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Rise and Shine
Who knew readers of The New York Times were such passionate home bread bakers? Scoring the coveted “most e-mailed” slot on the paper’s website on Wednesday wasn’t the election returns, but rather Mark Bittman’s article about Sullivan Street Bakery owner Jim Lahey’s magical new no-knead bread-making method. In the accompanying video, Lahey claims a 4-year-old can make this bread; Bittman hedges and places his bet on an ambitious 8-year-old.
But the instructions and ingredients couldn’t be simpler: just flour, salt, a smidgen of yeast, and water, mixed together and left to rise for 18 hours. The gooey dough is poured into a preheated, covered pot to bake, so that trapped steam from the dough will produce a crackling crust and airy crumb just like one pulled from a $5,000 steam-injection professional oven, or so Bittman and Lahey claim. The pictures certainly showed a gorgeous loaf—caramel-crusted with a satiny, chewy-looking crumb pocked with holes, a loaf seemingly pulled fresh from the shelves of a great European bakery. And naturally, Harold McGee supplied some food-geek cred as to how the long rise gets the gluten molecules into proper alignment.
Eager bakers immediately started two threads on Chowhound, mostly to report how they were running out the door that instant to score bread flour and yeast. But is Lahey’s method really so revolutionary? Hardly, shrugs Fortune at Bread Coffee Chocolate Yoga. Baking bread in a pot, she claims, goes back at least to the ancient Greeks, and was most recently repopularized by Elizabeth David’s encyclopedic compendium, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, in 1977. Fortune also points out that Los Angeles baker Suzanne Dunaway wrote a whole book on this “slack dough” method, called No Need to Knead.
But would Lahey’s loaf really be the best thing since sliced bread, as Bittman claimed? This reporter started a loaf in her home kitchen to find out. Some 24 hours later, after scattering cornmeal and flour all over the kitchen, the bread was baked, cooled, and ready to taste. The verdict? A nice open crumb, very moist, and a decent crust, if not as hard and crackle-ready as Bittman’s. Worth the hype? Well, it was certainly easy, and anyone with a fear of kneading could do it, especially with a little less water and a little more salt. But better than the fabulous bread for sale at Lahey’s bakery? Not yet.
Posted by | Thursday, November 9, 2006 at 12:29pm | 5 comments
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This method worked out great for me, a non-bread-baker. I liked that it is moderately foolproof -- I used active dry yeast instead of instant and the loaf was still a great texture. Plus I got to say "Hot bread, coming through," just like Owen Wilson in Zoolander.
I don't understand the aversion to kneading--it's one of the most fun parts of bread baking, plus it's a good upper body workout.
I'm an avid home baker and can't wait to try out this recipe (it's the excuse I've been waiting for to finally buy a dutch oven). I've long been a fan of both slack-dough recipes like ciabatta and slow-rise methods of improving flavor and crumb, so this really sounds like Christmas come early. Besides, I'm always excited to add another kind of bread to my arsenal!
Ok I admit I also did this recipe, and really pushed it-- I gave it every chance to fail.
it stuck to my Silpat, which nothing had ever ever done. I didn't flour the towel well enough so half of the dough got glued there.
I used a ceramic souffle dish with a flat but non-matching cover.
It was great great bread. I shall try again!
Any suggestions on high altitude adjustments for this recipe? I really want to make this bread right the first time- I know it's a "no fail" but I've failed before baking at 7300 ft.