No Knead Bread-Lahey's version vs Artisan bread in 5mins a day
I've been baking the no knead bread for about 3 yrs now from the original recipe of Jim Lahey. I've had real good luck with this recipe and used it for Ciabatta, Focaccia and pizza dough. I also have Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's book Artisan Bread in 5 min a Day. I never tried their method till yesterday. I now know why. Although you have enough dough for 2-4 loaves of bread in the fridge, that particular dough is only good for being the master recipe or basic. I took out a portion of the dough to make olive bread but found I had to incorporate the olives, rosemary and oil in the cold dough. The dough never rose like Lahey's dough so it was kind of dense maybe from being cold. Lahey's dough method is made for a peticular recipe. I believe I prefer making no knead dough to suit a recipe as in the basic no knead method. I have made Lahey's dough and could not bake it the next day, put it in the fridge and baked it 2 days later with no problem.
Another thought is the Artisan method, you cut off a piece "the size of a grapefruit". To me this is not to exact and with Lahey's method, you know 3 cups flour, 1.5 c water etc goes in a 5 qt dutch oven for X amount of time. This is a science. The sizing "grapefruit" can vary so therefore I would imagine baking times would change.
I would like to get your opinions and maybe I can elaborate more as to my findings.