I finally attempted Jim Lahey's famous No Knead bread recipe, and the result was pretty close to perfect. A moist, fluffy interior coupled with a chewy, firm crust - and the flavor was very well developed as well with the 18+ hour rise.
I made a few modifications to this otherwise very simple recipe. I used half bread flour and half all-purpose flour, and substituted a bit more active dry yeast for the instant yeast called for in the recipe (maybe 3/8 of a tsp instead of 1/4 tsp?). I also don't know if the dough truly bounced back and doubled in size during the second 2-hour rise, but it seemed good enough to me, so I went ahead and shaped and baked it without any problems :-)
I also used a Tramontina dutch oven, which I didn't realize is only supposed to be used up to 400 degrees (this recipe uses a 450 degree oven) so the enamel turned a dark color during the baking process - hopefully we are ok from having consumed the bread! And this is yet another push to actually invest in a Le Creuset dutch oven that can handle these temperatures.
In any case, this is a great bread recipe that I will definitely use again in the future. We ate the bread by itself, paired with butter and cheese, and ultimately for grilled cheeses a day later, and it held up beautifully for all of these purposes. I think my next round of bread making will involve substituting some whole wheat flour, as well as perhaps experimenting with adding some seeds or other whole grain flour? Looking forward to experimenting with this hopefully versatile base recipe!
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