More bread porn with home made ravioli.
And of course homemade marinara sauce.
And of course homemade marinara sauce.
Baking bread?
- Thread starter sbcwolff
- Start date
The lead to the article is bread so easy any 6 year-old can make it. And except for the putting it in a 450° dutch oven, a 6 year-old could.I haven't tried this yet, however, it seems like it would work well on a boat. No need for a bread machine, just an oven.
No-Knead Bread Recipe
Here is one of the most popular recipes The Times has ever published, courtesy of Jim Lahey, owner of Sullivan Street Bakery It requires no kneading It uses no special ingredients, equipment or techniquescooking.nytimes.com
Started the bread Friday and let ferment for 18 hours until Saturday around 3, then followed the directions. The result speaks for its self. Dinner was mostly fresh baked bread.
Nothing written down but this is kept in the cave(so check against a recipe or two in a book): This is my home recipe, for boat, halve the ingredients, or even quarter for a small batch.
Mix 2 tsp of dry yeast (not rapid rise) with a cup of warm water (not hot-not cold) in a small bowl, add a pinch of sugar (any kind), sit for 10-15 min.
Measure (good luck) 6 cups of flour into a big mixing bowl.
Add 2 tsp. of Sea salt.
Give the yeast bowl a tap with a spoon to make sure you have life (you'll see it in little bursts).
Add yeast/water to flour and add another cup of warm water. Mix in bowl with a big stiff wooden spoon. Add more warm water, up about 3-4 cups. I usually end up about 1 cup water to 2 cups flour, but this is subjective. Mix with spoon until you have a shaggy. clumpy mass in the bowl.
Put a damp dish towel over the bowl and let it sit for 15 - 20 minutes (this is called the Autolyse and makes the dough, better).
Now you get your hands doughy. I like to knead the dough on a stout old butcher block so I can put my back into it.
Put a little dry flour down first and pull the dough mass in the middle. Kneading the dough is just a mater of folding it over itself. If it sticks too readily to your hands, add a little more flour as you knead.Don't add too much flour as dough will get too tough and concrete like. I lean toward a little wet and sticky as opposed to dense and dry. What MJ has in this old photo is about perfect.
Knead for 5 - 6 minutes or until the dough is consistent and feels,....good.
Spread out a tablespoon or two of olive oil around the inside of your big bowl (no need to wash it). Throw the dough ball, about the size of a cantaloupe, into the bowl and cover with a damp dish towel, plastic wrap, to keep the air out. Put in a warmish place to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until doubled in size.
Once 'proofed', punch it down in the bowl, roll it over a few times into a small ball again, cover and let rise for another hour or maybe more if it needs it to near double again.
After this second rise, roll that beauty, light and fragrant, heap of nicely proofed dough back onto the lightly floured butcher block. Cut the dough in half, cut those halves into thirds. You have to figure out how long a baguette you can bake (we have a big oven that will take a 2 footer), pan size, etc.
Turn your oven on NOW, full blast. I set mine on 500 and put an old aluminum pie pan in the bottom.
Form your baguettes. Look that up to get a start but the main thing is getting the length you want with a tight skin to help hold it's shape.
The above recipe yields 6, 2 footers. Here they are about half way through their third and final rise on the baking pan. This rise only takes about a half an hour. Almost forgot, it's time for a glass of wine at this point. You can get special baguette pans that help hold them up and not go flat. I try to get a tight enough skin so as the baguette rises (this happens quickly now as the yeast is at it's strongest).
After the baguettes have plumped up(but not started to over size and blow out flat), about 30 minutes you need to cut slashes in the tops with a razor blade or super sharp knife. Find the techinique online but basically you cut long slashes about 1/4" deep in the skins. These allow the loaves to break the skin at these points and not blow out the sides (which they will do without these relief cuts which is no problem in the taste).
Slide the pan onto the top rack in your red hot oven. Pour a cup of water or so into the red hot pie pan in the bottom and slam the door! I usually also spray the loaves with a water mister, lightly before they go in and once after about 3 minutes. This helps to make nice crust.
After 10 minutes I may turn the oven down to 400-425 but only if it was hot enough to start. Baguettes, smaller diameter, cook fast so it's tricky to get a good crust unless the oven is hot.
Be ready to pull them out in as little as 20 minutes. Stay by the oven, if you smell something burning, quick!
The crust is everything in a baguette. It's where all it's taste and texture resides.
Why bother with all this, there are so many easier breads to make? No good reason. A baguette is a simple light bread that doesn't keep particularly well(a day and then should be frozen), and is not particularly nutritious(white flour).
A baguette holds charm for me from old kids books (Linnea's Garden, Madeline in Paris) we'd read to the kids. And we were lucky enough to visit Paris when they were very young so I started baking baguettes for my family after that trip, and I never stopped, until they left the nest(I still do them for special occasions).
The baguette is a staple there, a way of a people and an entire country. We got to visit some old bakeries there and it all still sticks to me.
We're all cooks in my family and the kitchen is where we're happiest.
I'd like to hear how your new Ooni is working out. We have one of the older ones, and Ooni 3 that's fired with wood pellets. It's tricky! But makes wonderful pizza. I've been using Ooni simple dough recipe but gone to mixing it all in a Kitchen Aid heavy mixer with a dough hook. One step. Then it goes into the cold garage to cold proof for a couple days. I'm going to look at the recipe you posted, thanks!I spent decades trying make my own pizza crust that had both an easy texture to work with and good flavor. Finally stumbled onto a recipe using all purpose flour and type 00 flour with a 24 hour cold fermentation. The flours and the cold fermentation worked. That and we bought a new oven with a Pizza setting that could go to 550°.
Our latest bread toy is a portable wood fired pizza oven, cooks the pizza in about a minute at 900°! Still learning and trying to figure out how to use it on the boat.
Ooni Karu 12 Multi-Fuel Pizza Oven
Start a fire with the Ooni Karu 12 pizza oven. Fueled by wood, charcoal or gas. Cook wood-fired, stone-baked pizza in any outdoor space in 90 seconds.ooni.com
The Karu might be different than the Ooni 3. I would NOT put my Ooni on the boat!!!!
Always love fresh bread. Ive always wanted to try cooking bread on campfire.
This seems easy enough for beach camping.
This seems easy enough for beach camping.
Seems like a lot of dead trees for a few meals. And where did he get that nicely dried and split firewood?
Well, our Ooni Karu does not get red hot with flames shooting out the chimney!
So far our results have been mixed. We've only cooked pizza a few times. The issues I've had are timing, the pizza cooks quickly. The peel, we have the 12" bamboo peel, good for getting the pie in the oven, not so good for turning it, and temperature control. We're committed and will keep working at it.
We've had better success with the cast iron grill pan. Turkey burgers cook quickly and come out moist and tender. I cooked a thick pork chop one night it too was good, just a tad over cooked. Cooking in a 600°+ oven takes some practice.
The Karu can use wood, charcoal, or gas but not wood pellets. That makes temperature control a bit challenging. So far we have not had flames shooting out the chimney or the chimney turning red hot.
I think getting a metal turning peel will help with evenly cooking the pizza. We have a bamboo peel and it is too thick to easily slide under the pie until the crust has cooked a bit. This leads to uneven cooking. Timing is also a concern, once the pie starts to cook, it cooks quickly.
I thought I'd played this earlier. Guess I forgot to hit the [Post Reply] button.
Linda just made it as a return favor for fixing the loose oven door.
It came out dense and doughy, nice crust. Used Down East APA (American Pale Ale).
-Will (Dragonfly)
Except that it tastes great.
Linda just made it as a return favor for fixing the loose oven door.
It came out dense and doughy, nice crust. Used Down East APA (American Pale Ale).
-Will (Dragonfly)
It is if you use good beer.Sorry @Will Gilmore beer bread is just a waste of good beer.
I would never use a Belgium quad, for instance.
-Will (Dragonfly)
If you don't use decent beer you end up with lousy bread. Sometimes you just can't win.
Here we are, anchored in the bay that Alexander McKenzie walked across Canada to in 1792. It's raining, Bev makes fresh bread and cinnamon buns. Life is VERY good!
Just popped out a loaf using no-knead method and home made dutch -oven easy p-easy . Next loaf will beer batter based! Cheers!
