Okay, I’m getting back to baking bread, after a long time without doing so. My family enjoys whole wheat, but ONLY if it has a definite sweet taste. Not a dessert bread or sweetbread, just the distinct sweetness that you find in some wheat breads. (My favorite to buy is is Orowheat’s Best Winter Wheat bread.) We also like nuts or seeds in the bread---no raisins.
If anyone has recipes that would meet these parameters, I’d love to have them. Also, does anyone know whether I could take a regular whole wheat bread recipe that looked pretty good and maybe add a bit extra honey or sugar to sweeten it a bit more?
Thanks for any advice.
Genoa---Check the web site www.thefreshloaf.com this is a great site and a lot of sharing like the wiki. Good luck.
Hillbilly Bill – at 21:06 On using sourdough starter: One more question, if no refrigeration, will the starter be OK at room temp?
I’ve made provision for not having any fresh milk, eggs, butter, etc. I really need to learn to be able to make bread without yeast.
Old Fashioned Sourdough Bread
Capturing the Wily Wild Yeast Starting your own sourdough is quite easy. It is actually two cultures in a slurry of flour and water. There is a yeast colony in there, to be sure, but there is also a colony of lactobacilli. These two colonies are symbiotic and support each other once they are established.
Vigorously stir up a batter consisting of half a cup of flour and half a cup of b water, put the batter in your glass container, put the container in a warm spot, and wait. The batter will start to ferment fairly quickly, and you have created a sourdough. It’s that easy. There are, as I said, yeast spores anywhere you are likely to be, and there are even spores clinging to the flour granules. There are lactobacilli everywhere, too. These free-living microorganisms are all you need to start a sourdough culture.
The Care and Feeding of a Sourdough in Captivity A new sourdough “starter” such as the one you just created can smell pretty ghastly. I don’t pay any attention to the smell of a new starter, since I know it will be nasty. Be patient. I have found that even very “barfy”-smelling sourdoughs mellow out after a few days, after the yeast and the lactobacilli stabilize their relationship. My primary sourdough, the one I use most often, smells fairly yeasty now and makes tasty, mild bread, but it started out smelling terrible.
Your new sourdough is young and needs special care for the first few days. Taking care of it will be easy once you realize what it is you actually have. You have a flour and water mixture that is providing a home and a food supply for symbiotic colonies of yeast and lactobacilli. To keep your little community healthy, simply feed it and keep it away from excessive heat and metal containers. (The lactobacilli give off acid. This acid protects the bacilli and the yeast from invaders, but it also reacts with metal containers, tarnishing the container and contaminating the sourdough with harmful metal compounds.)
While your sourdough is young, you should feed it every 24 hours. Here is a good routine for that chore: Pour the sourdough into a clean glass or plastic bowl. Thoroughly wash and dry the glass container that houses your sourdough. Discard half of your sourdough. Mix a half-cup of flour and a half-cup of water into your remaining sourdough. Blend well. Return your sourdough to its glass container. Return the container to its warm spot. This feeding routine provides a renewed food supply for your culture and reduces your population of “yeasties and beasties” by discarding half your sourdough. Reducing the population assures that there is plenty of food available for the remaining microorganisms.
For the first three or four feedings, you probably should use rye flour to feed your sourdough. Rye is good for beginning a sourdough because it contains a lot of sugar that the yeast can get to easily. After a few feedings, however, you may wish to begin feeding with an increasing proportion of another flour - bread flour, for example. - since rye will flavor and darken your bread. If you don’t want that, start introducing another flour.
After three or four feedings, you should have a robust sourdough that begins getting bubbly fairly quickly after each feeding. If not, continue feeding for two or three more days. If it still doesn’t seem active, you probably should start the process over again. I’ve had that happen. The culture just never seems to get on its feet.
If your sourdough is vigorous, it’s time to move it from its warm spot to the refrigerator, and to start feeding it either weekly or after every use. Note, however, that if your sourdough still smells nasty after this long, you may have captured a bad yeast. You have the option of starting over, whether the colony is robust or not, or of trying it out in a loaf of bread.
A Word on Hooch “Hooch” is the liquid that forms on the surface of a sourdough, especially an established sourdough kept in a refrigerator. This is harmless stuff. Just stir it back into your sourdough before each use or feeding.
Baking with Sourdough To make simple sourdough bread, follow these steps: Remove your starter from your refrigerator. Stir the hooch back into it. If you have time, let it sit and warm up before you proceed. Mix up a batter of one cup of bread flour and one cup of room-temperature or lukewarm - not hot! - water, then add one half cup of your sourdough starter. Blend thoroughly. This creates what sourdough bakers call a “sponge”. Now feed your remaining sourdough and return it to the ‘fridge. Let your sponge sit in a warm spot until it gets bubbly. Sourdough bakers call this process “proofing”, which just means fermenting. Don’t let it proof excessively long - the yeast will deplete this new food supply and start to die off - but I’ve left a sponge proofing overnight and still made good bread with it. When the sponge is nice and bubbly, add 4 ½ cups bread flour, 1 cup water, and 2 teaspoons salt to it. Sifting the flour is probably a good idea, but I don’t always bother. Mix these ingredients thoroughly. Flours differ in their absorbency, so your dough may need adjusting. If necessary, add small amounts of flour (if the dough is too wet) or water (if it’s too dry) to get your dough to the right consistency. Judging the “right consistency” is a skill you will have to learn by experience; it is difficult to describe the feel and consistency of a good dough. The ball of dough is soft, but you can pick it up without tearing it, and it won’t seem intent on oozing out of your hand at the first opportunity. Knead your dough on a floured surface. Many recipes call for 10 minutes or so of kneading, but I don’t knead that long. Maybe I should, but I’m usually content with two or three minutes. Form the dough into a ball and put it in an oiled or greased bowl. Roll it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with a towel and set it in a warm spot. Let the dough rise to double its original size. This will probably take at least two hours; it could take considerably longer.
Sourdough bread usually rises more slowly than bread made with commercial yeast. (On occasion, I’ll proof a sponge overnight, mix up my dough in the morning, let it rise while I’m at work, and finish the bread that evening. Sourdough baking is not for the impatient.)
When your dough has risen, remove it from the bowl, knead it lightly, and divide it into two equal portions. Form each half into roughly loaf shape. Drop these into greased medium loaf pans, cover them with a towel, and set them in a warm spot to rise a little. I generally don’t wait for them to double in size again, but that’s one option. Put the loaves into a cold oven. Set the oven to 350 degrees and bake your bread for about 40 minutes. Watch your bread, and learn to thump the tops of the loaves. If the tops are firm and starting to brown, and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped, it’s done.
Another Sourdough Starter Boil three or four potatoes in a non-metallic pot until they disintegrate, and cool them to room temperature without draining. Stir vigorously to make a gruel of the softened potatoes, adding water if needed to make about 2 cups of liquid. Combine the potato gruel with 2 to 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1 to 2 tablespoons of sugar in the sourdough pot and mix with a non-metallic spoon. The starter should be thick and creamy but not stiff. You can thin it with water or thicken it with flour when necessary. If a few lumps remain, the sourdough bubbles soon will break them up. If you need to use your pot for other purposes, transfer contents to a glass bowl. Cover the pot or bowl loosely with cheesecloth and set it in a warm place to encourage fermentation. When the mixture begins to bubble after a day or two, nourish the sourdough by stirring in another half cup each of flour and water. Add another teaspoon of sugar, too, and let the pot stand again. The starter is ready to use when it is full of bubbles and gives off a good, clean sour aroma. In temperate climates this usually takes 3 to 5 days.
Maintaining Your Starter Sourdough maintenance will soon become automatic. Leave at least a half cup of starter in your pot after measuring out what you need for a recipe. Rebuild your sourdough by adding equal amounts of flour and water to the pot, stirring in 1/2 cup of each for every cup of starter used. After a few hours in a warm place the starter will be bubbly again. Store your replenished pot in the refrigerator, covered, but not sealed shut, and use it at least once every two weeks. For longer storage it can be frozen. Cold will make the starter sluggish. Revive it the night before it’s needed by stirring in a little flour and warm water and letting the pot stand at room temperature while you sleep. Add an occasional spoonful of sugar if your starter needs perking up. A clear liquid forming on top of your pot is natural; just stir it back in. If mould forms on the starter or if it turns colour, toss it out and begin again. Occasionally you should transfer the starter to another container while you scrub your pot or bowl. Avoid using metal bowls or utensils when working with sourdough. Prolonged contact with acids in sourdough starter will corrode metal surfaces. Bread may be baked in metal baking pans with no ill effect, however.
Sourdough Bread Makes 2 loaves Sourdough breads may rise up to three times and can take 12 hours or more to make, but they’re worth the wait. You can hurry them along by adding ¼ ounce of dry yeast to the warm water. 1 cup sourdough starter 2 cups lukewarm water 5 to 7 cups all-purpose flour, divided 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup cooking oil 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon soda In a large non-metallic bowl, combine starter, water and 2–3 cups of the flour. Stir in sugar, oil and salt. Cover with plastic wrap and let the sponge rise in a warm place until doubled, about 6–8 hours. Stir sponge down, sprinkle evenly with soda and add enough of the remaining flour to make a dough stiff enough to clean the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10–15 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, lightly oil top of dough, cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place 3–4 hours. Punch down, turn out onto floured board and knead firmly about 10 times. Divide dough in half and form into 2 loaves. Place in greased 9″ x 5″ loaf pans and let dough rise until it reaches to tops of the pans, about 3 to 5 hours. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until medium brown.
Aunt Cora’s Biscuits Yield: 4 Servings
1 1/2 c Sifted unbleached flour 3 ts Baking powder 1 ts Salt 1 1/2 ts Baking soda * 2 tb Sugar 1/4 c Shortening, melted 1 1/2 c Sourdough starter
very sour. Place flour in bowl, add starter in a well, then add melted shortening and dry ingredients. Mix lightly and turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead until the consistency of bread dough, or of a satiny finish. Pat or roll out dough to 1/2 inch thickness, cut and put on a greased pan. Coat all sides of biscuits with melted butter. Let rise over boiling water for 1/2 hour. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes
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Classic Sourdough Bread
1 cup sourdough starter 1 1/3 cups warm water 5 c all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda — cornmeal to sprinkle
THE SPONGE:
Pour 1 c of starter into a large ceramic mixing bowl. Feed and then refrigerate the remainder. Add to the starter in the mixing bowl, the warm water and about 3 c of flour. Beat vigorously with a spoon or wire whisk. Cover this sponge with plastic wrap and put it aside to work. This time period can be very flexible, but allow at least 2 hours and as many as 24. The longer it has, the more yeast there will be for the second rise and the more pronounced the sour flavor of the bread will be.
THE DOUGH:
After sponge has bubbled and expanded, remove plastic wrap. Blend salt, sugar and baking soda into 2 c of flour. Mix this into sponge with large spoon. When dough begins to hold together, turn it out onto floured board and knead it for 3 or 4 minutes. Add flour as needed to make a fairly stiff dough.Give the dough a rest and clean the bowl. Continue kneading for another 3 or 4 minutes. Place the dough back in the bowl turning it to grease the top. Cover and let rise for 2 to 4 hours.If you want, you can skip the second rise in the bowl and proceed directly to the next step.
SHAPING AND BAKING THE LOAVES:
Knock down the dough and shape it into 2 long loaves. Place them on a cornmeal sprinkled cookie sheet, cover and let them
rise for another 2 hours or so.Toward the end of the rising period, preheat your oven to 450F and begin heating a kettle of
water on your stove. Just before you put them in the oven, slash the tops of your loaves diagonally with a knife 1/4″ deep
every two inches and brush with cold water.Place a baking pan on the oven bottom and put in 3 or 4 cups of boiling water. Put
the loaves on the rack over the steaming water, close the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.
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Sourdough Pizza Shells
1 cup sourdough starter 1 tablespoon shortening — melted 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup flour
Mix ingredients, working in the flour until you have a soft dough. Roll out into a flat shape. Dash oil over a dough sheet and place dough on it. Bake about 5 minutes.
It doesn’t take long, so watch carefully. Have pizza sauce and topping ready and make pizza as usual. Then bake as usual.
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Basic Sourdough Bread**
1 cup sourdough starter 2 1/2 cups flour 2 cups warm water 3 3/4 c flour — (3 3/4 to 4 1/4) 3 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Cold water Mix 1 st 3 ingreds. in 3 qt. glass bowl with wooden spoon until smooth. Cover; let stand in warm, draft-free place for 8 hours. Add 3–3/4 C flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and oil to the mixture in bowl. Stir with wooden spoon until smooth and flour is completely absorbed. (Dough should be just firm enough to gather into a ball. If necessary, add remaining 1/2 C flour gradually, stirring until all flour is absorbed.) Turn dough onto heavily floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl; turn greased side up. Cover; let rise in warm place until double, about 1–1/2 hours. (Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.) Punch dough down; divide into halves. Shape each half into a round, slightly flat loaf. Do not tear dough by pulling. Place loaves in opposite corners of greased cookie sheet. Make three 1/4″ deep slashes in each loaf. Let rise until double, about 45 minutes. Heat oven to 375. Brush loaves with cold water. Place cookie sheet in center of oven; it should not touch the sides of the oven. Bake, brushing occasionally with water, until loaves sound hollow when tapped, about 50 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets; cool on wire racks.
Be sure to let dough rise completely both times - it might take longer than the estimated times given.
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Alaska Sourdough Pancakes—ALOT
1 cup sponge 2 cups flour 2 cups milk 2 eggs 1 teaspoon soda 3 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons baking powder
Put starter in large bowl. Add 2 cups flour and 2 cups milk. Mix well and cover. Leave in warm place overnight. Next morning take out 1 cup starter. Leave room temperature 12 hours. To remaining sponge add 2 eggs, 1 tsp soda, 2 tb surgar, 1 ts salt, 2 tsp baking powder. Mix well. Cook on hot griddle. For smaller mixture take out 2 cups starter and use 1/2 the ingredients.
For when you get tired of tortillas, give homemade English Muffins a try;
English Muffins
3 tbsp.sugar
1 tsp. salt 1 pkg. active dry yeast 5 c. all-purpose flour 1 1/2 c. milk (can use reconstituded dry ) 1/4 c. butter or margarine 1 egg 2 tbsp. yellow cornmeal Salad oil
. In large bowl, combine sugar, salt, yeast and 1 1/2 cups flour. In 1 quart saucepan over medium heat, heat milk and butter or margarine until very warm (120 to 130 degrees). Butter or margarine does not need to melt completely. With mixer at low speed, gradually beat liquid into dry ingredients until just blended. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. Gradually beat in egg and 1 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter; continue beating 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl. With spoon, stir in enough additional flour (about 2 cups) to make a stiff dough. Turn dough into lightly floured surface and knead just until well mixed, about 2 minutes. Shape dough into a ball and place in greased large bowl, turning dough over so that the top is greased. Cover with towel; let rise in warm place (80 to 85 degrees), away from draft, until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down dough. Turn dough into lightly floured surface; cover with bowl for 15 minutes and let dough rest. Meanwhile, place cornmeal in a pie plate. With lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough about 3/8 inch thick. With 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut dough into circles; reroll scraps to make 18 circles. Dip both sides of each circle in cornmeal; place circles about 1 inch apart on 2 small cookie sheets. Cover with towel; let rise in warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes. Lightly brush 12-inch skillet with salad oil. Warm skillet until hot over medium heat. Place 6 circles in skillet; cook 8 minutes on each side or until browned. Repeat with remaining circles. Cool muffins on wire rack. If using later, wrap with plastic wrap or foil. Just before serving, split each muffin horizontally in half with tines of fork; toast in toaster until golden; serve hot. Makes 18 English muffins. The softer the dough the more nooks and crannies.
bump
I’ve got some very old whole wheat flour that I stored in my fridge for years, then stored in a canister on a shelf all summer. It smells a little bit off. However, the bread baked with it tastes just fine. Glad I didn’t throw the flour away.
I’ve been having problems with my bread falling (I’m at 5200 ft altitude) when I leave it in the bread machine for the whole cycle. I did some by hand to compare, and had no problem, but probably had more flour in it to get the right consistency for kneading. Maybe the old fashioned way is best. I cut down the yeast & liquid somewhat - maybe more is needed if I keep using the bread machine.
Next is experiments with the solar oven. I’ll have to time it right to get the bread in the solar oven between 12–1 pm to hit the maximum solar.
Has anybody tried baking yeast bread in wide-mouth canning jars painted black in a solar oven? If so, how does that compare with baking the bread in dark metal cans?
Mari – at 22:15
Mari, I’ve found bread machines to be a little more sensitive on the ingredient ratio than when you are making it by hand. <shrug>
I’ve heard of using dark pans to cook bread in a solar oven, but not jars.
I can’t vouch for any solar oven cooking ( YET ) but I can vouch for the darker pans gathering alot more heat. I recently bought the new, darker pans, and I’m having to learn all over…had alot of burned things go out the door to the birds already . :-(
So far, I’ve has 2 bread machines go bad on me…the douch will have risen twice, SHOULD be on to the baking cycle, but instead, the machine does another kneading and right away starts the bake cycle….They made very nice building blocks ! :-( So now I only use the machine to do the kneading…. it’s less frustrating for me.
BTW; if anyone needs a new sourdough starter….it’s not hard to “capture” the wild yeast….no need to buy from San Fransisco !
Oooo….that should be DOUGH ! LOL !! Sorry.
Genoa- I learned to bake bread from my aunt and my MIL both of whom had an absolute horror of recipies-theirs was the “throw some flour in a bowl, and add liquid til it feels right” school. (Which is not at all a bad school! ;-) ) My family also likes wheat bread with a sweetish taste-I just add more sweetener. If your doughs on the sticky/wet side use brown sugar, if its on the dry side use honey or syrup-syrup is sweeter, but I like the honey taste with whole wheat. Though, maple syrup is really really good! I use molasses with rye bread mmmmm! I think its more a liquid/solid issue than sweetener.
I’m making pretty decent bread now without eggs, butter, milk-though I do use POWDERED milk in my dough. I have been making rolls-same recipie, just make rolls instead of loaves. It cuts down on baking time-a consideration if electric is a problem. I’ve also discovered a nifty trick of setting the rising dough bowl on top of a warm appliance- make soup or stew in a crock pot for example, and set the dough bowl on top for a nice gentle heat. I used my dehydrater yesterday.
Anonymous-Wow! the sourdough post is terrific! are you sure your not really HillBilly Bill?
The sourdough post was me…just didn’t realize i was going to come thru as an anon.
Most of that info I pulled off the web; but it IS very easy to capture your own starter….
Mari-Do you have dogs by any chance? I also had some whole wheat flour that smelled a bit off-I didn’t think it was rancid, just a little off. I changed the oil in my deep fryer and used some of the “foody” oil and the off whole wheat to make some dog biscuits-boy did those go over in a big way!
Easy Simple Basic Delicious Bread Recipe
From The New York Times column, The Minimalist, by Mark Bittman. He says it makes a delicious, easy, almost foolproof boule. He also says it takes less energy to cook (because you baki it inside a dutch oven or other covered pan, I suppose?) so it sounds as if it would be a perfect “prep” bread recipe.
Requires 1/4th the yeast of regular bread and almost no kneading.
You do need to mix it up 12 to 18 hours before you bake it, though. (You are using more time in place of more yeast and more kneading.)
THE MINIMALIST; The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work
This story began in late September when Mr. Lahey sent an e-mail message inviting me to attend a session of a class he was giving at Sullivan Street Bakery, which he owns, at 533 West 47th Street in Manhattan. His wording was irresistible: I’ll be teaching a truly minimalist breadmaking technique that allows people to make excellent bread at home with very little effort. The method is surprisingly simple — I think a 4-year-old could master it — and the results are fantastic.
(snip)
Mr. Lahey’s method is striking on several levels. It requires no kneading. (Repeat: none.) It uses no special ingredients, equipment or techniques. It takes very little effort.
It accomplishes all of this by combining a number of unusual though not unheard of features. Most notable is that you’ll need about 24 hours to create a loaf; time does almost all the work. Mr. Lahey’s dough uses very little yeast, a quarter teaspoon (you almost never see a recipe with less than a teaspoon), and he compensates for this tiny amount by fermenting the dough very slowly. He mixes a very wet dough, about 42 percent water, which is at the extreme high end of the range that professional bakers use to create crisp crust and large, well-structured crumb, both of which are evident in this loaf.
The dough is so sticky that you couldn’t knead it if you wanted to. It is mixed in less than a minute, then sits in a covered bowl, undisturbed, for about 18 hours. It is then turned out onto a board for 15 minutes, quickly shaped (I mean in 30 seconds), and allowed to rise again, for a couple of hours. Then it’s baked. That’s it.
(snip)
Mr. McGee said he had been kneading less nd less as the years have gone by, relying on time to do the work for him. Charles Van Over, author of the authoritative book on food-processor dough making, The Best Bread Ever (Broadway, 1997), long ago taught me to make a very wet dough (the food processor is great at this) and let it rise slowly. And, as Mr. Lahey himself notes, The Egyptians mixed their batches of dough with a hoe.
What makes Mr. Lahey’s process revolutionary is the resulting combination of great crumb, lightness, incredible flavor — long fermentation gives you that — and an enviable, crackling crust, the feature of bread that most frequently separates the amateurs from the pros. My bread has often had thick, hard crusts, not at all bad, but not the kind that shatter when you bite into them. Producing those has been a bane of the amateur for years, because it requires getting moisture onto the bread as the crust develops.
To get that kind of a crust, professionals use steam-injected ovens. At home I have tried brushing the dough with water (a hassle and ineffective); spraying it (almost as ineffective and requiring frequent attention); throwing ice cubes on the floor of the oven (not good for the oven, and not far from ineffective); and filling a pot with stones and preheating it, then pouring boiling water over the stones to create a wet sauna (quite effective but dangerous, physically challenging and space-consuming). I was discouraged from using La Cloche, a covered stoneware dish, by my long-standing disinclination to crowd my kitchen with inessential items that accomplish only one chore. I was discouraged from buying a $5,000 steam-injected oven by its price.
It turns out there’s no need for any of this. Mr. Lahey solves the problem by putting the dough in a preheated covered pot — a common one, a heavy one, but nothing fancy. For one loaf he used an old Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot; for another, a heavy ceramic pot. (I have used cast iron with great success.) By starting this very wet dough in a hot, covered pot, Mr. Lahey lets the crust develop in a moist, enclosed environment. The pot is in effect the oven, and that oven has plenty of steam in it. Once uncovered, a half-hour later, the crust has time to harden and brown, still in the pot, and the bread is done. (Fear not. The dough does not stick to the pot any more than it would to a preheated bread stone.)
The entire process is incredibly simple, and, in the three weeks I’ve been using it, absolutely reliable. Though professional bakers work with consistent flour, water, yeast and temperatures, and measure by weight, we amateurs have mostly inconsistent ingredients and measure by volume, which can make things unpredictable. Mr. Lahey thinks imprecision isn’t much of a handicap and, indeed, his method seems to iron out the wrinkles: I encourage a somewhat careless approach, he says, and figure this may even be a disappointment to those who expect something more difficult. The proof is in the loaf.
The loaf is incredible, a fine-bakery quality, European-style boule that is produced more easily than by any other technique I’ve used, and will blow your mind. (It may yet change the industry. Mr. Lahey is experimenting with using it on a large scale, but although it requires far less electricity than conventional baking, it takes a lot of space and time.) It is best made with bread flour, but all-purpose flour works fine. (I’ve played with whole-wheat and rye flours, too; the results are fantastic.)
(snip)
The baking itself is virtually foolproof, so the most important aspect is patience. Long, slow fermentation is critical. Mr. Lahey puts the time at 12 to 18 hours, but I have had much greater success at the longer time. If you are in a hurry, more yeast (three-eighths of a teaspoon) or a warmer room temperature may move things along, but really, once you’re waiting 12 hours why not wait 18? Similarly, Mr. Lahey’s second rising can take as little as an hour, but two hours, or even a little longer, works better.
(snip)
No-Knead Bread Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising
3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast 1 1/4 teaspoons salt Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.
1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. 3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.
Here’s my bread recipe that I make every week. I’ve also successfully used this in my solar oven:
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Yield: 4 loaves (All of the ingredients can easily be divided in half to just make 2 loaves. I’ll probably make two loaves at a time when I’m mixing by hand and using solar oven.)
Grind 10 cups of whole wheat into flour. (I use 7 cups white wheat and 3 cups red wheat, but it doesn’t matter!) This will make approximately 16 cups flour.
Put 6 cups very warm water into your mixer. (I use a Bosch.) Add about 6 cups of the freshly ground flour. Make sure dough hook is in place. Mix briefly then stop. Add 2 T. salt, 2 T active dry yeast, 1/3 cup gluten flour, 2/3 cup canola oil, 2/3 cup honey, 2 T dough enhancer. While mixer is on low speed gradually add about 10 more cups wheat flour. Dough will slowly begin to pull away from side of the bowl. Allow mixer to knead* the dough for approx. 10 minutes. With oil on hands, remove kneaded dough from mixing bowl. The dough should be elastic. Place on oiled surface, cut into four even sections, form into loaves, and place into pans that have been lightly sprayed with oil. Let rise in warm place until double in size. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 30 mins. Remove immediately from pans** and place on cooling rack. Enjoy! (In solar oven it takes quite a bit longer to bake- maybe 90 mins., but still turns out great!)
Ingredients list:
Whole wheat- hard, white or red winter wheat (or both) Water Salt (*I use sea salt from health food store. “Real Salt” is good, too.) Active Dry Yeast (I use Saf brand- from Maceys, Honeyville, etc.) Honey (raw honey is great, but very pricey. I usually just use normal honey.) Canola oil Gluten flour (Also from health food store or Honeyville in #10 can) Dough enhancer (I get at Bosch. Also available at Emergency Essen, Maceys, Honeyville, etc.)
Average Concerned Mom - am going to try your recipe tonight although not even my largest dutch oven holds 6–8 quarts (unless my math is wrong which is entirely possible).
Will try dividing the dough between my grandmother’s two old enamel covered stew pots and try to get the time right. I don’t think anything larger would fit in my home-made solar oven anyway although tonight’s test will be in my regular oven.
Looks like a fun recipe - will let you know how I do.