Homemade Bread

Making bread just never crossed my mind.... until I read a bread making post on Allie's blog Finding Inspiration in Food. Geez, this does not look that hard. Her post led me to Jersey Girl Cooks where Lisa unveils her first attempt at making bread. Is it really this easy??? When Mark Bittman published a story in the New York Times about Jim Lahey's (Sullivan Street Bakery) No Knead Bread it became quite the rage in the blogging community a few years back. I decided I wanted a rustic round bread vs. the flat bread and went for the Jim Lahey recipe. Allie's is definitely on my list to try too! Granted you have to plan ahead to make this, but it is super easy. Even when I thought it was not going to come out right as when I was prepping it to rise for 2 hours it was quite sticky and certainly did not look like the picture that Jaden shows on Steamy Kitchen Modern Asia it came out perfect! The smell of fresh bread baking made me feel like I was a baker extraordinaire when in fact I am just your average Josephine who likes to cook and bake.

I baked the bread in a 5 quart Lodge cast iron covered pot. Mind you I purchased this about an hour before baking. I had realized the night before that I only had a 2 1/2 quart Pyrex and wanted something larger. You can try different sized and shaped pots whether you want round or oblong, etc. There is danger in living 10 minutes from the Wrentham Outlets, but in situations like this a quick stop at the Williams Sonoma outlet had me in and out the door quickly and I left with my new 5 quart pot for $36. My dear husband drove me so I did not have to worry about parking. Bribed him with the fresh baked bread for lunch story....

While the bread was baking I chopped up leftover Rotisserie chicken, added some chopped onions and celery, and mixed in 2 Tbsp of Marie's Low Fat blue cheese dressing. You know where this is going. Once the bread was done and cooled I topped a slice (or two) with some chicken salad. Heavenly!

Lastly, here is the link on You Tube to Mark Bittman and Jim Sullivan making the bread:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU

P.S. My photos show the way I interpreted the recipe. I am definitely going to check a few sites to see how I can reduce it from being so sticky prior to rising. Bottom line is I don't think you can really mess up this recipe.

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water (that's 1 and 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp), 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.

I started my dough the night before and it ended up sitting for 18 hours.

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.

During the above step, my dough was very sticky so grabbing the camera for a photo was not an option. I was a little hesitant on using too much flour, but will try next time.

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.

This photo is after I dumped it into the pan prior to baking. Be sure to shake the pan so the dough gets distributed evenly

Here is the bread at the 30 minute mark when you remove the lid. It's really coming out nicely.

After removing the lid I baked for about an additional 18 minutes.


Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

A few shots of the finished product: