Monday, November 13

You May Need This

I tried the No-Knead Bread "adapted from Jim Lahey".

Partly because I found out the cast-iron pot I was planning to use was quite small (less than 4 quarts), I made some changes.

I used:

¼ teaspoon regular yeast (instead of rapid rise), mixed into
1 cup water; I added
2½ cups flour and
1 teaspoon salt

I turned on the heat in the oven and then shut it off, and put in the dough, then a few hours later turned it on and off again.

About eight hours later, the dough was risen (so rapid rise yeast would've been slower??), so I "refrigerated" it (actually I put it in the cold garage) overnight.

The next morning, I took it out and folded it over and left it on the floured cutting board about an hour to warm back up. Then I shaped it into baguettes, and placed them on the baguette mold (which I coated with bran) and covered them with a floured cloth to rise. After 1½ hours, they were obviously nearly ready, so I turned on the oven (where I had placed my quarry tiles) and dumped some water in pans in the bottom, then popped the filled mold in.

They puffed up in the oven and turned a nice golden brown, and although the crust was hard at first, it softened as soon as they cooled.

Still, the texture was the best I've ever made, including that time.

Next time, I'm going to try just using a chef as I did a few years ago.

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