“5 Minute Bread” (or No-Knead Yeast Bread) How-To

RE: Weekly Challenge #2 – 5 Minute Bread

Success! I think. The ‘holes’ in my bread weren’t as big as I had hoped for. I didn’t have a hot baking stone thing to bake it on (like is recommended), so that might have affected it. I also may have used a little more flour than I strictly should have, cuz I just scooped it right out of the bag – no spooning it into the cup and leveling it with a knife for me. No, sir. I think I had a baby on one hip while I did it. Plus, I had the timer going. It actually took me a little over 6 minutes to mix up, but I thought that was pretty respectable.

I made my first loaf later that day, after cooling off in the fridge a couple hours between mixing the dough and making the bread.

Here’s the recipe I used, and how I did it.

Ingredients:
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp. yeast
1 Tbsp. salt
6 1/2 cups flour
cornmeal (small handful)

TO MIX:

1. Measure water (should feel comfortably warm on arm) and pour into a big bowl or container.

2. Measure and add yeast, salt and flour.

3. Stir until thoroughly combined and evenly moistened. A wooden spoon is great for this.

All mixed up

4. Loosely cover with lid (don’t seal) and/or tea towel and let rise 2 hours (less if room is very warm). This stuff will raise the lid!

After rising.

5. After rising, push the dough back into the bowl if it has gotten out, put the lid back on (loosely), and stick it in the fridge until ready to bake.

TO BAKE:

1. Take the bowl of dough out of the fridge about an hour before you want to bake it (or longer, more like 90 minutes, especially if your kitchen is a bit cool, or if the dough has been sitting in the fridge for a week.)

2. Dust with a handful of flour so you can handle the dough, and slice off a good size chunk (about a third to a half of the original batch). Shape into a round or oval loaf. (Put the rest of the dough back into the fridge.)

My ball of dough plopped down on a handful of cornmeal.

3. Set the shaped loaf, rough side down, onto a flat pan or baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal (I used a pizza pan). Loosely cover with a buttered piece of plastic wrap and a tea towel. Let rise 60 – 90 minutes.

Wrapped and risen.

4. Preheat oven to 450*F with a big pan on the bottom rack, about 4 or 5 inches below main rack.

5. Score top of loaf with a sharp knife (And no, you can’t do this before it rises, you have to do it after. I tried it this way the second time, and my loaf cracked and burst out the side).

OK, so my knife coulda been a little sharper…

6. Put bread in to bake, and pour 1 cup of hot water into the big pan on the bottom. Close the door right away to trap the steam. (This is what will give you that nice crust!)

7. Bake 30 – 35 minutes for a small loaf, 35 to 40 for a big loaf, or until top is brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Fresh outta the oven! (I think my oven is hotter at the back – that side’s darker!)

8. Remove from oven and allow to cool before slicing. (IF you can wait – this is the hardest part for me – especially since I seem to always time it so that supper is ready and waiting except for the bread, so that it inevitably gets sliced hot. And unfortunately also often slightly underdone and a little doughy…. But still good enough that it usually gets eaten to the last slice…)

Note: As you can see, this did not technically take 5 minutes to make! The 5 minutes only refers to the initial mixing time, not the total time it takes to make the bread!! Which is why I think I might prefer the title “No-Knead Yeast Bread”! What I really like about this bread, though, is that it can be mixed up so quickly and easily, and popped into the fridge until you need it. Plus, it has a wonderful, crisp, chewy crust. Really, it tastes like a French bread loaf. The challenge for me, however, is still in the timing, and planning ahead accordingly.

I think I will try a lower yeast content/slower rise version next time. I would also like to see how this no-knead technique does with whole wheat and other whole grains in the mix.

Find the inspiration for the above recipe, learn more about “5 Minute Bread”, (along with a much more detailed explanation of how to make it), as well as where you can get a whole book full of recipes at ArtisanBreadinFive.com.