The time has come to make delicious and easy bread at home

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Mark Bittman demonstrates how to make no-knead bread.

video

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A little more than two years ago, Mark Bittman and Jim Lahey got together and transformed home bread making for all time. In the kitchen of Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery, they shot a video illustrating Lahey’s simple method for making a top-quality loaf with no special equipment—and no kneading whatsover. If you haven’t seen it, you really have to watch it (damn The New York Times for not making its videos embeddable.)

Bittman wasn’t exaggerating when he wrote at the time:

INNOVATIONS in bread baking are rare. In fact, the 6,000-year-old process hasn’t changed much since Pasteur made the commercial production of standardized yeast possible in 1859. The introduction of the gas stove, the electric mixer and the food processor made the process easier, faster and more reliable.

I’m not counting sliced bread as a positive step, but Jim Lahey’s method may be the greatest thing since.

It’s no joke: Lahey’s technique counts as an honest-to-goodness innovation in bread-making—and one that genuinely empowers home cooks. Lahey delivered two masterstrokes: 1) by letting dough sit overnight, its glutens develop without the need for kneading; and 2) by cooking the dough in a blazing hot, tight lidded, heavy-bottomed pot, you mimic the conditions of a fancy bakery oven.

The early adapters to Lahey’s idea were people like me: passionate home cooks who had for years laboriously kneaded dough to make pretty-good home bread. With the exception of those truly hardcore fanatics among us, those willing to spend days on a loaf, we were making good bread, but not getting the rustic, chestnut-colored crusts and soft, air-hole-marked crumb of truly great bread. To have that in your life, you generally had to live near one of the country’s few excellent bakeries.

For us, Lahey’s technique was a revelation. I sometime miss the physical process of kneading, the feeling of getting one’s hands into one’s food, but I’ve been using the no-knead method ever since the Bittman article came out.

[Jenn! 918]

Wow, that's awesome! I am going to try it, thanks!

[mawilson 2,133]

In the kitchen of Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery

Hey, my favorite bakery!

Their bread is absolutely amazing.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Way cool! I've done the baking part before baking bread in a closed pot placed in and covered by the ashes of a hot fire while doing historic re-enactments but I've always kneaded the dough. I'm going to try letting the dough rest for 12 plus hours and then bake it - it looks great!.

Edited March 1, 2010 by Kathryn41

[Welshcookie 17]

I am so going to try this tomorrow!

[Danno 1,228]

Good post

[SMR 368]

I'm definitely going to try this. Marina is missing real bread.

So, does anybody know why the US has no decent bread at a decent price? In Russia, every little grocery store has a good supply of real white bread and dark bread for 20-50 cents a loaf. And these are big 700 gram loaves. I could accept a somewhat higher price in the US since wages are higher, but we have nothing. Do people really like the pre-processed wonder bread ####### that much more?

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

I've been using Cooks Illustrated's version of this, "Almost No-Knead Bread," for a couple of years now. They tweaked the recipe just a little bit, and include just 10-15 turns of kneading. It always comes out great!

ALMOST NO KNEAD BREAD

White Flour Recipe:

3 cups (15 oz.) all-purpose or bread flour

1/4 tsp. instant or rapid rise yeast

1 1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. (7 oz.) water at room temp

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. (3 oz.) mild flavored lager (can be non-alcoholic)

1 tbsp. white vinegar

Whole Wheat Recipe:

2 cups (10 oz.) all-purpose or bread flour

1 cup (5 oz.) whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp. instant or rapid-rise yeast

1 1/2 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. honey

3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. (7 oz.) water at room temp

1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp. (3 oz.) mild flavored lager

1 tbsp. white vinegar

Whisk the flour, yeast and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the water, beer and vinegar. Using a spatula, fold the mixture together, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl, until a ragged ball forms. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for 8-18 hours while dough rises.

Place a sheet of parchment paper inside a 10-inch skillet and spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer the dough to a lightly-floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape the dough into a ball by pulling the edges into the middle.

Transfer the dough, seam-side down, to the parchment-lined skillet and spray the top of the dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back with poked with a finger.

About 30 minutes before baking, place a heavy (enameled cast-iron) Dutch oven with lid inside the oven. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Uncover the dough, lightly flour the top, and using a sharp knife, cut a 6-inch long slit along the top of the dough.

When the pot has heated in the oven for 30 minutes, carefully remove it from the oven and take off the lid. Pick up the dough by lifting the parchment paper and lower into the pot (let any excess parchment paper hang of the edge of the pot.) Cover and place the pot back in the oven.

Reduce the temperature to 425 degrees, and bake covered for 30 minutes. Then remove the lid, and bake for another 20-30 minmutes, until the crust is brown and the center registers 210 degrees.

Carefully remove bread from pot, transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Edited March 1, 2010 by wife_of_mahmoud

[chri'stina 190]

I have a bread recipe that is also super easy, I will have to post if it I still have it around. I haven't made it since...um, Kavi was born. A lot of my more time consuming cooking/baking has been neglected for a couple years now. But it was an easy bread, you don't need a pot and it can be made in less than 2 hours I believe. I also have a recipe for a wheat bread with cinnamon sugar oats filling. We got both recipes from a lady who runs a delicious small eatery out of her home.

[Danno 1,228]

I'm definitely going to try this. Marina is missing real bread.

So, does anybody know why the US has no decent bread at a decent price? In Russia, every little grocery store has a good supply of real white bread and dark bread for 20-50 cents a loaf. And these are big 700 gram loaves. I could accept a somewhat higher price in the US since wages are higher, but we have nothing. Do people really like the pre-processed wonder bread ####### that much more?

Yeah of all the things, my wife seems to miss bread the most.

On the other hand, there are so many foods she loves that she could not get in St Petersburg that I guess it's a even trade-off.

Of course they do sell bread at the Russian Food Store (we have like 5 of them now) but they are six bucks for a small loaf, too much for her.

She seems to like the $1.50 french bread at wallmart bakery for some reason.

BOught her a bread machine for Christmas so we have been experimenting a little with that too.

Q:Why does store-bought bread stay fresh so much longer?

[mawilson 2,133]

Q:Why does store-bought bread stay fresh so much longer?

A: Because it contains a lot of #######.

Edited March 1, 2010 by mawilson

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Anyone wanna make me a sandwich? I'm starving.

[Amby 490]

cool...I have crazy dreams of building my own outdoor brick oven all by myself...it'll never happen but I think about it. maybe I will try to convince one of my uncles it's a good idea then he can do it

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Nani makes great home-made bread - Ethiopian style. No kneading there either.

There's nothing like a good German bakery bread, though. One of the few things I really, really miss.