I've always used a poolish for my no knead bread recipe. It called for one cup of APF and 6 oz of water and 1/8 teaspoon of  instant yeast. I would let it ferment over night and then mix it with 7 oz of bread flour, 2 oz semolina flour, 1-1/4 teaspoons of salt, 4 oz water, and another 1/8 teaspoon of yeast. I would let this triple in size (5-6 hours) and then refrigerate it overnight before baking. 

This takes a long time but makes a great smelling and tasty loaf of bread.

One day I decided to just mix all the dry ingredients and add 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast and 10 oz of water. It takes about eight hours to rise, and still benefited from a night in the fridge, but it came out tasting the same as the bread made with the poolish. In a blind taste test, I don't think I could tell which was which. Others felt the same way.

This new method saves time and labor.

I suppose you could say, I was still making a poolish,  except I was using all the ingredients in the recipe, instead of just a portion.

Any thoughts on this? 

I've modified my no knead bread recipe on The Fresh Loaf.

More pictures of the entire process are here.

I'm trying out variations of no-knead recipes, and the one thing I can't seem to nail down is the crust.

Last time I've made it, I used only whole wheat flour with half a teaspoon of east with about 6 hours fermentation and 2 hours proofing time. I don't use a dutch oven and bake the loaves free-standing. The crust came out on the medium side. Today, I tried 1.5 cups all-purpose and 3 cups whole wheat flour, with same times for fermentation and proofing and 1 more S&F than last time. After about 30 minutes in the oven at 425F with the steaming pan and spraying the oven walls with a spray bottle a few times in the first 10 minutes, the crust came out a bit hard on top but mostly paper thin on the sides and bottom.

What variables affect crust thickness? I noticed most no-knead bread recipes ask for 40+ minutes in the oven, but I'm assuming I have to decrease the time since I'm not using a dutch oven. The bread came out a darker brown with the topmost point moving towards dark brown. It registered about 205F inside. Is the temperature alone enough to judge readiness of a bread?

My grandmother had a wonderful wholegrain toasting bread my family all loved... she is no longer with us, so we have been trying to "get it right" for years.  I had some success by using Jim Lahey's overnight method, but her recipe uses mashed potato and potato water and I was wondering if that would be ok (food safety wise) for an overnight room temperature ferment.  

I know some people use dried potato flakes, but I would prefer to use the fresh potato if possible.  

Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this!

No-Knead Bread

Makes two small loaves*

This bread gets its great flavor from a long, slow overnight rise, using only a scant 1/4 teaspoon of yeast. If you use more yeast the dough will rise too quickly. Refrigerating the dough further improves the flavor and texture of the bread.

Steps:

1. Mix the flours yeast and salt in large bowl, add the water and mix just until all the flour is wet and incorporated. It shouldn't take more than a minute, you don't want to overwork it. A silicone bowl scraper is very handy for bringing up the dry flour from the bottom of the bowl.

2. Smear a little olive oil on a piece of plastic wrap. Lay it directly on the dough.

3. Let rise for overnight. You can bake the dough now if you wish, see note below.*

4. Deflate dough by folding it over on itself with the bowl scraper. Divide into two equal portions and place in zip lock bags and refrigerate for at least two hours or up to several days. Dough will rise slightly again in the zip lock bag.

5. On baking day, remove the dough from the refrigerator and allow to warm in the zip lock bag on the counter for 30 minutes.

6. After the dough has warmed for 30 minutes, place a baking stone in the oven, and preheat at 450º F for 30 minutes. The dough will have warmed for an hour by now.

7. Remove the dough from the zip lock bag and place it on a piece of parchment paper. Handle it gently so you don't deflate it too much.

8. Gently flatten it into an oval about ¾ of an inch thick (you can dust the top with flour if you want the artisan bread look).

9. Put the dough and parchment paper in a cold 12-inch cast iron skillet. Place a lid on it. Let the paper stick out from under the lid.

10. Place the skillet on the stone and bake covered for 30 minutes.

11. Remove the lid and bake another 10 minutes until golden brown. The internal temperature should be 205-210° F. 

*Notes: If baking immediately, place dough on parchment paper and then proceed to step 8. There is no need to warm the dough as it already is at room temperature. You may have to reduce the baking time a little. You can also bake one big loaf instead of two small ones. Adjust the baking time accordingly.

See more step-by-step instructions and  pictures here.

For some reason I wanted to make a loaf with a purple swirl... probably because purple is not a standard bread color, and I am not a standard bread man. 

I tried this recipe and it turned out good. Just divide the recipe in half, and make two seperate doughs. For one of the doughs, replace the water with an equal amount of liquid from boiled red cabbage. I took a head of red cabbage, shredded it, then cooked it with 2 cups of water in a large pot for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid out, let it cool, and use it to make the purple half of the dough. 

Ingredients: (total for both doughs)

• 4 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/4 cups water

Instructions: (remember you are making TWO doughs)

1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, salt) in the large bowl and stir with spoon for about 15 seconds.
2. Add water to the bowl and stir for about 1 or 2 minutes (it won’t look that good but that doesn’t matter).
3. Cover the top of the bowl loosely with plastic wrap.
4. Let sit on counter top for about 12 to 16 hours (I ussually do this for about 13 hours), the dough will look all bubbly on the top when done rising.
5. Generously sprinkle flour the top of your clean counter top or a cutting board (don’t worry about using too much flour, it won’t hurt it).
6. Slowly pour the dough from the bowl on to the floured surface, using the silicone spatula to help it peal off the sides of the bowl.
7. Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and rub your hands together with flour.
8. With you hands, gently stretch each dough out to a rectangle shape.
9. Lay the purple dough on top of the white dough.
10. Roll up the dough from one end to the other.
11. Place the dough into a lightly greased bread pan (seam side down).
12. Let dough rise till it is a bit above the top of the bread pan (about double in size or 1 to 1.5 hours).
13. Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees.
14. Place bread in the oven for 30 minutes.
15. Remove from oven, dump bread out on a cooling rack or your counter top and allow it to cool.

Recently we have had a few posts on people having issues getting the No Knead Bread to turn out a wonderful as it should. Jim Lahey has just published a new book called "My Bread" that I thought might be fun to take a look at. It isn't an expensive book at $16.60 and has many variations on his original recipe as well as many popular variations of offerings at the Sullivan Street Bakery.

I thought I would start with the basic formula which is all Bread Flour. It almost came to pass but at the last minute I swapped out 5% of white for rye. I love what a small amount of rye does to a simple white flavor. All of Lahey's formulas call for 400 grams of flour and 300 grams of water and 2% salt. The variable is the yeast which runs from 1-3 grams depending on the additions. The resultant hydration is 75%.

One concern about the KNB process is that the chance of mixing a smooth silky dough with no lumps is diminished by minimal mixing and no kneading. After my initial mix, I went to check the dough after an hour and found many clumps of partially hydrated dough. I know that these clumps will result in inconsistency in the crumb. So, I deviated from the script and did a frissage, (squishing the dough with the heel of your hand while sliding it across the counter) which broke up the clumps. Now I have a smooth cool dough that will set at room temperature for at least 12 hours.

Somewhere along the way, the NKB process took a turn towards what I would call normal breads in that Lahey now wants us to do a second fermentation after a brief shaping. The book calls for flouring a towel and setting the bread in a bowl to "proof". I used a linen lined basket and let it proof for 2 hours.

Interestingly, the procedure calls for the final ferment (proof) to be done seams down and baked seams up. No slashing is called for so the bread expands on the weakness of the bottom seams from shaping. It worked pretty well on the two loaves I have done although I would have liked a better spring.

I baked the loaf in the Lodge Combo Cooker, 15 minutes covered and 15 open at 460F. The internal was just over 203F. I didn't get the wildly open crumb structure that is shown in the book image but it's very appropriate for the bread, and delicious.

There are several very interesting recipes in Chapter Three "Specialties of the House" that are on my to-do list. The Italian Stecca with tomatoes and garlic pressed in the top of a stick. Then the Beyond water section, there are several interesting selections. The carrot bread looks like it would be fun and tasty. It uses home made juice extracted from carrots for hydration. So here is my first crack at the new "My Bread".

Eric

Just a little course corn meal prevents scorching on the bottom.

I found this recipe for Ciabatta No Knead Bread on the internet at this site: 

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Make-No-Knead-Ciabatta-Bread-213126958

Watch the video... I followed every step as seen in the video.

I converted the recipe to weight measurment... here it is...

     Ciabatta -no knead bread 1 loaf

455 gr APF (all purpose flour)

64 gr WF (whole wheat flour)

0.9 gr yeast (active dry yeast)

9.5 gr salt (table salt)

473 gr warm water 100 - 105F  

The bread smelled and tasted fantastic, I would definatly make it again. Very easy to make. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product.

By the way... it went very nicely with the Moroccan Lentil Soup I made as well!!!!

The soup recipe can be found at this site:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moroccan-Lentil-Soup/Detail.aspx

Hello,

Please help, ASAP! :) This is the 3rd day of no knead formula and don't know if the dough has gone bad or not, it definitely smells beery and had bubbles throughout with a darker coating on top. The formula was:

8 Cups of Whole Wheat

6 cups of white artisan bread flour

1 cup of flax meal

1 cup of almond meal

10 cups water

2 tsp yeast

2 tbsp salt.

I tried to fold few times the dough, to incorporate some more flout, but it's really sticky vs. elastic, when pulled, there is not much strength in the gluten.

Do you think I should wait for it to come to room temp? Should I still give it a try or toss it out?! I kept it in the laundry room, usually it's 57' there, but yesterday it went up at 65' and I was not home to handle it.I used this formula before successful and liked it, but the dough shows much more loose this time and different. The smell scares  me! :)

Thanks for the help! Merry Christmas, everyone! :)

Roxana

After a series of mishaps that should have ruined the loaf, I managed to still bake this up:

This was a double recipe of the No Knead Bread from Jim Lahey's My Bread.

The mishaps included:

• a mislabled container that had WW bread flour instead of white
• a lower hydration after a couple of hours (probably due to the WW flour)

I checked on the bread the morning after I mixed it up and it was really dry, so I added a 1.5 - 2 tablespoons of water and stirred it into the dough and baked it up that evening.  My joy at pulling off the top of the casserole (the red pot in the background) and seeing this lovely bread left me squealing like a little girl.  It tasted wonderful and it was a big hit.

Thanks Jim for making me look good...

Shot with my cell phone (HTC G1)

I added olive oil this time, to 4 cups flour, (1/2 C whole wheat, 1/4 C whole rye, 3 1/4 C bread flour) 1 1/2 tsps. salt, 1/4 tsp. yeast, 2 C water. The addition of olive oil, was to give it a softer crust and overall texture. I steamed bread using a roaster pan lid, and got a nice bread , just a bit softer, yet crispy thin crust. I might try it again with all purpose flour for the white flour. It is dough that I would use for pizza as well as ciabatta. After a short stir, and stretch and folds at the end of the long fermentation at room temp., I just shaped it and let it rise for 2 hours, then baked at 425 F. for 15 min. covered, and 20 min. uncovered. I added wet, twisted paper toweling around the bread, with the lid covering all, for extra steam.  Ray