Real Crusty Bread part 2!

No knead bread is simply so so sooooooo easy! You won’t believe me till you try it! And the results are amazing.

The recipe here is almost identical to the original Real Crusty Bread recipe from before; the differences are that this is a “wetter” dough resulting in a crisper & thinner crust and there is no shaping involved! Just plop it “gently” into a preheated pot! I am now an advocate for the no shaping method! Easier, less fiddly and amazing results!

The only thing though, is do try and measure your ingredients. A scale & measuring spoons really help here to get the right results. And are now widely available in any large supermarket.

I added “bakers percentages” to the recipe so you can scale up and down as you want. Just keep the same percentages.

Enjoy your fresh crusty bread with a slice of cheese or buttered with some homemade jam!

Real Crusty Bread...No Knead Method

• Servings: 3 medium loaves or 2 large
• Time: 10min prep, 1hr baking + proofing/resting time
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients
High protein flour (Bread flour, Five stars plain flour is 14%)
Luke warm water
Instant yeast (1.5 10gm sachet)
Salt

Weight
1000 gm
.
800 ml
15 gm
20 gm

Bakers %
100%
.
80 %
1.5%
2 %

Tools:

• A huge bowl or plastic box (6L – 9L) with a lid or plastic wrap to use as a cover (It’s ok if you don’t have; mix the ingredients first then split the dough between 2 big bowls or boxes)
• Mixing utensil ( a big wooden spoon or your hands)
• A digital scale & measuring jug would be very helpful

When baking you will preheat the oven to 220C (200 C convection oven).

Method: It’s really easy!

• In your box or bowl, put in the flour followed by the salt and yeast then pour the warm (please make sure its warm tepid water and not hot at all so you don’t kill the yeast! you should be able to put your finger in and feel its just not cold)

• Get your wooden spoon or your hands 🙂 and start mixing the whole thing. It should take less than 5 minutes 🙂 You want to make sure that there are no dry flour bits in your dough. The dough itself will feel wet and sticky and that’s very normal. This is a wet dough recipe.
• Once its all mixed together nicely, cover with a lid or cling wrap and leave for a couple of hours.

After the mixing. Notice its only up to a third of the box.

• After 2 hours, you should find the dough has risen nicely and almost doubled. Put it in the fridge overnight.

After the 2 hours & before putting in the fridge. Notice its more than doubled in height.

Baking the lovely bread…

1. Get your dough out of the fridge, place it in a warm place leaving it covered. Preheat your oven at 220 C (200 C for convection) for 30min.
2. Place a heavy pot with lid (tefal,pyrex, clay, stainless…anything really as long as its big and has a cover) in the preheated oven to heat and give thatanother30min.

   

   My pot and lid preheating in the oven.

3. When the time is up (The dough has been out now for 1 hour) take your pot carefully out of the oven (close the oven door!), place on a workbench and remove the lid (both will be extremely hot!)
4. Lightly dust the bottom of the pot with flour.
5. Hold your dough box above the centre of the pot and tilt to drop about a quarter (smallish loaf) to half (biggish loaf) of the dough in the pot. Help the dough along with your free hand, releasing it gently from the box (Be gentle so you don’t deflate the dough). Snip off the dough with scissors or hands once enough is in the pot.
6. Lightly dust top of dough with flour, cover with the lid and place back in your oven for 30min.
7. Afterthe30min are up, quickly take out the pot (close the oven door to trap in the heat) & take off the lid. Quickly return back to the oven and leave the breadanother30min to become golden brown.

   

   After the first 30 min, take off the lid and you will find this! Its still light in color (I’m re-using one of the shaped method pics but its the same idea).

8. Once time is up, carefully take the pot out of the oven & slide the bread out on to a wire standorgrate so the bottom doesn’t become soggy.

   

   Loaf baked with the no shaping method. No slashing required!

   

   And another “small” Loaf baked with the no shaping method. No slashing required! Apologies for the bad lighting!

9. To make sure it’s cooked through, flip it over and knock on the bottom. You should hear a hollow sound. If you don’t, put it back in the oven for a further 5 or 10 minutes (you don’t have to put it in the pot though, just on the oven rack).

Leave to cool down before you slice (at least an hour). I now let it cool down in the turned off oven leaving the oven door ajar. It helps keep it crusty!

See the lovely slices 🙂

Enjoy!!!!

Cooks Notes:

• If you want to make several to store & bake fresh when needed; you can bake till its risen and the crust has formed (first 30 min) then take out and cool (as above, over a wire rack in the turned off oven). Once its cold, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. When you need it, thaw it out and bake for 30 min at 220 C in a pre-heated (not covered) pot or directly on the oven rack.
• Storage: in a paper bag is best. Make your own using some baking or wax paper. If it stays overnight, place the slices in a toaster to crisp up the edges again. You can also wrap tightly the loaf after its completely cooled in cling film (plastic wrap) and freeze. Thaw completely in its plastic wrap before trying to slice though
• The dough amount will make 3 medium loaves. The dough itself can stay covered in the fridge for up to 14 days. If you leave it to 14 days, its best to use the dough for pizza or ciabatta bread not high loaves.
• Recipe adapted from Masterchef Australia, Jeff Lahey of the Sullivan street bakery and ABi5 cookbook.