This is a book recommended by Mark Bittman of the N.Y. Times. It claims to be a dead easy, no kneading method for making a heavy crusted yet soft centered loaf of bread. This is the result of my first try. I mixed the four ingredients(flour, salt, yeast and water) in a big bowl, and covered the bowl, no kneading, for 18 hours. Then moved the dough to a large dish towel for a second rise of 90 minutes. Then the dough goes into a cast iron Dutch oven that's been preheated in a 475f oven. The pot goes in, covered, for 30-45 minutes, then back in, uncovered, for another 25 minutes and voila, this is what I got. True to the book, it was very crusty with an incredibly moist crumb (which is what we professional bakers call the interior of a loaf:-)) We had it with broccoli cheese soup last night and I had a sandwich on it today. Still moist and very tasty. I recommend the book heartily.
5 comments:
It was as delicious as it looks!
This bread just looks wonderful, Charles. Definitely a reason to do it yourself, but attention - this can become an addiction as soon as you start with sourdough, which lets you create completely different breads.
Of course here over in Germany we have more bread varieties than one can eat, and since quite some time we have organic breads, too. Fine and reasonable!
Markus,
I am addicted to cooking anyway. Bread/baking is very different, much more of a science, as you have to do it just right or you have a failure. This book urges one to make the basic bread until one feels comfortable and then has numerous variations on it. It makes such a huge loaf that I must find a way to share each one.
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