Some feedback on no knead bread
Hi guys
I am very much new to the world of artisan baking and like many I'm sure, I've started out with Jim Lahey's no knead recipe.
I have made a few loaves now which have tasted great but I'd be grateful if you could have a look at the crumb and give me a steer on whether or not I'm on the right tracks? I still find proving dough a complete minefield!
Recipe is an 83% hydration dough, 450g flour, 375g water, 8g of salt and 1g of yeast. Proved for 12 hours at room temperature, 4 hours in the fridge, shaped and then let rise for 2 hours before baking in a dutch oven for 35 mins at 230C with the lid on, and then 10 mins with the lid off.
I've attached two photos. The one with the small coffee cup is just to give an idea of the height of the loaf.
I find that despite shaping it in a glass bowl, it still spreads out quite a lot whilst baking, so I end up with a wider, shallower loaf.
Thanks a lot!
Seb
The crumb looks fine to me.
Spreading is a difficult thing certainly with a 83% hydration.
Baking right from the fridge seems the improve it to some degree for me.
Thanks! Really appreciate you having a look and responding.
I suppose I should look at sandwich loaf recipes if I want a taller loaf. Love the flavour and texture of the higher hydration loaves
Maybe just bake this in a pullman or something like that.
The crumb looks good.
I forget whether Lahey includes any stretch-and-folds, but that's the normal way to add strength to this kind of wet dough. Three or four of those, every half hour or a bit longer during bulk ferment, should make a difference. You might also dial hydration back just a smidge, maybe to 80%
Thanks!
No he doesn’t suggest that. The bulk ferment is 12 - 24 hours though so the stretch and fold might be a bit much? The gluten normally looks really well developed when i take it out of the bowl.
Would a proving basket help with the height of the loaf do you think?
I doubt a proving basket would help. If you want to try stretch & folds, I would do three or four during the first few hours of the bulk ferment. Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1timJlCT3PM. It moves you toward a more coherent dough that spreads less.
I’ve made this one a few times and I think your bread turned out well. I think the recipe/method is intended for someone starting out, getting a feel for wet doughs and getting a good final product without being too hands on. I haven’t tried putting in a tin but give it a go.. what’s the worst that could happen? I put about 36 hrs into a sourdough last week that flopped. It still tasted good but the result wasn’t what I planned for.
Also the size of your boule is dictated by how big the base is on your lidded pot. If you’re looking for more height try a smaller pot.
It looks great! You're doing just fine.
I have been making Jim Lahey No-Knead loaves for many years.
At high hydrations the dough spread quickly so you get a wider, not so tall loaf, that is normal because high-hydration doughs are all runny.
What I do to get tall loaves is to leave it on the counter for 12 to 18 hours then in the fridge for 1 to 3 days (24 to 72 hours).
Then I pull it out of the fridge and leave it out on the counter for 2 to 4 hours (I use a thermometer to check that it has reached room temperature, I do this in the same vessel for this entire process so far, I don't fold, nor knead, nor shape because that defeats the purpose of it being No-Knead bread.
Now I have pre-heated the dutch oven and carefully selected it to be no wider than the width that I want the high hydration loaf to be.
When the oven is hot and the dough has reached room temperature then I literally pour the dough directly into the screaming hot dutch oven (guiding it with an all silicon spatula that won't burn if i tooth the dutch oven) and quickly put the pre-heated lid on the dutch oven and get it into the oven.
I found that leaving it covered a little bit longer gives me better rise at the expense of a dark crust, but my family prefers it fluffier and taller than darker so that works for me, the result is that I get tall loaves with a lovely crumb.
Good luck!
Wow, what a helpful response , thanks so much!
Don’t suppose you have any photos of your final product using that method do you?
They all got devoured by the time I returned to the kitchen with my phone to take a picture, I always allow them to rest overnight so they are perfectly set and never gummy (I now always bake at 85% hydration so gumminess used to be a problem for me) so they are vulnerable for a long period of time! LOL
Hi guys
Just leading on from my first post, i have now got a biga going using Jim's advice in the Sullivan st bakery book.
I notice that he adds a bit of dry yeast to most of his breads, even if incorporating the biga. I sort of get why from an ease of baking point of view, but what concerns me is that he says to use a bit of dough you've proved to build a new biga when you're running low. He says you can use dough that you've added dry yeast to.
As I understand it, the dry yeast culture will just overrun the wild yeast in my biga, so as soon as I add a bit of yeasted dough, I'm no longer in the sourdough game surely? Aren't I just cultivating packaged yeast?!
Does anyone use his sourdough method and can they explain it to me?
Cheers
Seb