# Homemade Artisan Bread!



## sprtsracer (Apr 27, 2005)

Don't know how many of you have ever heard of Jim Lahey's method of "No-Knead" bread, but I'm making a batch of it! Essentially, it takes about 5 minutes to put the ingredients together and combine them. Then, it sits and rises for 18-24 hrs. A final rise of about an hour and it's ready to bake. VERY LITTLE prep time, no fuss, and it's baked in a dutch oven! Preheat the dutch oven, then throw in the bread, covered with the lid and place back in the oven for 30 min. Take off the lid and bake for another 15-30 min. and it's done! 10 minutes of your time, at the most, and you have fresh bread when you need it! Nice big round loaf of crusty European bread! Just did my 5 minute mix. I'll let it sit overnight, and bake it tomorrow eve. I'll let you know how it turned out...and if it's good, I'll post the recipe and instructions. I'll also try to take some pics!


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## sprtsracer (Apr 27, 2005)

*Pics and recipe!*

This turned out fantastic and was super easy!

3 cups or 400 grams bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon INSTANT yeast (not Rapid Rise!)
1 1/3 cup cool (55 - 65 degree) water
wheat bran, cornfeal or flour for dusting

Mix together flour, salt and yeast in a Medium bowl. Add water and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until you have a wet sticky dough...about 30 seconds. If it isn't sticky to the touch, add another tablespoon or two of water. Cover bowl with a plate, plastic wrap or similar and let set at room temperature out of sunlight until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size. This will take, believe it or not, anywhere from 12 - 18 hours. Remember, you are not proofing the yeast and not adding any sugar, so the rise will take longer. This is the key to the bread's flavor.

When the first rise is complete, generously dust your work surface with flour, cornmeal or wheat bran. Using a spatula or bowl scraper, scrape the dough out onto the floured surface in one piece. You should see long thin strands of dough clinging to the bowl. This is the developed gluten and is quite stringy...which is why you use bread flour instead of all-purpose. DO NOT add anymore flour! Use lightly floured hands or the spatula to lift the edges to the center (kind of folding it) and tuck in to make a round loaf.

Place a large cloth tea towel or large napkin...not napped or terry cloth...on the surface and generously dust the towel with flour, cornmeal or whatever you used before. Use your hands or spatula to move the clump onto the center of the towel, seam side down. If dough is still tacky, dust the top with flour and fold the ends of the towel loosely over the top and let rise for one - 2 hrs. until it is doubled in size. Poke the top with your finger and it should hold the indentation. If it springs back, let rise for another 15 minutes or so.

Half an hour before the end of the 2nd rise, preheat the oven to 475 with a rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven, and place a 5 1/2 to 7 1/2 quart covered cast iron dutch oven in the center of the rack to preheat as well.

When ready, use potholders to remove the pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel, lightly dust the dough with flour, lift up the towel and gently but quickly invert it into the pot, seam side up. Cover the pot, place back in oven, and bake for 30 minutes. 

Remove lid and contunue baking another 15 to 30 minutes more, until the bread is a deep chestnut color but not burned. Carefully remove the bread from the pot and...this is important...place on a cooling rack for at least an hour. Resist the temptation to cut it immediately, no matter how good it smells!

I know this sounds complicated, but it isn't. Takes 5 minutes to prepare the dough for the 1st rise, and 5 minutes for the second rise. The rest is just waiting. Trust me, it's worth it!


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## tjbjornsen (Oct 31, 2009)

I just got turned on to this around Christmas, and have been a complete freak for it since.
This bread has no right whatsoever to be this good, considering how little effort and know-how it takes.
The first loaf I made came out perfect, as has every one since. Every time I make one I stand there and marvel at what I've just done. 
I'm a pretty good cook, but had always shied away from the bread thing, thinking that it was some sort of secret mystery that I could never master.
Just last night I did a loaf of the regular, and a loaf of rye.
The rye is great - you would think that you had just left a NY Jewish Deli.
I used the Lahey rye recipe, with the addition of a corn starch wash brushed over it before baking, and caraway seeds added to the loaf, and sprinkled on top. The corn starch wash helps the caraway seeds to stick to the loaf.
For the rye dough, you substitute 100 grams of rye flour for the same amount of regular flour. So it is 300 grams regular & 100 grams of rye.
You also increase the amount of yeast to 1/2 tspn, because the rye flour has less protein, and needs more yeast to rise.
For the wash, take 1/4 tspn cornstarch and add just enough water to mix into a thick paste. Then add in a 1/2 cup of cold water, and whisk until smooth.
Then microwave on high (or boil) for 2-3 minutes, until the surface is kind of glassy. Give it another stir, and brush on top of the loaf right before dropping in the pot. Gives the crust a beautiful sheen, and all of the caraway seeds don't fall off while baking.
But this whole No Kneed bread thing is nothing short of magic.
Tom


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