Saturday, February 08, 2014

Baking Day :: Steps

For my friends who want to make No Knead or Dutch Oven Bread. We started dough last night, and now, about twelve hours later, it's time for them to take the next steps. If you would like an easy, and still delicious, bread, I cannot recommend this recipe enough! We are forever indebted to Alicia Paulson for pointing us in this direction!

Your dough is bubbly on the surface and it's risen a lot! Time to move on to the next part...

I prepare a surface with a dusting of flour.

Then I gently scrape down the dough, away from the bowl, so that I can invert the bowl and let the dough fall out and onto the floured surface.

Transfer complete! Now I dust my hands in flour and gently turn the dough into a ball.

Here we are. This is going to sit, covered, for fifteen minutes. Keep it someplace warmish, and if it's a dry or hot day, cover with plastic or a cloth that's a bit damp.

Here's the other half, from Linda's dough. After fifteen minutes… or twenty, or thirty. I will generously dust a baking sheet with flour, or cornmeal. Then flouring my hands, again, I will remove the dough from the bowl, and turn it into itself, forming a loaf, and setting it on the baking sheet, seam side down. I'll post more, soon! Janice, I hope this helps Dan.

Fifteen, or twenty, or thirty minutes later…

Your dough had a little rest. Flour the surface that you'll bake the bread on, and with well-floured hands pick up the ball of dough.

I'm tucking the sides of the dough in and forming a loaf… the part where the ends meet are called the seam, and you'll place the dough seam side down.

More shaping. The less handling the better… just be gentle.

Sometimes I make a round loaf. This will be a long loaf… rustic style. You could also set this in a bread pan. Be sure you've floured or lightly oiled whatever your baking your bread in or on.

Now cover your dough and let it have a final rise. A warm, but not hot spot, for about two hours. The dough is going to rise… approximately doubling in size. You'll know it's ready when you poke the dough and it doesn't spring back… you'll have a teeny dent that stays in the bread. Pre-heat the oven! 475 degrees… but I bake at 450 degrees in a convection oven, which if I understand it correctly is hotter, because of the fans??

When the oven is hot, in goes the dough, and you can expect to bake for at least 30 minutes. About fifteen minutes into baking I spray water from a bottle to create a cloud of steam. This makes a wonderful crust on the bread. Before I had a water bottle, I placed a small oven-proof dish in the oven, and in the middle of baking I tossed ice into the dish, so it would make the steam. Oven temps vary, and I rely on smell and sight. Bake your bread until it looks good enough to eat!

These two loaves were baked yesterday.

Crunchy crust, soft inside. Also, these have dill, onion, and poppy seeds.

Here is a round loaf, with no herbs.

Of course it's delicious hot, but be sure you have a serrated knife and you saw the bread, without pressing down. Hot bread that gets crushed will get dense and doughy. Gosh, I hope you have butter on hand, or fresh eggs! Enjoy.

1 comment:

  1. This is just what I need, my hands have become to weak to knead bread. When I made bread last weekI had my husband come and do the kneading for me. I'm going to try this one.


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