5-MINUTE NO-KNEAD YEAST BREAD (AND FOCACCIA), TAKE TWO!

Okay, I promise not to do another bread blog post for a while! But I just had to post this one! ANOTHER UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF POST--FLATBREADS! AND MORE PICTURES HERE.



After experimenting with the "five-minute" no-knead method of bread making in this blog post, which I really liked, but thought could be improved a bit, I made a slightly different dough on Monday and baked a loaf of bread and a focaccia today. The bread and the focaccia were fabulous! Here are the changes I made:

I doubled the recipe because I thought the loaf size of the original recipe was too small. The original recipe called for all unbleached flour-I used more than 1/3 whole wheat. It also called for 1 1/2 tablespoons of yeast for a recipe half this size, which I think is way too much. (I can't figure out why they used so much yeast. ) I cut that by 2/3's. I also added 1/2 tablespoon olive oil per loaf because I thought the dough was a little tough without it, especially for pizza.

I combined some of the quality's of Jim Lahey's no-knead bread, along with his novel baking method, with the Jeff Hertzberg's "five-minute" no-knead, refrigerated dough method.

(PS: You don't HAVE to use Jim Lahey's baking method-- baking in a preheated heavy pot or casserole. If you aren't really concerned about an extra-crunchy crust, you can bake the bread in a regular loaf pan, or baguette pans, or whatever! In a loaf pan, it might be adviseable to bake the bread at only 375 degrees F.)

MORE PICTURES OF THIS BREAD ON THIS BLOG POST!

WHY I USED LAHEY'S BAKING METHOD COMBINED WITH THE "5-MINUTE" MIXING AND REFRIGERATION METHOD:

1.) Lahey's baking method (in a heavy covered pot) produces amazingly crusty bread, but 2.) the "five-minute" method of mixing and refrigerating the dough is so much easier and more spontaneous than the long rise at room temperature, and I think 3.) the taste is better. (4.) It also makes it practical to bake bread fresh every day, since you can have some dough in the refrigerator at all times, and this type is really best when eaten the same day it is made.)

AND 5.) the wet dough is much easier to handle when cold. I used a little more water than required by the "five-minute" recipe, so that the dough was more like Lahey's very wet dough. 6.) The wetter dough tends to give you more big irregular holes.



7.) The bread baked by Lahey's method stayed crunchy after it cooled, and I have found that often you'll get a crispy crust in your home oven, after using steam, etc., but then it softens as it cools. Not this way! The baking in a heavy, covered pot acts like a miniature brick oven, creating steam inside to help the crust get crispy and stay that way!




The science behind it-- Harold McGee author of "On Food and Cooking" (Scribner, 2004-- a book I have on my personal shelf!), says:
"It makes sense. The long, slow rise does over hours what intensive kneading does in minutes: it brings the gluten molecules into side-by-side alignment to maximize their opportunity to bind to each other and produce a strong, elastic network. The wetness of the dough is an important piece of this because the gluten molecules are more mobile in a high proportion of water, and so can move into alignment easier and faster than if the dough were stiff."

As well, the long rise produces umami flavor compounds which give the bread outstanding flavor.



BRYANNA'S SECOND (BETTER) VERSION OF SIMPLE NO-KNEAD CRUSTY BREAD (PARTLY WHOLE WHEAT)

Makes good-sized 4 loaves, or 4/ 11/15" focaccie; or 8/ 14" pizze (or 12/ 12" thin-crust ones); the dough can also be used for sandwich buns or rolls.

Adapted from a recipe from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day,” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François (Thomas Dunne Books, 2007) (see this blog post), with baking method adapted from Jim Lahey’s No-Knead bread method (via Marc Bittman in the NY Times (see this blog post).

(PS: You don't HAVE to use Jim Lahey's baking method-- baking in a preheated heavy pot or casserole. If you aren't really concerned about an extra-crunchy crust, you can bake the bread in a regular loaf pan, or baguette pans, or whatever! In a loaf pan, it might be adviseable to bake the bread at only 375 degrees F.)

6 1/2 cups lukewarm water
1 Tbs regular dry-active baking yeast (OR 3/4 tablespoon instant yeast)
3 Tbs kosher salt
1/4 cup olive oil
8 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour, more for dusting dough
5 cups whole wheat flour (hard wheat flour or bread flour)
Cornmeal and flour for dusting

In a large bowl or plastic container, mix the yeast into the lukewarm water (about 100 degrees). Let sit until yeast dissolves. (If using the instant yeast, you don't have to dissolve it.) Add salt and oil. Stir in the flours, mixing until there are no dry patches. Dough will be quite loose. Place the container inside of a clean plastic bag (a small white garbage bag does fine), and twist-tie it closed, leaving room for the dough to rise. Let dough rise at room temperature 2 hours (or up to 5 hours).

Bake at this point or refrigerate in a tightly-covered oiled container (OR 2) with room to double in size, for as long as two weeks.

SEE BELOW FOR HOW TO SHAPE AND BAKE FOCACCIA OR PIZZA.

When ready to bake, sprinkle a little flour on dough (DON'T PUNCH DOWN!) and cut off 1/4 of the dough with serrated knife, or a bench knife, for each loaf.

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. (It's quite sticky-- keep your hands and the surface floured; maybe used a bench scraper.)




Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball OR oval shape, depending on the shape of the pot you are going to bake it in.

Line a bowl or oval casserole (depending, again, upon the shape of the vessel you will be baking the bread in, with cooking parchment. Spray it with oil from a pump sprayer and dust with flour. Sprinkle the bottom with cornmeal, semolina, or bran. (OR you could use bread-rising baskets, coated with flour, or lined with heavy cloth coated with flour.) Place the dough seam-side-down on the parchment in the bowl or pot, and dust with more flour, semolina, bran, or cornmeal. Place the vessel(s) inside of a clean plastic bag(s) (a small white garbage bag does fine), and twist-tie it closed, leaving room for the dough to rise. Let dough rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours (if dough has been refrigerated, if it has not, rise at room temperature).

Heat the oven to 475°F, with the pot(s) you are baking the bread in heating in the oven at the same time, for at least 30 minutes. Use a deep cast iron skillet or Dutch oven with a lid (can be enamel-coated or not), or a heavy ceramic covered casserole (NOT unglazed clay).

This is the casserole I used, but you can also use a deep cast iron skillet or Dutch oven with a lid (can be enamel-coated or not), or a heavy ceramic covered casserole (NOT unglazed clay). :


When the oven and the pan are heated, and the dough has risen 40-60 minutes, use the parchment or heavy cloth or rising basket to gently overturn the dough into the 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 the lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 minutes, or until the loaf is beautifully browned. Remove the bread from the pan immediately and cool on a rack.

To make focaccia:

Take 1/4 of the dough and gently stretch it out to fit an oiled, cornmeal-sprinkled 11x15" baking sheet. Place the sheet inside of a plastic bag while it rises in a warm spot (if dough has been refrigerated, if it has not, rise at room temperature) for 40 minutes.

While the dough rises, heat your oven to 475°F, using convection, if you have it. If you have a baking stone, heat that in the oven, as well, on the center rack.
When the dough is ready to bake, "dimple" the dough all over with your finger tips and brush generously with good olive oil (OR spread with a simple tomato sauce). Sprinkle with herbs and/or coarse salt, if you like, or any other focaccia toppings you like. Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and crispy. (Place the pan right on the baking stone, if you are using one.)




To make pizza:

Use 1/4 of the dough for 3 thin-crust 12" pizzas (pizze) OR for 2/ 14" ones. Do not rise the dough again before baking once it's on the pan-- just top the pizza and bake at 500°F for about 8-10 minutes. You can bake it right on a stone, or on a dark pizza pan.

Servings: 48
Yield: 4 loaves

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per slice-- 12 per loaf): 128.9 calories; 10% calories from fat; 1.6g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 354.3mg sodium; 77.9mg potassium; 25.1g carbohydrates; 2.1g fiber; 0.1g sugar; 22.9g net carbs; 4.0g protein; 2.3 points.

UPDATE: I made some flatbreads with the (cold) dough this morning-- just took fist-sized pieces and rolled them out and cooked them on both sides in an ungreased cast-iron pan over medium heat (heat pan well first). They probably would have made "pockets" if I'd covered them and let them rise for 30 minutes or so, but they did bubble up and they are delicious!







Enjoy!