I had been thinking about autolyse, and how it is supposedly inhibited by yeast or salt. I decided to mix the flour and water, and add the salt and yeast later.
I mixed a cup a half of water (plus a little), with two cups of white bread flour and one cup of the flour you see above. This time I did not level the cups of flour, but they didn't "heap" very much over the edge of the measuring cup.
After about 20 minutes, I attempted to mix in the salt and yeast.
I think this whole plan was ill-conceived. The flour/water was so stiff that mixing in the yeast and salt was problematic, and I never was sure if I had done an adequate job. The whole character of this dough was very different from the almost fluffy stuff I got on January 1st, and I wasn't sure until we ate it if it would be edible........
So -- never doing that again! From now on, I think I'll put the salt and yeast in the water, just so I'm confident that they mix into the flour evenly!
Look at what this looked like the next morning. Look at those huge bubbles. I wondered if the yeast was in pockets or something, rather than spread all through..... This is so different from the much more homogenous-looking dough I had last Monday.......
After it had risen for about 18 hours, I folded it over a dozen times or so (hoping to spread the yeast around a bit more!), let it rest, shaped it, and put it on a (different, more tightly woven!) towel, which was slathered in flour and then coated with cornmeal and oat bran. I kept checking it during the two hours of the second rise, to make sure it wasn't sticking.
This was a MUCH less lively dough than on Monday. I know that an all-white-flour dough is going to rise more than one which is 1/3 whole wheat, but still........
Here it is at the end of the second rise. Look at this pathetic object. Flat, flat, flat.
Well, ok, not much of an investment, really, and if it is barely edible, it's a learning experience, right?
I spread a handful of cornmeal on the hot pizza "stone," and tipped that pathetic object out onto the stone.
I kept checking (we have a window and oven light) to see whether I was getting any significant oven spring (Monday's loaf rose considerably in the oven).
No, and no, and no, and ... hey, it did rise a bit!
It was done, 208.6F on the digital thermometer, after half an hour. The recipe says 45-60 minutes; I'm not sure why theirs should take so much longer..........
Look. Gorgeous.
And delicious. I had wondered if all that stuff on the crust would be a bit de trop -- nasty and hard -- but it was crunchy and wonderful.
It really is awfully hard to ruin bread.
No-Knead Bread, adapted from a recipe first seen on
the New York Times website.
1 cup and 5 ounces of water
1/4 teaspoon yeast (I've been using the regular, not "quick
rise, stuff that comes in packets at
the grocery)
1 and 1/4 teaspoons salt
Mix the above in a large bowl, then mix in
2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole-wheat bread flour
Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise for 18 hours.
After 18 hours, sprinkle counter with flour, scrape dough
onto counter, fold on itself a couple of times, cover (I
put the bowl it spent the night in upside-down over it)
and let rest 15 minutes.
Handling as little as possible, shape into loaf.
This bread's second rise takes place in a floured cloth.
Aim for a cotton dish towel that is tightly woven of fine
thread. Anything that sticks out of the towel is an
opportunity for the dough to weld itself to same!
Spread your towel very liberally spread with flour, bran,
and/or cornmeal. Put more flour/bran/cornmeal on top of
the loaf, then wrap the towel over it.
After an hour and a half (in a room at about 68 degrees, your
mileage may vary!), place pizza "stone" in oven and turn the
oven on to 450F.
After about half an hour more, remove stone from oven, spread
it with cornmeal (and/or flour or bran), dump bread onto
floured stone and put the whole works in the oven.
Bread is done when its interior temp is between 200F and 210F.
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