Easy, wonderful no-knead bread

I feel like I'm really late to jump on this bandwagon- most people already know about this recipe, which is fantastic! This is the most wonderful bread recipe I've come across! I can't tell you how tasty this bread is- just go make it for yourself. It's so easy to make and it leaves some room for experimenting- try it with 1/2 cup whole wheat or even some other grains or spices added in. I got the recipe from a family I babysit for and it's also all over the internet. It was published in the NY Times in 2006. Check out this video about it: 

I see myself making this bread pretty often. First thing you do need for it, which may be different from other bread recipes you've tried in the past, is a ceramic, porcelain, Pyrex, or cast iron pot with a top on it. Here's the one I got because I couldn't afford one of these.

This recipe takes a lot of time but it's not active time. Just giving you fair warning.

Ingredients:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 5/8 cup water

1. In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together and then pour water in. Mix until combined. The dough will be sticky and shaggy. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 12-18 hours.

2. After 12-18 hours, the dough is ready when the surface is bubbly.

3. Turn out onto a floured surface and sprinkle some more flour on top. Fold the bread onto itself a few times and then loosely cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

4. Generously sprinkle cornmeal, flour or wheat germ generously onto a kitchen towel (not terrycloth). Carefully form the dough into a ball and put the dough onto the towel, seam side facing down. Sprinkle more cornmeal, flour or wheat germ on top and cover with another towel. Let rise for 2 hours until doubled in size.

5. About 30 minutes before the bread is ready, preheat the oven to 450ºF and place the pot into the oven as it heats up. When ready, carefully turn the dough, seam-side up into the pan and cover with the top. Bake for 30 minutes covered, then remove the cover and bake for another 15-30 minutes until golden brown. Turn out onto a cookie sheet to cool and form a crust.

We ate ours tonight with some stew. Yum!

Beer rosemary pizza dough

This recipe was inspired by our trip to the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins last weekend. Try this with different kinds of good, interestingly flavored beers. I used some Fat Tire and then enjoyed the rest while I was cooking:) I also used some fresh rosemary that was left over from our rosemary focaccia with roasted garlic and cracked black pepper from a few weeks ago.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour (I used 2 cups white, 1 cup whole wheat)
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs chopped, fresh rosemary
3/4 cup warm water
1.5 Tbs active dry yeast
1/4 cup beer

1. Sprinkle the yeast into the warm water and set aside to let it react and get frothy.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the dry ingredients and rosemary and drizzle in the olive oil.

3. Add the beer to the water/yeast mixture and add to the flour mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon and then your hand and knead a few times in the bowl. Let sit for about 15 minutes to rest.

4. Stretch out to desired pizza dough shape and top as you'd like and then bake at about 425ºF for 15 minutes.

Before toppings.

I drizzled some olive oil, then put on a few cloves of minced garlic,  emergency tomato sauce, steamed spinach, mushrooms, olives, red peppers and topped it with caramelized onions.

The end result! Delicious.

Whole wheat pan bread

I'm always searching for new bread recipes. Making your own bread is so easy and you really should give it a try. If anything, it makes your living space smell amazing:) When I was visiting a local bookstore in Fort Collins, Old Firehouse Books, I picked up a brand new copy of this book for only $4.99. Today is the first time I've tired any of the recipes and so far I think I like this one. Well, I like it enough to blog about it. The recipe is "White (or Whole-wheat) Pan Bread" from 100 Great Breads by Paul Hollywood.

It was pretty easy to make, as far as breads go and the flavor is more complex than I expected. We'll see how this pan bread holds up after a day or so. I'll also freeze one of the loaves and see how that goes. If anything, I think these would make fantastic bread crumbs. I'm going to try his "Beer Bread" next.

Ingredients:

scant 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour
2/3 cup white bread flour (unbleached!!!)
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs instant yeast
1/2 stick Earth Balance, softened
generous 1 1/4 cups water

1. Put the flour, salt, yeast and Earth Balance into a bowl, then add the water, little by little, folding in with your hands until all the flour has been picked up. Tip out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for 5 minutes, or until you have a pliable, soft dough. Put the dough back in the bowl and let rest for 1 hour.

2. Oil the loaf pan or pans. Shape the dough to fit the pan(s) and let rise for 1 hour.

Before rising. I forgot to take a picture before they were in the oven. They didn't rise as much as I thought they would- I might let them rise for an hour and a half next time.

3. Preheat the oven to 450ºF. Just before you bake the loaf, dust the top with flour and, using a knife, make slashes across the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, then turn out of the pan(s) onto a wire rack to cool.

I enjoyed the heel with some fig jam. Yum!