figment: A treewoman, a dryad, her arms are branches (Default)
[personal profile] figment
Yesterday was a good day. We slept in. We went to Sticky Fingers for brunch. Sticky Fingers is an awesome vegan bakery & cafe that has just relocated to right around the corner from us! They just opened on Wednesday and I was delighted to see that they have a great space, and that they were super busy - there was a line going to the door the entire time we were there! I'm happy because I really want them to do well. We had a delicious breakfast and [livejournal.com profile] azure_armand went to get us more treats for this morning. Mmmm.

I also made bread yesterday. I think I'm a pretty good cook but I don't think of myself as much of a baker, so I was dubious. And the recipe - I didn't think it could possibly be so easy, but it was! This recipe takes forever - I started it at 9 PM on Friday night and we ate the loaf at 7 PM Saturday night - but it's so easy and delicious. It literally doesn't require any kneading.
This New York Times article is where I got the recipe, and the theory behind it (sent to me by my brother [livejournal.com profile] jgs42).

No-Knead Bread
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1 1/2-pound loaf.

Mira’s modifications:
* instead of mixing instant yeast with the other dries, proof 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast in 2 Tbs. hot water, then add room temp. water to total amt. called for, and proceed
* after rising, leave in bowl and knead with a spatula instead of by hand, no need for sticky mess or getting the counter dirty
* had success with these alternate flour combinations: 2 c. whole wheat/1 c. all purpose; 2 c. ww/1/2 c. all purpose/1/2c. crushed cereal. If using other than all purpose flour, try adding a bit extra water

I used Mira's yeast modification and tried the whole wheat/all purpose combo.

I was really dubious when I put the dough into the pot, it looked pretty flat and unconvincing. But it came out great! I let it cool (and listened to the crust crackle as it cooled) for about an hour and then sliced it up, and the four of us ate almost the entire loaf.


Bread!

Bread, hummous, and olives - part of last night's dinner.


Anyway, we had friends over for dinner, consumed a delicious meal, and had a good time. Today, worky worky worky, and then go see The Fountain at 2. Hope you're all having a good weekend!
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

Profile

figment: A treewoman, a dryad, her arms are branches (Default)
figment

December 2015

S M T W T F S
  12345
678 9101112
13141516171819
202122232425 26
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios