I’ve been refining this bread recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that it is so easy and doesn’t take much time. It seems to stay fresh longer than some of my previous recipes. I make it on Sunday and it is still reasonably fresh for my Thursday lunch sandwich. By Friday it is starting to get a bit dry and stale, but what more can you expect?
- 15oz hard red spring wheat
- 12oz tap water
- 2T unpasteurized apple cider vinegar or whey
- 1/4t active dry yeast
- 1 1/2t celtic sea salt
Grind the wheat as finely as possible. Mix in yeast and salt. Add the vinegar to the water. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid. Stir until mixed, cover, and refrigerate over night.
In the morning wet your hands and knead the dough about 10 times. Don’t do it much more than this. I have succeeded in over-kneading my dough after an overnight soak and a very short knead. Cover and let sit at room temperature.
Sometime in the afternoon (anywhere from 3-5) place a piece of parchment paper on an edgeless cookie sheet or pizza peel. Wet your hands and dump out the dough on the counter. Gently fold the dough as you would a business letter and then again once the other direction. Tuck the seams gently underneath - shaping it into a ball - and place in the center of the parchment. Sprinkle a little flour on top and cover with a towel. Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Don’t let it rise too long.
Place a pizza stone on the center oven rack. Place a pan of water on the bottom rack and preheat the oven to 450F. Let the oven preheat at least 30 minutes. Loosen the parchment paper on the cookie sheet so that it slides easily. With a quick jerk slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Bake for about 30 minutes.
So far the inside comes out perfect. The top sometimes gets a little too brown. I think more steam seems to help keep the bread from getting too dark.
UPDATE (9/16/2007): If found that if you put the pizza stone too high in the oven, you will get overdone crust. I put the stone on the lowest or next to lowest rack and then put the pan of water on the top rack.
I also recently tried using hard white spring wheat instead of the red. It make a much lighter colored bread. However, it also seems to be more thirsty. I bumped the water up to 13oz. The extra water seems to make the crumb a little more open as well.
Ooohhh. Thank you for this. I have been looking for a healthier no-knead recipe. Any thoughts on sourdough for this recipe. Perhaps you already posted on it and I missed.
Hopefully this recipe will work for me. Thanks!
Mrs. S.
I have experimented with sourdough and this type of recipe. I killed my starter and haven’t gotten one going again yet. When I do I’ll be experimenting with this recipe and sourdough and posting about my experiments.
I make my bread with a combination of hard white and hard red wheat. Do you think that would work here? This is a recipe I’ve been meaning to try for quite some time, and completely forgot until I saw it on “Fat Guy’s” blog (and followed your comment link here).
I think that would probably work just fine. I’ve been thinking about trying hard white wheat for quite some time, but don’t have a good source for it.
Dang, that bread of yours look real nice. (I’m presuming the picture is of yours, by the by). Unfortunately, I have no idea what you mean by “hard red spring wheat” and I believe I’ll have to hold a Celtic hostage before I can get any of his salt. (Don’t mind me; I’m trying to convince myself out of a funk and I obviously live nowhere that has any of the items mentioned.)
(Or if they do, it’ll be cheaper to actually hold a Celtic hostage)
Lovely picture, still. I’m on a sudden bread-binge. Enough rambling.
Hi Brian - I just tried this recipe but my bread didn’t rise. I put 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast in like the recipe stated. I was wondering if the yeast I used is not as potent…I bought “Rapunzel Active Dry Yeast RIZE”. The RIZE packaging said to use 1 packet (3 teaspoons) of yeast for every 1 cup flour & 1 cup warm water. Any advice. My house is about 67 degrees–is that too cold? Thanks alot, Krista
Krista,
I’m not sure what to tell you. I’ve never had it not rise. I think 67F is probably just fine. Warmer might create more rise, but it should still rise. You could always try proofing the yeast first. That is, put it in a little water with some honey till it bubbles and then add it into the dough. You could also try instant yeast.
Hi Brian. I am so glad I found your blog. I am just starting to learn about soaking grains and flours. I have a few of the Sue Gregg cookbooks, and will soon read NT. I was making the no-knead not so healthy recipe before and having lots of success, so I am glad to be able to try it out and feel good about it being healthier for my family. I’ll let you know how it goes. I am also having a tea party this week, and am making scones, so I am going to try out your tip for making them flakier.
Do you have a conversion to all-purpose whole wheat flour, for those of us who don’t (yet, perhaps) grind our own?
Arwyn,
You may have to play around with the amounts a bit till you get the bread to where you like it. You can change up or down the amount by 1T each time you make it and once you find a place you like it stick with it. You may have to do this every time you switch flours. Each flour can be different. Good luck.
3 1/2 cups + 1-2 tablespoons