where it collapses a bit in the oven) and I don’t get as good of a rise as if I let it rise for 8 hours, then put it in the fridge so that it rises a bit more slowly. You might want to give that a try.
i do the same schedule with mine, but i always leave it on the counter, and mine has never collapsed. i throw it all together around 10 or 11 at night, then prep it for the second rise when i get home a little after 5 the next day.
this is the bread recipe that i use more than any other because it’s so simple and unfussy and absolutely awesome. and i’ve used all whole wheat and had no problems with the rise (yes, it is denser than using just AP, but still nothing like what looks like happened here–it almost looks like you didn’t use enough water, but i’m not there, of course, so what do i know?). i’d hate for someone not to attempt it because of this.
more often, though, i’ll use 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 AP or bread flour, whatever i have around, plus a little honey and molasses. (i’ve also made this with all bread flour and all AP. i have yet to have a single loaf fail. out of dozens, i’d say.)
yea im really not sure…i followed the original recipe exactly. The only thing I was wondering is maybe that my yeast wasn’t active. I’ll have to try it with some fresh stuff again and see if that changes anything.
thanks for your suggestions! Im sure I will play around with the recipe at some point. :) I’d love to add sunflower seeds for starters and refine the technique as I messed up on a step or two
Interesting. I don’t believe I’ve ever tried no knead bread, because I like the kneading and everything. But maybe I’ll give it a try sometime.
I just found a 3 ingredient no knead bread that has beer..interesting ;)
Sketchie looks a wee bit frightened in that pic, but still adorable!
That’s a really long wait time, but the bread does look very good- I’m a sucker for a good crust and actually love chewy, dense bread more than the fluffier kinds. I might have to free up 12-18 hours. :)
I have to admit, I was super excited when I saw this recipe at first, but then when I saw all the nitty gritty details I was instantly turned off. Sounds like this complicated cheesecake my mom makes.
Yum!!! I’ve never made my own bread! Even though this does have a long rise period, I might make it before making traditional bread, just to get used to the bread-making process! Thanks for the recipe!!!!
yes it would probably be a great ‘intro” recipe for those who are a bit scared of the process!
Fresh bread is my favorite thing in the world. When I was in hgih school my mom used to make fresh sourdough bread and run the top with salted butter when it cam out of the oven. I STILL dream about that bread and the crusty salty crust.
Hi Angela
Last week I made your pumpkin pie brownies for a potluck and they were a HUGE hit! I wasn’t surprised because I make your recipes all the time. My fiancée has requested that I make it for his family’s Christmas dinner too. I was wondering if you had tried freezing them? I would love to make them ahead of time but I worry about the pumpkin pie layer having a weird texture once it is defrosted.
Oh, and I was really hoping you would win the challenge! I thought you were the best by far!
Enjoy your holidays.!