Photos of my Rustic Bread

[pacanis]

I have a question
Is that piece of cloth I bought from KA a substitute for the cotton towels? I don't remember what it's called, but it's brown, vaguely resembles burlap and I'm supposed to keep it in the freezer after use. They said it help draw moisture from dough to give a crunchier crust.

 

[LadyCook61]

I have a question
Is that piece of cloth I bought from KA a substitute for the cotton towels? I don't remember what it's called, but it's brown, vaguely resembles burlap and I'm supposed to keep it in the freezer after use. They said it help draw moisture from dough to give a crunchier crust.

I think you can use it, any cotton cloth except terry cloth.

 

[pacanis]

Thanks. I guess I don't understand the reasoning for laying the dough on one floured towel, and covering with another.... KA recomended this thing too me. I'll have to go to their site and see just what it was I bought.

 

[Katie H]

I've never used a towel, pacanis. I place my dough onto a piece of parchment paper, dust the dough with flour and cover with plastic wrap. When it's time to put the dough into the hot pan, I remove the plastic wrap and lift the dough with the parchment paper (like a sling) and lower it into the pan, parchment and all. I've discovered that doing this disturbs the dough very little and I get more than my share of nice holes in the interior of the bread.

 

[pacanis]

Hey. I have parchment paper, too!
Guess I'll have to dig out my old CI Dutch oven today. This is looking like a go.

Does dusting the dough with flour mean you don't have to spray oil on the plastic wrap?

 

[Katie H]

Does dusting the dough with flour mean you don't have to spray oil on the plastic wrap?

Yep, yep, yeppers.

 

[pacanis]

Aha! It's all coming together for me.....
This old dog is learning new tricks

 

[LadyCook61]

I did another loaf of No-knead bread using bread flour instead of all purpose as specified in the recipe. It came out wonderful ! Also I have the Artisan bread baking at the moment, on the baking stone. I wanted to try that out too and see if there is a taste difference and what else might be different. It's a good day for baking , cold out and snow on the ground, puts me in a baking mood .

What or how do you store your baked No Knead or Artisan bread? Wrap it in foil? Waxed Paper? Plastic bag?

 

[pacanis]

Does the bread flatten out like that on its own?
Isn't is supposed to be a doughball when you put it in the dutch oven?

My DO is only about 5" high and I don't know how much this bread will rise. I don't need to run into any more problems than I've already had today.

 

[Katie H]

Pacanis, the dough will only "flatten" to the diameter of your baking container/DO. It will rise nicely and dome into a wonderful shape. Your 5-inch pot is quite sufficient. The bread won't exceed that height. Have fun.

 

[pacanis]

Shoo, thanks.
This is turning into a lot of "work"

 

[Katie H]

Don't worry, pacanis. If you are unfamiliar with this kind of baking, it can be a bit intimidating the first time. Although, once you go through the process, it will begin to make sense and the next time you make it, it will be easy. I can practically do it with my eyes closed now. I even have the ingredients list memorized. There's not much more to remember after that.

 

[pacanis]

It's a bit intimidating all right.
I'm not sure how the next step went, still have another 5 minutes of "rest" time.
How do you "lightly" dust something with flour?! I've got clumps of flour on my counter and other areas with none. It got worse when I tried to spread it around with my fingers. Same thing when I tried to lightly dust the dough before covering with plastic wrap for 15 minutes.... And then the stuff was so sticky I lost about 15% of it to the bowl I glumped it out of and my fingers...
Hey. I've got nothing else to do today anyway

Well, let's see how easy this molten mess shapes into a ball.

 

[Katie H]

Don't worry, pacanis, the gooey, blob will surprise you. You can reach into your flour container with your hand and scoop out a bunch of flour and toss it over the dough. You'll wind up with a floury mess, but that's okay.

One thing I do is to keep an empty, washed-out plastic spice shaker (from a spice I've used up) with the snap-on shaker inside top. I fill it with flour and use that to dust my bread and to dust the insides of cake/bread pans that have to be greased and floured.

Don't let this process discourage you. After you're hooked, you'll crave this delicious bread.

One thing you might do is read the original thread about N.Y. Times bread while yours is baking and remind yourself of the questions/flubs, etc. others have experienced. Trust me, you're not alone.

I'm a very experienced bread baker and even after reading the recipe and seeing the guy from Sullivan Street Bakery make the bread on Martha Stewart, I was more than skeptical. It's magic.

 

[LadyCook61]

One thing I do is to keep an empty, washed-out plastic spice shaker (from a spice I've used up) with the snap-on shaker inside top. I fill it with flour and use that to dust my bread and to dust the insides of cake/bread pans that have to be greased and floured.

that is an excellent idea about the shaker!

 

[pacanis]

One thing you might do is read the original thread about N.Y. Times bread while yours is baking and remind yourself of the questions/flubs, etc. others have experienced. Trust me, you're not alone.

Is that why that thread's so looong?
I read it far enough to get the recipe printed.
I'll have to go through it. Thanks for all your help.

 

[smoke king]

Mmmmm-that bread looks good !! I jumped into this forum to ask if anyone had a good recipe, for a nice, crusty bread, and like a beacon from the heavens, I stumble across this...........hint-hint!?

 

[GadgetGeek]

Don't worry, pacanis, the gooey, blob will surprise you. You can reach into your flour container with your hand and scoop out a bunch of flour and toss it over the dough. You'll wind up with a floury mess, but that's okay.

One thing I do is to keep an empty, washed-out plastic spice shaker (from a spice I've used up) with the snap-on shaker inside top. I fill it with flour and use that to dust my bread and to dust the insides of cake/bread pans that have to be greased and floured.

Don't let this process discourage you. After you're hooked, you'll crave this delicious bread.

One thing you might do is read the original thread about N.Y. Times bread while yours is baking and remind yourself of the questions/flubs, etc. others have experienced. Trust me, you're not alone.

I'm a very experienced bread baker and even after reading the recipe and seeing the guy from Sullivan Street Bakery make the bread on Martha Stewart, I was more than skeptical. It's magic.

I have tried several of the no-knead methods and after going to the cooking class at Publix and having Zoe & Jeff explain how simple it is and to not try to hard, I might say I'm a convert. Time will tell.. I did get their book btw, and it is more than a simple recipe, it is a treatise on adapting their basic recipe to do a lot of types of bread (I'm doing some flatbreads tonight).

Go to this site if you like and look around, I am NOT shilling for these folks other than the fact I have been baking bread half of my life and these methods demystify the process. Here is the site.

Zoe Bakes

[edit] btw- Amazon has the book discounted [/edit]

.

 

[LadyCook61]

Mmmmm-that bread looks good !! I jumped into this forum to ask if anyone had a good recipe, for a nice, crusty bread, and like a beacon from the heavens, I stumble across this...........hint-hint!?

the photo of my bread is from this recipe http://tinyurl.com/3aad4f

also another thread with photos (not mine) http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/showpost.php?p=361341&postcount=79

 

[oldcampcook]

Eric Rausch, at Bread Baking Instructional Videos and Baking Supplies. has some excellent videos on the no knead bread recipe. He also has several different variations, including sourdough.

I bake the NK bread about every other weekend in a cast iron Dutch Oven. I have also used a Corning ware 1.5 qt casserole dish.