Comments on: No-Knead Bread, Version 2

By: Nancy Baggett

Nancy Baggett — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:28:51 +0000

In response to your comment that after a week in the refrigerator the dough was difficult to work with–I think that this often happens when dough is kept that long. I was surprised that you didn’t find that it rose poorly and tasted strong, too–as I’ve experienced this after refrigerating a dough for more than just a couple days. If you are still looking for an improved no-knead recipe, I hope you’ll give the several free no-knead breads on my website a try–I believe that you will find the flavor better than most no-knead breads, and the method very simple. All my recipes use a slightly different method from most recipes out there–a cold water slow-rise method that I feature in my Kneadlessly Simple cookbook. Happy Baking!

By: David

David — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:53:55 +0000

I have plenty of dough left from this batch, so I’ll try less flour and shallower cuts.

How much of the flour and water go into the preferment?

How much work is involved in maintaining a sourdough starter?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:10:02 +0000

Very nice looking loaf, glad my suggestions were helpful. I think the reason you got that flap is because you a) slashed a bit too deep, and b) overdid it with the flour dusting. It’s always best to use a light hand with bench flour, because it can dry out the crust, which makes it leathery and less extensible. Instead of stretching, it peeled.

As for getting more flavor into the bread: aside from swtiching to a sourdough starter (highly recommended, let me know if you want a clone), you might want to try making a preferment with the yeast and part of the flour & water the night before, and use it instead of (or in addition to) the yeast in the final dough.

By: Adina

Adina — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:28:19 +0000

Yes, that’s the one–I just plopped the dough into a pre-heated enameled-cast-iron pot to bake. Bittman has a follow-up article with a whole wheat variation that I’m going to try next.

Amusingly, Bittman’s first article says that a 4-year-old probably couldn’t make this, but I actually got my recipe from a blog called Steamy Kitchen, where the author took pictures of her 4-year-old son doing the mixing.

By: David

David — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:37:18 +0000

You made the recipe that you bake in a cast-iron pot, yes? That's the original version I read about in The New York Times. Cook's Illustrated has a variation that uses beer to add additional flavor, but I haven't tried it yet. You should check out this article by Harold McGee, and the embedded video in which Mark Bittman revisits the original no-knead recipe.

By: Adina

Adina — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:29:59 +0000

Last week I made basic no-knead bread, (the one where you just make one batch of dough and let it rise overnight, without refrigeration) and it came out very well. I will probably stop buying breads from Iggy’s, because I can now make something almost as good. The crust was shatteringly crisp, the inside was light and just chewy enough, and it was very, very tasty.

A friend of mine has been making bread using the _Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day_ method, and the loaf that I tried was good, but not that tasty. That sounds like what you’re getting, so you may want to experiment with the non-refrigerated method to see if it you like it better.