indigo pears

Baking Bread is comforting!!!!

I found recipes for baking no-knead bread and using the new cast iron Le Creuset oven which many of us have or have just received for Christmas! (This photo is by fellow blogger Karen Kaminski of the blog, "Better Living Through Literature". Karen mentioned finding the recipe and article about no-knead breads in the May issue of Vogue...so I searched on-line and found these recipes, links and videos!)

Apparently, it is the long rising time 12-18 hours which takes the place of kneading!

Basic No-Kead Bread

3 cups bread flour

2 tsp. fine salt

1 tsp. instant yeast

1 1/2 cups water, at room temperature

Coarse wheat bran (for preventing sticking to towel during rise). In a large bowl combine flour and salt. Mix. Add yeast. Add 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 (you'll probably only need another 10-15 minutes...keep an eye on it), until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
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For more details on the technique try this same recipe! It really is easy enough to do with one of your children during the holidays! Now if you really want to learn this technique, just watch this video! [He may not use the Le Creuset pan, but it would work!]