An update to a revolutionary recipe

The original Jim Lahey recipe for no-kneed bread published by Mark Bittman published in November 2006 (covered in this post) kicked off the revolution. Home bakers (like me) everywhere were inspired to give it a try.

Now Mark Bittman has revisited the technique and has talked with Jim Lahey about publishing an updated version of the recipe that started it all. Here is a link to the story:

No-Knead Bread: Not Making Itself Yet, but a Lot Quicker

Jim Lahey didn't approve of toying with the ratios and I think I agree.

The basic idea is that the more yeast you throw in, the shorter the rise-time. This is fairly basic "baking 101", but for the experienced baker the longer the rise the more developed the flavor of the loaf.

Of course there's always a trade-off when baking good bread vs baking quick bread. I've even blogged about this in the past. If you want a good quick bread then choose a recipe that's suited for it (and heavily flavored already). The whole point of fresh baked bread (french, sourdough or wheat) is to really TASTE the nutty flavor of the flower.

-Matt the weekend baker

No-Kneed Bread

The no-kneed bread phenomenon all started with a New York baker named Jim Lahey from the Sullivan Street Bakery. He was discovered by Mark Bittman (the Minimalist) of the New York times and the famous article appeared:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html

I wish I could say I found this article on my own, but I had two friends (HangerMike & DragonCoder) send me links to it because they knew my passion for baking.

This requires a 5 quart dutch oven, but a quick search of eBay for "Cast Iron Enamel Dutch Oven" will yield several in the $30-$50 range.

Here is a video of his technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU



-Matt the Weekend Baker