Mineral Water

I am constantly looking for improvements to my recipe. I've reduced my salt from 15g to just 10g, but its frustrating that the margin of error for my scale is +/- 4g so when it says 10 it could be as high as 14 or as low as 6.

I have noticed that 150g of mineral water really does help make the taste 'pop'. So 150g of mineral water, 150g of spring water (avoid tap water because of its additives), and then add the last 10-20g of spring water with a spritzer/mister water bottle.

This last part is key because you don't want TOO much water, so adding with a mister really helps bring together all the loose flower in the bowl as you are mixing.

Cheers - Matt the weekend baker

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