bread stuff: 3 parts. No-knead recipe, autolyse, regular kneaded dough.
Basic no-knead recipe:
- 1 lb flour (bread is better, AP works fine), approx 3 3/4 cup
- 1 pack (2 1/4 tsp) instant yeast
- 1 3/4 tsp salt (10 g)
- 1 1/2 cups warm water (120F) (360 g)
Thoroughly stir the dry ingredients together.
Keep stirring, and slowly add the water.
Feel free to add some flavourings, like caramelized onion, rosemary, other herbs, etc
Keep stirring, and it will eventually all come together. This can take anywhere from 3-15+ minutes.
Cover, and pop in the fridge for overnight (8+ hours, no more than 24).
Preheat oven to 450, and preheat your baking vessel with lid for 30 minutes. If you’re using a Dutch oven (preferred), make sure the interior is not the white kind because it will get a little scorched, and you can’t fix that, so use one with a dark interior. I use a Corningware baking dish and that works just fine.
If your dough was in the refrigerator, let it sit on a countertop for 10-15 minutes to warm up a bit so it’s easier to form.
Use a spatula to make sure the dough will separate from the bowl.
Pull the dough from one end, and fold it over. Turn the bowl 90 degrees, and repeat until the dough has formed into a nice ball, 9-10 flips.
Lightly flour work surface, and shape the ball so it’s nice and round. Think pottery.
Transfer the dough to a sheet of parchment paper, cover with a second sheet, cover all of that with a lint-free towel, and let rest for 15 minutes.
Using a super-sharp knife (or lamé, or straight razor blade, or kitchen shears and make a funky design) to cut a 1/4″ deep slit in the top, and that will control the final shape of the loaf. You can skip this and let nature do its thing and let the top bust open randomly.
Carry the dough using the bottom sheet of parchment paper, and carefully transfer into the Dutch oven. Please be careful because the cooking vessel is super hot.
Put the lid back on, and back for 30 minutes, remove the lid, and keep baking until the top is golden brown, about 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven, and let cool for 5 minutes, (some bakers recommend making a small cut approx 3 inches in the top where you scored it earlier, or along the natural crack), then transfer the bread to a cooling rack and let it come to room temperature(ish) before devouring.
Autolyse is the process by which you let water break down the enzymes in the flour before you add the yeast, salt, etc. It helps with the “extensibility”, which is gastro-nerd for “stretch without breaking”
Getting the flour all wet and resting helps starts the formation of gluten. 15-30 minutes is good, going longer might result in overly-chewy bread.
If you’re using harder wheats, esp whole wheat, autolyse up to 2 hours.
another note – dough hydration is the ratio of water : flour by weight.
Ciabatta, 73% hydration, all bread flour
Pain Rustique (rustic bread), 69% hydration, all bread flour
Country Bread, 68% hydration, all bread flour
Whole wheat bread, 68% hydration, 50/50 whole wheat and bread flour
Semolina (Durum) bread, 62% hydration, 50/50 durum and bread flours
65-75 is normal for “regular” bread