Bryanna Clark Grogan’s Vegan Feast Kitchen/ 23rd Century Table

I had played briefly in the past with a no-knead version of sourdough bread, but without much success. But, being a bit more experienced in this baking method at this point, I decided to try my hand at it again.  I made a batch a couple of weeks ago, and it wasn't bad, but I wanted to use more whole wheat flour AND have more sourdough flavor. Well, yesterday I had success!  

There are very few ingredients in this bread, but its simplicity belies the complexity of its flavor and textures. The bread rose well, had fine sourdough flavor, and the crust was beautifully golden-brown and crusty.  I promised to share the recipe with you today and I've been working on this post most of the day, to make sure that I didn't forget any details that will help you have success with sourdough bread baking.


3.) 3 times the recipe will make either three 2 lb. loaves, four 1 1/2 lb. loaves, six 1 lb. loaves, or (as I did) two (approximately) 1 3/4 lb. loaves + one 2 1/2 lb. loaf.
4.) 2 1/2 lbs. of dough (weight before baking) should be baked in a 10" round pan or

1 lb. of dough should be baked in either 7 x 3 x 2 1/2 loaf pans or 8-9" round pans.

You could also bake all 4 lbs of the doubled dough as "mega boule" or giant round loaf in an 11-12" round Dutch oven or similar pan, or a large stoneware baking cloche. (See Tips below for information about pans and other baking vessels.)

6.) Before you start, read the information about pans and baking vessels in "Tips" below.

Printable Copy

BRYANNA'S CRUSTY HALF-WHOLE WHEAT NO-KNEAD SOURDOUGH BREAD

© Bryanna Clark Grogan 2016

Servings: 24

Yield: One 2-pound loaf, or two 1-pound loaves (weight of dough before baking)

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups whole-wheat flour

1 cup unbleached white flour

2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups warmish water

3/4 cup active sourdough starter (use your own, or my San Francisco-Style Vegan Sourdough Starter-- see link above)

Instructions:

In a large bowl, mix together the Dry Ingredients.

In a smaller bowl or pitcher, whisk together the water and sourdough starter. Stir this into the Dry Ingredients just until all of the flour is absorbed into a "shaggy" dough. (I like to use a Danish dough whisk for this-- see photo below.) 

Freshly mixed dough

A Danish dough whisk

Cover the bowl-- here are some options for that: 1.) cover with a fitted lid, if the bowl has one; 2.) cover with a damp towel and set a large board or pan lid over that; 3.) place the bowl inside of a large food-safe plastic bag and twist-tie it closed, leaving plenty of room for the dough to rise; 4.) scoop the dough into a covered proofing bucket, if you have one.

Let the dough rise at normal room temperature for about 12 hours (up to 18 hours). I start the dough in the evening and let it rise overnight, and plan to finish the bread in the morning. I mix the dough and set to rise about 9 pm, so that I can get it made into a loaf or loaves and rising again by 9:30 or 10 am the next morning.

After the first long rising, the dough should look softer and be doubled in size.

Don't stir the dough down. Cloak the dough with flour, and cover your work surface with a sheet of baking parchment or a silicone mat, flouring it well. Note: The dough will be quite sticky-- keep your hands and the parchment floured and use a bench knife/dough scraper to handle the dough whenever possible.

Using the dough scraper, scoop the dough onto the floured surface, sprinkle it with a little more flour and stretch the dough a little, folding it over on itself twice. 

Cover the dough with a domed lid or pot, or a damp tea towel, and let rest for 15 minutes.

NOTE:  If you don't plan to bake right away, you can refrigerate dough in a covered bowl or bucket, or even a zipper-lock bag, for up to 5 days.  Then take the dough out and let rise for 8-12 hours or overnight.  

While the dough is resting, get your pan(s), or whatever baking vessel(s) you are using, ready. Then choose the similar-sized and shaped vessel(s) in which you are going to rise the loaf or loaves. Cut a piece or pieces of baking parchment to fit into the rising vessel(s) with some overlap. Just lay it over the vessel and sprinkle the middle with flour. (NO OILING IS NECESSARY!)

After the 15 minutes are up, if you are making more than 1 loaf, cut the dough in half with the dough scraper. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to your work surface, or to your fingers, quickly shape dough (or dough halves) into ball, oval or loaf shape(s), depending on the shape of the vessel(s) in which you are going to bake the bread. Do this by folding the dough under itself. If making more than one loaf, I advise weighing the dough (on floured parchment) so that you have even loaves, but you can "eyeball" it. Note: The process will be a bit sticky and messy, but, with flour and a dough scraper, you'll get there!

Place the shaped dough seam-side-down on the parchment-lined rising vessel(s) you have prepared earlier and dust the top of the dough lightly with more flour. With scissors, cut off the excess parchment just above the top of the rim of the vessel, leaving just enough to be able to grasp on each end in order to transfer to the hot baking vessel(s) when the time comes.

Place the rising vessel(s) inside of a food-safe plastic bag and twist-tie it closed, leaving plenty of room for the dough to rise; or cover with damp tea towels; or use a proofing box, if you have one. Let rise at a normal room temperature, setting your kitchen timer to 1 hour. When that hour is up, place your baking vessel(s) (see Tips) in the oven and turn the oven to 475°F. Now set the timer for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, IF the loaves have doubled in size (if not, let rise some more until they do), transfer the risen loaf or loaves to the (hot!) baking vessel(s), using the parchment under the dough as a "lifter", and set the dough (parchment and all) into or on your baking vessel(s). (Don't worry-- it won't stick or burn!) Cover with the lid(s) and bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid(s), lower the heat to 350ºF and bake another 15 minutes, or until the bread is a beautiful crusty golden-brown. With hands protected by heat-resistant oven mitts, remove the bread immediately, discarding the parchment, and cool on a rack.

If you can resist, it is best to wait until the bread is cooled (mostly, at least!) before tasting.

Nutrition Facts

Nutrition (per serving): 60 calories, 2 calories from fat, less than1g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 157.3mg sodium, 48.2mg potassium, 12.7g carbohydrates, 1.4g fiber, less than1g sugar, 2.1g protein.

Tips

PANS FOR BAKING: (PS: This info is useful for baking all kinds of no-knead crusty breads.)

I have used all kinds of pans for baking this type of crusty bread, including an enamelled cast iron Dutch oven (8 1/2" across the bottom, 12" across the top, 5" deep), Granite Ware roasting pans of 3 sizes, and oval glazed ceramic casseroles with lids (I have one that is 9" x 6" x 3", and one that is 10" x 7 1/2" x 3". They can handle 2 to 2 1/2 lbs of dough respectively.) You could also use a deep cast iron skillet with a raised lid, even a Pyrex lid, over the top.

If you have a bread cloche (a stoneware or ceramic dish with a bell-shaped lid for baking round loaves), of course you can use that. I have a Pampered Chef Round Lid/Bowl Baker Roaster and matching Sassafras SuperStone Deep Dish Pizza/Pie Baker (I found them at a thrift store for a song!) that I haven't tried yet, but I plan to soon. (We are told not to preheat these before baking, but many bakers on Pampered Chef forums state that they do preheat them with no problem-- just don't spray them!) UPDATE: I baked this bread in the Pampered Chef combo mentioned above, with EXCELLENT results! See the photos at this post. You can also use a pizza stone with an overturned ceramic or cast iron or Granite Ware pot or roaster, or even the ceramic insert of your slow cooker, for the lid. If you Google "improvised bread bakers and cloches", you'll find lots of ideas, such as this from: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22370/my-improvised-la-cloche-thai-style

You can improvise a cloche for bread baking: a flower pot cloche. It's simply an inexpensive unglazed domed flower pot turned upside down on the matching rimmed dish that comes with it. The dish is 9 inches across the bottom, 11 inches across the top and 2 inches deep; the pot itself is 7 inches across the bottom, 10 inches across the top and 4 1/3 inches deep. Place the risen bread in the dish (with the baking parchment it rose in) and turn the flower pot upside down over it. You can plug the hole in the flower pot with a little wad of aluminium foil. (The bread never actually touches the clay, by the way.) This will set you back $10; a La Cloche Baker costs upwards of $50. (Alternatively, place the risen dough on a heated pizza stone and place a large overturned dome-shaped clay flower pot over the dough.)

What about unglazed "clay bakers" or terra cotta bakers (such as Romertopf)?

I didn’t think these would work at first, but as long as you soak the pot (both bottom and top) in cold water for 15 minutes before placing it in a cold oven to preheat, it works just fine! I have a number of them, bought cheaply at thrift stores. I have one Romertopf-wanna-be that is very much like the Romertopf 109 or 110 (3 to 5-pound size that measures 12 x 8 1/4 x 6-inches. All of my clay bakers 2 or 2 1/2 quart size.

Here is some different advice from a forum at http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15322/la-cloche-instructions

"Romertopf is good for any small loaf that needs steam

I have an older unglazed Romertopf and I used to use it for bread all the time. I always pre-heated it while the oven was heating up; sometimes I pre-soaked it and sometimes I didn't, and that didn't seem to make much difference. I mostly used it for no-knead, but I'd say it's good for any bread that is baked with steam. The main reason I stopped using it is that the breads I'm making these days won't fit inside it, so for baguettes and miches I switched to a stone and steam pan arrangement, or in some cases a bigger cloche. I now prefer this because I find it easier to load loaves on a flat surface than in the deeper Romertopf. But there's no question that the results it produced were terrific." (Note: there are large clay bakers, too.)

Lately, I have made conventional (but crusty) "sandwich loaves" by baking the dough in regular rectangular bread pans (metal or Pyrex) INSIDE of a large roaster.

Two 9 x 5" or 8 1/2 x 5" bread pans (with no handles), or two 7" round pans, or one 10" round pan will fit in a large oval roaster 15 1/2" long, 11" wide and 4" deep. (That's my largest oval roaster, but there are 18" and 19" ones, and even a rectangular one 21" x 15"!)

A medium oval roaster 12" long, 8" across and 3" deep will hold a 9 x 5 bread pan (with or without handles).

A small oval roaster 11" long, 7" across and 3" deep on it's own will hold a 2-3 lb. of dough, or it will hold a bread pan 8 1/2" x 4 1/4" x 2 1/2" OR 8" x 4" x 3".

Pre-heat the bread pans inside the roaster. Rise your bread in a pan or basket or anything else that will yield a loaf pretty much the size and shape to fit into the heated bread pan. When the oven comes up to temperature and the roasters and pans are hot, transfer the loaves (with the parchment) into the hot bread pans, cover the roaster and bake as directed.

UPDATE Jan. 14, 2016: I was lucky enough to find a large rectangular roaster in great shape at Value Village, and it only set me back about $4.00 Cnd-- a real bargain! (Actually it might be a Granite Ware roasting/baking pan with a roaster lid, but they fit together.) Below I'll post some pics I just took of the pans I can fit into it. I could probably also bake 3 short baguettes in this pan.

When used with the smaller pan on the bottom, the baking space is about 14 1/2 x 9 1/2".

When used with the larger pan on the bottom, the baking space is 14 x 9".

Three 8 x 4" bread pans fit perfectly.

One 9 x 5 plus two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" bread pans.

One 10" round pan plus one 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" bread pan.

Two 9 x 5" bread pans (with handles-- you might get 3 in without handles and edges).

Happy Baking!

I haven't been cooking much beyond soup, veggie sausages, and pasta these days, due to our situation, but earlier this week I decided to experiment with converting my 100% whole wheat sandwich bread to the no-knead technique, to make it easier and more flexible for busy home bakers.  Not everyone wants the crusty bread that the no-knead technique is so great for-- sometimes you want a softer bread, or sometimes you don't want to bother with baking on hot baking stones or in hot pots!

Master baker Peter Reinhart beginning his part of the seminar

(Sorry the seminar pictures are fuzzy-- I couldn't use a flash and I was quite far away!)


Saturday morning I had the opportunity to attend the no-knead artisan bread seminar at IACP, featuring my "bread hero" Peter Reinhart (author of several books, including The Bread Baker's Apprentice, which I have read cover to cover; Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, and his newest book, on the no-knead method, Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day).  "Co-starring" was Nancy Baggett, the author of many cookbooks, primarily about desserts, baking and bread.  Her latest is Kneadlessly Simple: Fabulous, Fuss-Free, No-Knead Yeast Breads.  I don't know Nancy's work as well as Peter's, but she's a lovely lady and a good teacher.

(There were two other participants in the seminar, Jean Duane and Silvana Nardone, who were teaching gluten-free breads, but the breads were all made with eggs, so I kind of zoned out on those, I'm afraid! Peter and Nancy's books are not vegan, but most of the breads [except the "enriched" ones] do not contain eggs, and, if they contain milk, non-dairy milks can be used, so their books are usable for vegans.)

Peter made a lovely no-knead Everyday Rye Sandwich Bread for us.



He started out making a sourdough rye starter, then chopping it into his no-knead dough ingredients. He's funny and approachable and very knowledgeable. I was very interested in his demonstration of folding a wet dough to strengthen the gluten. He explained that kneading "organizes" the gluten, but long, slow fermentation and the "stretch and fold" method can do the same thing without hand-kneading or machine kneading. He recommends doing this abut 4 times during the first rise, with 10 minute waits in between.

Here is a short explanation of what this "organization" is: "The plasticity and elasticity are made possible by the presence of an amazing composite of proteins within the wheat kernel, called gluten. These proteins in gluten are long chains of amino acids, some of the longest in the world, in fact, with chains around 1,000 amino acids long! The two major proteins in gluten are calledgliadins and glutenins. The gliadins (think of the word "glide") give the gluten its plasticity because they act kind of like ball bearings or a lubricant. They allow the other major protein, the chains of glutenins, to slide past each other without forming bonds. You can think of the glutenin molecules as long spring-like chains. As the dough is worked and kneaded, these glutenin molecules can link up with each other, end to end, to form super-long, spring-like chains. This makes a tight, coiled mesh, or net, called "the gluten," to trap the gas in, and this gives the dough its elasticity. All those springs want to "spring back" when they are stretched!"
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/FoodSci_p040.shtml

I haven't been using this technique with my no-knead breads so far, and they are still wonderful, but I found it enormously helpful when I made ciabatta buns with a very wet dough.

Here's a video of Peter demonstrating this method:


Here's Peter showing us how stretchy the dough is:


and then showing us the formed loaf:


His second bread was a lovely twisted and iced Chocolate-Cinnamon Babka, made with dark chocolate (both from his new book). Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice, so I couldn't take pictures of it, and it was a dough enriched with butter and eggs. However, I plan to try a vegan version soon!

Nancy Baggett made an Easy Oat Bread and a Crusty Seeded Cracked Wheat Pot Boule, both also from her newest book. She uses a different method than other no-knead creators have-- she uses a ICE water in her doughs to slow down the fermentation. I am waiting to get her book from the library (I have bought 4 new books lately, so I want to see if I can justify buying it first!), so I haven't tried her method yet, although I do have the print-out for his class and may try one of these loaves myself soon. Good reviews for this book on amazon, BTW.

Nancy demonstrating her dough (sorry about the fuzzy photo!):


What a privilege to attend a workshop with two such innovative bakers sharing their knowledge!

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That evening, Julie Hasson, Fran Costigan, Gail Davis Rahmy, and I made our way to the Willamette Week's "Eat Mobile" Food Cart Festival.  Gail  has a great description on her blog , not only of everything we ate, but our adventure trying to FIND it!!  Do visit there and see her photos and read the post!  One of my favorites was Asaase Ital Palace, one of only two totally vegan food carts represented at the festival. Their specialty is African-Caribbean/vegan-vegetarian cuisine. They served a tasty Jamaican beans and rice dish and a delicious faux "jerk chicken". I had a fun discussion with one of the owners, about keeping our cultural heritages with vegan food.


Asaase Ital Palace (Photo by Gail Davis Rahmy)

Another favorite was Mono Malo Tapas. Here's what Gail wrote: "("Mono Malo" means "Bad Monkey" in Spanish.) Their vegan-friendly food cart features Montaditos, bite-sized toasted bread slices with various savory toppings. When all was said and done, their grilled garlic and herb portabello with romesco sauce turned out to be one of my festival favorites. After my first taste, I went back for several more." So did I!! I NEED to replicate this! I have already bought some portobellos and I'm getting my smoker out!


Mono Malo Tapas (Photo by Gail Davis Rahmy)

AND, we got to have out picture taken with Peter Reinhart!


(Photo courtesy of Gail Davis Rahmy)

We were so stuffed after this that we couldn't even think of going out to dinner, so we trudged back across the bridge and sought out a place where we could sit and talk and have tea or coffee. Then we roamed around in Whole Foods, checking out new products, and i couldn't resist taking home two 1 1/2 lb. bags of organic powdered sugar-- only $2.99 a bag! It is so expensive where I live! (And I have several birthdays coming up in the family.)

It was a really fun day and such a pleasure to spend it with "kindred spirits"!

I'll report on my last day in Portland on Saturday!

PS: I found out when I got home that there is a Peruvian food cart in Portland and they serve vegan versions of their dishes!! See this article. Guess where I'm going on my next trip to Portland?

Cheers,