Everyone's got a version of no knead. This is mine. I'll annotate the images later.
(@tokatefromkate @twixlen @feedmybeast - next class?)
In a plastic container add water (400 g), unbleached white flour (500 g), salt (10 g), active dry yeast (I prefer Fleischman's, may not make a difference for this, 1 teaspoon), olive oil (or some kind of fat, 10 g). Mix with spoon, should be like a tough batter. Place container in fridge for up to a week.
Remove from fridge and let warm a couple hours while still in container and then plop it out onto counter. It will be a lot tighter than it went into the fridge. Dust liberally with flour.
Pound out all the accumulated gas and fold into a loaf. Plop into a pan that is lined with parchment paper (my paper should've been bigger and up the sides). This pan should have a matching lid. I used
this pan from Amazon, it's perfect for this 2 lb loaf. This pan is being used instead of the more pricey Baparoma steam pan and will work better.
Let rise an hour or two.
Cover pan, place in oven, turn on oven to 425F and remove after 40 minutes. Boom! On cooling the exterior will crackle. The microenvironment of the closed pan is what makes the rise / oven spring and subsequent cooling with crackling.
The crumb is lovely and the crust will vary depending on lots of things. Just try it and keep trying it. It's a great bread. It might be one of the most fun loaves I've ever made.
Notes:
So why is this different than anything else out there?
1. Ruhlman commented somewhere the beauty of Lahey's kneadless method wasn't the no knead, it was the cooking method. A bread encapsulated in a pan using the moisture released from the bread itself as a self regulating bit of steam to get the surface gelatinized and browned. I'm not sure where I read this, but the pan
need not be preheated nor must it be cast iron. A preheated cast iron pan is not the safest system either. So, this method is a hybrid of all things convenient: no knead, no preheating, no cast iron.
2. The number of large loaves I'm going to make is next. A small fraction of the grain bill, ca. 10%, of whole wheat tightens up the dough immensely. It's really interesting. I can't wait to try other additions: more shortening, herbs, cheese, crazy stuff. I'm really letting my hair down on this.
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