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Intriguing no-knead bread

Intriguing no-knead bread
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  • Intriguing no-knead bread

    Post #1 - November 8th, 2006, 4:06 pm
    Post #1 - November 8th, 2006, 4:06 pm Post #1 - November 8th, 2006, 4:06 pm
    NY Times has an article about a slow-rising, no-knead crusty bread that looks amazingly good in the photographs. It takes the better part of a day to rise. I'm planning on trying the recipe as soon as I have the chance.

    Giovanna
    =o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=o=

    "Enjoy every sandwich."

    -Warren Zevon
  • Post #2 - November 8th, 2006, 6:48 pm
    Post #2 - November 8th, 2006, 6:48 pm Post #2 - November 8th, 2006, 6:48 pm
    I'm right there with you, Giovanna. Loved this article. Sent it to everyone I know who bakes bread. This is also an awesome reason for me to haunt TJ Max or Marshall's to get a new big cast iron pot. Love the idea of just making your dough and letting it sit and and then a day later you have bread.

    Shannon
  • Post #3 - November 9th, 2006, 10:05 am
    Post #3 - November 9th, 2006, 10:05 am Post #3 - November 9th, 2006, 10:05 am
    I have to admit I find it hard to believe that there is anything new to discover about bread, at least on this level. In 6000 years nobody ever left some dough out without kneading and discovered the next day that it was ready to bake? I bet there are any number of traditional breads made this way, somewhere.

    I also find it a bit depressing because I've been making traditional sourdough lately, and it just is no fun to learn there might be shortcuts. I worked and suffered, you should have to too!

    Actually, though, the problem I have with this, after making my own bread with a sourdough starter, is the use of commercial yeast. There's no question that bread made with commercial fast-rising yeast has a certain flavor-- walk by a commercial bakery and you'll get an intense dose of it, kind of chloriney or paint thinnery in that quantity. Now, I have no problem with it per se, it produces a certain sort of soft, spongey bread which works well for lots of things, and if you want that taste and texture quickly, well, you can use a bread machine, you can knead it in your Kitchenaid mixer, there's lots of ways to get decent bread with relatively little work, all of which I do from time to time.

    Contrary to that was the Art of Eating article (which I can't find, dammit) mentioned here (but I'll quote the relevant part):

    an issue or two back there was a review of several bread books by some guy who clearly knew his stuff and then some... but he made the process of making bread sound basically impossible, his sense of the appropriate temperature ranges, rest times, etc. was so precise and narrow. It sort of discouraged me from ever trying anything ever again...


    To which G Wiv replied, "People have been making bread for 6000 years without knowing any of that shit." Which is not exactly true (they know it intuitively, not scientifically) but I saw his point about not getting freaked out by one of humanity's basic skills. So I dove into making traditional bread recently kind of just to see if it could be done pretty well, using traditional, slower-acting yeast, without becoming as fanatically expert as the Art of Eating writer (or the guys at the bread board I know BillSFNM is part of, and I admire that fanaticism immensely, but part of the point was seeing if you could make pretty good bread without it taking over your life). And the answer is, hell yes, with a little help from books and technology. Everyone should try it.

    * * *

    The first thing I did was order a French sourdough starter from Ed Wood, the man who wrote the book and, more to the point, has intrepidly searched the world for interesting starters and often literally smuggled them back. I cannot praise Wood for this highly enough; I tried to buy a dry starter somewhere years ago and it was flavorless and uninteresting, little more than conventional yeast I suspect. Only Wood, so far as I know, actually makes traditional sourdough yeasts available to the general public, at least in this many varieties (quite fascinating reading, by the way, be sure to visit his site).

    A week or so of mixing and pouring out and remixing goop to bring the starter to active strength followed, keeping it warm like a baby chick in a styrofoam cooler with a 25-watt bulb dangling inside. The first thing I made with some of my discarded starter was sourdough pancakes-- a little strong for pancakes, but an intriguing preview.

    Next up I tried making bread dough. Not surprisingly, I pretty much overdid everything-- the dough was too warm so I tried to cool it down by sticking it in the freezer for two minutes, then suddenly it was way too cold (oops, that might have worked better if it weren't still in a metal bowl that immediately dropped to 20 below), it was too thick so I had trouble adding the salt, I don't remember what all I screwed up. I actually finally aborted this batch as sure to dissapoint as bread, and used it for pizza dough-- which it was quite good for, actually. Not that it matters, since I'll never be able to repeat this set of errors exactly.

    Second batch, my first real bread dough, was a much smoother process. However, by now I had hand-kneaded two large balls of dough and though it was undoubtedly educational in terms of learning how to judge by texture... I was sore. Reluctantly, I knew that from here on out the Kitchenaid would do the main mixing and, per Nancy Silverton's advice, I would do a little finish-kneading which would help me stay in contact with the dough and hone my sense of what was right in terms of texture.

    Image

    That's actually a later loaf but I thought it was time to actually look at what we were talking about. Working with traditional starter is on a whole different time scale than using fast-acting commercial yeast; once you've mixed and kneaded it you give it about four hours for its first rise, then refrigerate it about 12 hours to let it rest, ferment, something. Then you let it rise again for about 4 hours, and bake. This actually is not a bad schedule-- you make the dough one afternoon or evening, let it rest overnight, let it rise and bake it the next afternoon. But it's slower than traditional yeast and, ironically, sort of like the timescale of the no-knead method.

    I had ordered one of those La Cloche things Mark Bittmann mentions in the article at the beginning of this thread (dismissively), basically a kind of terracotta dutch oven for simulating a brick oven and trapping steam inside during the first part of the baking process, but Amazon shipped it badly and it arrived broken, so I had to wait for a replacement. (Ironically, the company turns out to be here in Chicago, not that far from my house.) So for my first pair of loaves I did the spritz-water-in-the-oven method for a crispy crust, which despite Bittmann's comments is perfectly easy and effective.

    Image

    Unless you overdo it so much, like I did, that you wind up with an armor-plated shell. You also see, from the fact that my cut in the top barely separated, that this loaf was too dense to expand in the baking process. Yes, it was (the family said as, grimacing, they tried heroically to chew it). Crumbly inside, not full of different-sized bubbles and stretchy glutens. An okay first try but it was obvious where improvement was needed.

    Image

    This was the second batch and the first done in the La Cloche. As you can see I was still learning something about how much to let the outside brown-- in the end I arrived at a point of taking the La Cloche hood off to end steaming and start browning about 10 minutes earlier than they suggest-- but the texture and crumb of the bread was much better by just this second time:

    Image

    Three or four more tries have followed, and by now I feel reasonably competent at what I'm doing and no longer pore over the books talmudically, trying to divine the precise meaning of words like "firm" or "sticky." (In relation to bread, I mean.) Interestingly, it seems like the flavor of the sourdough starter has deepened over time, it's never particularly sour but it does have an old world earthiness and heartiness that is very different from commercial yeast. It's a very satisfying flavor. Here's one of the most recent loaves, just the right color, the right bubbly exterior texture, getting closer to the right degree of denseness/airiness as indicated by fairly good separation of the cuts:

    Image

    So where am I on the scale of breadmaking? Well, not even the best breadmaker on my street, I admit, but as a homemade product, I'm very happy with my bread and the family is always pleased to smell it baking. The LaCloche is a nice product but if you're not interested in spending $50 on a thing just to make bread a $2 squirt gun, applied to the oven wall a couple of times early in the process, plus a pizza stone, will work very similarly. I think G Wiv's instincts were right: you could spend a lifetime learning to make truly great crusty European bread, but anybody with a little care and a few basic implements (like a Kitchenaid) can make pretty darn good crusty European bread-- with only a little more work than the no-work, no-knead method described in that article.
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  • Post #4 - November 9th, 2006, 10:33 am
    Post #4 - November 9th, 2006, 10:33 am Post #4 - November 9th, 2006, 10:33 am
    Mike,

    That last loaf is very impressive.

    Likewise, I am skeptical of the no-knead method, but have never tried it. I'm all for shortcuts that are improvements, but not for ones that sacrifice quality for convenience.

    In my experience, very wet doughs with natural starters kneaded for a long time and allowed to ferment/retard/proof for several days is key to airy and flavorful dough.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #5 - November 9th, 2006, 1:24 pm
    Post #5 - November 9th, 2006, 1:24 pm Post #5 - November 9th, 2006, 1:24 pm
    I've read the no-knead article, and intriguing, it is certainly not a "short-cut" or "easier" than the standard techniquies. Kneading takes what, 5 or 10 minutes, and is one of the easier steps in bread making. This recipe is way more difficult in the sense that you've got to fit an 18 hour rise into your schedule. However, if it makes a BETTER bread, I'm all for it and will may give it a try.

    Jonah
  • Post #6 - November 9th, 2006, 1:52 pm
    Post #6 - November 9th, 2006, 1:52 pm Post #6 - November 9th, 2006, 1:52 pm
    I'm not convinced that no-kneading is making a better bread, just an easier one. What seems to be making a better bread is:

    Mr. Lahey [puts] the dough in a preheated covered pot — a common one, a heavy one, but nothing fancy. For one loaf he used an old Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot; for another, a heavy ceramic pot. (I have used cast iron with great success.) By starting this very wet dough in a hot, covered pot, Mr. Lahey lets the crust develop in a moist, enclosed environment. The pot is in effect the oven, and that oven has plenty of steam in it. Once uncovered, a half-hour later, the crust has time to harden and brown, still in the pot, and the bread is done. (Fear not. The dough does not stick to the pot any more than it would to a preheated bread stone.)


    Essentially he's using his Dutch oven to the same end I'm using my La Cloche for (not terribly surprisingly, since the instructions for the La Cloche tell you how to use it like a Dutch oven). That has, so far as I can see, nothing to do with the other half of the method, and anybody could do that with any dough, and Dutch oven-owners probably have for a long time. That said, while this idea may be less revolutionary, it seems like the smarter and more useful half of the process, getting a La Cloche-like effect out of something people usually already own.

    I set up a time to visit Mr. Lahey, and we baked together, and the only bad news is that you cannot put your 4-year-old to work producing bread for you. The method is complicated enough that you would need a very ambitious 8-year-old.


    Incidentally, I put my 5 year old to work on the bread every time. He's basically taken the Teamster approach to the Kitchenaid mixer, no one else is allowed to touch his equipment...
    Watch Sky Full of Bacon, the Chicago food HD podcast!
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  • Post #7 - November 9th, 2006, 2:02 pm
    Post #7 - November 9th, 2006, 2:02 pm Post #7 - November 9th, 2006, 2:02 pm
    Mike: I think you may be right. The basic concept, of course, that in breadmaking time=flavor, is no revelation.

    Jonah
  • Post #8 - November 9th, 2006, 2:07 pm
    Post #8 - November 9th, 2006, 2:07 pm Post #8 - November 9th, 2006, 2:07 pm
    Mike G wrote:I'm not convinced that no-kneading is making a better bread, just an easier one.


    I'm going to try it. Everything I've read says that a longer, slower rise allows the yeast to produce more of the esters and aldehydes, so it makes sense to me that an 18 hour rise would result in more flavor in the bread than something made with a quick-rise yeast and allowed only an hour or two for the first rise.

    When I get around to trying it, I'll report back.
  • Post #9 - November 9th, 2006, 2:21 pm
    Post #9 - November 9th, 2006, 2:21 pm Post #9 - November 9th, 2006, 2:21 pm
    Interestingly enough, the current issue of Cooks Illustrated has a recipe for dinner rolls that employ a similar technique, a rest overnight (or up to 2 days) in the fridge, then a long slow rise at cool room temperature for 7 hours before baking. Slow rises are the new black!
    Steve Z.

    “Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.”
    ― Ludwig van Beethoven
  • Post #10 - November 9th, 2006, 2:59 pm
    Post #10 - November 9th, 2006, 2:59 pm Post #10 - November 9th, 2006, 2:59 pm
    This is a very simple thing to test. Make a big batch of dough and divide it into, say, 5 pieces, each in a separate container. Allow them all to double at room temp and then place them all in the refrigerator. Each day take out one of the pieces, proof it and bake it. You should see that each day the flavor (and usually the crust and crumb) get better and better, until, at some point, the flavor begins to degrade. The point at which that happens differs for each type of bread. For me, baguettes reach their prime at 3 days in the fridge, bagels 2 days, pizza at 5 days, etc.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #11 - November 9th, 2006, 3:59 pm
    Post #11 - November 9th, 2006, 3:59 pm Post #11 - November 9th, 2006, 3:59 pm
    We're probably going to give this a try this weekend or next, as well. It's hard to argue with the simplicity of it, but we'll see how hard it is to argue with the flavor.
    Ed Fisher
    my chicago food photos

    RIP LTH.
  • Post #12 - November 10th, 2006, 9:42 am
    Post #12 - November 10th, 2006, 9:42 am Post #12 - November 10th, 2006, 9:42 am
    I made a batch of dough the day I read the article, and I baked it last night. I was expecting inedible bread because (1) I have never made bread before, and (2) the dough didn't seem to expand much as it proofed. I decided to toss it in the dutch oven anyway, just for fun. After half an hour, there was a little crack developing in the top (a good sign, yes?), and I removed the pot's lid. Another half an hour, and the bread seemed to have browned nicely (it was difficult to tell because I had used so much flour -- more on that in a moment), so I removed pot from oven, and bread from pot, and left the loaf to cool on a rack.

    Results in brief: The center was underdone but the crust was very nice. On the interior, there was a nice pattern of medium-large air pockets. My bread vocabulary is limited -- so that helps to keep this part brief.

    I don't own the thin baking towels I've seen used, so I ended up using a cotton towel with a little more texture (but not terrycloth). They ended up with more of a caking than a dusting of flour. This factor, along with my inability to handle dough properly (as in, "seam side? what seam?"), led to a hilarious amount of surplus flour in the pot, and on the surface of the loaf. There is about 1/2 cup of flour hanging out in the bottom of the dutch oven.

    I used cold tap water, Morton's kosher salt, Red Star yeast (bought a jar at Jewel), and Gold Medal flour (from CVS when I realized I was running low). This is a very democratic recipe, and I think that's a good thing. I don't mean to suggest that better ingredients wouldn't matter. But, for somebody without experience, it just doesn't make much sense to get too fancy with it.

    I'm glad this article was written. I have seen my girlfriend make bread plenty of times, and although the results were always delicious, I was always put off by the amount of labor involved. Similarly, I am impressed by the loaves featured by the various enthusiasts who post here, but I never could see myself doing all the kneading and whatnot. This article was brilliant because it allowed me to get past that. Using this method, you can beat Jewel's bread on your first try. That is not much, but it is better than nothing.

    This was sort of a "Marcella moment"* for me -- when I realized that this could really be the start of something nice. I'll keep practicing.

    *A friend gave me "Essentials" so that I could learn to make the sauteed vegetables sauce (you know, the one with the celery and carrot).
    - Peter
  • Post #13 - November 10th, 2006, 9:25 pm
    Post #13 - November 10th, 2006, 9:25 pm Post #13 - November 10th, 2006, 9:25 pm
    Tried it. For complicated reasons not worthy of an extended digression, I could not bake the bread as directed in a dutch oven. I put it in a large cast iron frying pan which I managed to cover well for the first ten minutes only. The remaining time was all spent uncovered. I guess the only reaction I can legitimately share is: wow! Needs some tweaking and perhaps a more careful following of directions in re the covered portion of the baking, but given the extremely minimal active prep time needed, it's the best damn bread I've made in many years. I'll be making more bread from now on and look forward to experimenting with various permutations. All in all, a A+ experience.
    Gypsy Boy

    "I am not a glutton--I am an explorer of food." (Erma Bombeck)
  • Post #14 - November 12th, 2006, 3:15 pm
    Post #14 - November 12th, 2006, 3:15 pm Post #14 - November 12th, 2006, 3:15 pm
    HI,

    I baked my loaf last night, then set it out to cool before going to bed. My Dad was the first to try it this morning, who said it was quite good. When I asked about the crust, he advised with quite a bit of enthusiasm, "That was the best part!"

    I used regular general purpose flour instead of bread flour, consequently their were some holes were big enough to drive a pencil through without touching a surface. I will switch to bread flour for the next go around. I suspect with the higher gluten content, the holes will be less.

    I baked my bread in a pyrex Dutch oven with great results.

    Regards,
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
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  • Post #15 - November 12th, 2006, 6:04 pm
    Post #15 - November 12th, 2006, 6:04 pm Post #15 - November 12th, 2006, 6:04 pm
    Cathy2 wrote:HI,

    I will switch to bread flour for the next go around. I suspect with the higher gluten content, the holes will be less.



    Not necessarily. Higher gluten flour can create a stronger structure that will support the creation of larger bubbles. It also can absorb more water so you can have a higher-hydrated dough which is also important for large holes. Counter intuitive, perhaps, but it has definitely been my experience. You might think bread made with high-gluten flour might be tougher, but with a high hydration, the dough is actually very soft.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #16 - November 12th, 2006, 9:28 pm
    Post #16 - November 12th, 2006, 9:28 pm Post #16 - November 12th, 2006, 9:28 pm
    Bill,

    I bow to your experience. You;re right, my assumptions were definitely counter-intuitive believing the gluten would make the bread tougher. On that note I will begin preparing my next batch in a little while using the low-gluten soft wheat flour just for the experience.

    Regards,
    Cathy2

    "You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
    Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways,
  • Post #17 - November 12th, 2006, 10:48 pm
    Post #17 - November 12th, 2006, 10:48 pm Post #17 - November 12th, 2006, 10:48 pm
    At first, I dismissed Mark Bittman's recipe. However, with all the positive results people have obtained I will be dragging the Le Creuset Duch oven out ASAP.
    Jyoti
    A meal, with bread and wine, shared with friends and family is among the most essential and important of all human rituals.
    Ruhlman
  • Post #18 - November 12th, 2006, 11:55 pm
    Post #18 - November 12th, 2006, 11:55 pm Post #18 - November 12th, 2006, 11:55 pm
    Cathy2 wrote:Bill,

    my assumptions were definitely ounter-intuitive believing the gluten would make the bread tougher.


    Cathy2, your assumptions are perfectly intuitive. I assumed the same thing you did until I tried a series of tests in which I steadily increased protein content and hydration. It is the reality that is counter-intuitive.

    Bill/SFNM
  • Post #19 - November 13th, 2006, 11:34 pm
    Post #19 - November 13th, 2006, 11:34 pm Post #19 - November 13th, 2006, 11:34 pm
    Gypsy Boy wrote: All in all, a A+ experience.


    Ditto for me. I went out last night and bought myself an enameled cast-iron 5-quart casserole/Dutch oven at Target and got to work on the recipe. Put it in the oven at 5 p.m. tonight. It's 11:15 p.m., and the bread is eaten. This is really the first time I've made normal white bread that I would be proud to serve to anyone. I burnt part of the crust ever-so-slightly, but the overall texture, crust, and taste of the bread is exactly what I've tried to do so many times before and never quite achieved. I'm most impressed by the taste. The bread actually has flavor. It's got a very nice, slight sourness or something to it. I can't quite explain it, but it doesn't taste like plain ol' white bread.

    Will definitely keep this recipe.
  • Post #20 - November 13th, 2006, 11:52 pm
    Post #20 - November 13th, 2006, 11:52 pm Post #20 - November 13th, 2006, 11:52 pm
    Binko wrote:
    Gypsy Boy wrote: All in all, a A+ experience.

    This is really the first time I've made normal white bread that I would be proud to serve to anyone.


    Agreed entirely. Ours just finished, too, and the results are excellent. Nice bubble distribution, crisp, chewy, but not too-tough crust.

    This was with pillsbury bread flower, SAF gold instant yeast, chicago water, and table salt. I would like a chewier crumb, though.

    We're considering mixing in some natural starter in another batch, to see if we can get some of that tanginess.

    Some pictures of the final product:

    Image

    Image

    Image
    Last edited by gleam on November 14th, 2006, 12:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
    Ed Fisher
    my chicago food photos

    RIP LTH.
  • Post #21 - November 14th, 2006, 12:11 am
    Post #21 - November 14th, 2006, 12:11 am Post #21 - November 14th, 2006, 12:11 am
    Also, this should probably be moved to shopping and cooking.
    Ed Fisher
    my chicago food photos

    RIP LTH.
  • Post #22 - November 14th, 2006, 2:33 am
    Post #22 - November 14th, 2006, 2:33 am Post #22 - November 14th, 2006, 2:33 am
    What's kind of odd is that in the article, Bittman claims the dough is 42% water, which in baker's percentages, would put the hydration at 72%-ish. The recipe given, though, works out to be much wetter, at around 82%.

    So, just for fun tonight, I'm going to try the dough again starting at 100% flour, 72% water (14 oz flour, 10 oz water) and work up from there, seeing if I can find the baker's percentages that work best. I would far prefer a by weight recipe than by volume when it comes to bread.
  • Post #23 - November 14th, 2006, 10:21 am
    Post #23 - November 14th, 2006, 10:21 am Post #23 - November 14th, 2006, 10:21 am
    Just to double-check with everyone else who's made this bread - I just set out my dough for its second rise. Now, when the instructions say "form into a ball" - my dough was so loose and wet that it was more like scooping the dough onto the floured cloth. And forget the "just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands" - I don't think I could've put enough flour on my hands for that. The consistency of it is about the same as a poolish - is that what everyone else is finding?

    Thanks!
    -gtgirl
  • Post #24 - November 14th, 2006, 10:36 am
    Post #24 - November 14th, 2006, 10:36 am Post #24 - November 14th, 2006, 10:36 am
    gtgirl wrote:Just to double-check with everyone else who's made this bread - I just set out my dough for its second rise. Now, when the instructions say "form into a ball" - my dough was so loose and wet that it was more like scooping the dough onto the floured cloth. And forget the "just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands" - I don't think I could've put enough flour on my hands for that. The consistency of it is about the same as a poolish - is that what everyone else is finding?

    Thanks!
    -gtgirl


    My dough was pourable and very sticky, but I was still able to form it into a ball and have it hold its shape without too much spreading as it rested under the plastic. It was not as wet as a poolish.

    The recipe calls for 13oz of water and (approx, at 5oz per cup) 15oz of bread flour. I probably gave it slightly more than 15 and slightly less than 13.
    Ed Fisher
    my chicago food photos

    RIP LTH.
  • Post #25 - November 14th, 2006, 10:39 am
    Post #25 - November 14th, 2006, 10:39 am Post #25 - November 14th, 2006, 10:39 am
    gleam wrote:
    gtgirl wrote:Just to double-check with everyone else who's made this bread - I just set out my dough for its second rise. Now, when the instructions say "form into a ball" - my dough was so loose and wet that it was more like scooping the dough onto the floured cloth. And forget the "just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands" - I don't think I could've put enough flour on my hands for that. The consistency of it is about the same as a poolish - is that what everyone else is finding?

    Thanks!
    -gtgirl


    My dough was pourable and very sticky, but I was still able to form it into a ball and have it hold its shape without too much spreading as it rested under the plastic. It was not as wet as a poolish.

    The recipe calls for 13oz of water and (approx, at 5oz per cup) 15oz of bread flour. I probably gave it slightly more than 15 and slightly less than 13.


    I should've weighed the flour, darn it. I'm guessing I was a little light on the flour, but I wasn't sure how many ounces to use per cup. I thought I read 4oz somewhere, but I can't remember how it was measured (sifted, then scooped, scooped, etc). Well, I'll see how this batch turns out and adjust.

    Thank you!
    -gtgirl
  • Post #26 - November 14th, 2006, 10:45 am
    Post #26 - November 14th, 2006, 10:45 am Post #26 - November 14th, 2006, 10:45 am
    gtgirl wrote:I should've weighed the flour, darn it. I'm guessing I was a little light on the flour, but I wasn't sure how many ounces to use per cup. I thought I read 4oz somewhere, but I can't remember how it was measured (sifted, then scooped, scooped, etc). Well, I'll see how this batch turns out and adjust.

    Thank you!
    -gtgirl


    King Arthur Flour says 4oz for everything, but I've never found that to be true. All flour is different, of course, but for pillsbury and king arthur flour as stored in our house, 5oz generally comes close. We have a pretty humid house, though.
    Ed Fisher
    my chicago food photos

    RIP LTH.
  • Post #27 - November 14th, 2006, 10:47 am
    Post #27 - November 14th, 2006, 10:47 am Post #27 - November 14th, 2006, 10:47 am
    gleam wrote:
    gtgirl wrote:I should've weighed the flour, darn it. I'm guessing I was a little light on the flour, but I wasn't sure how many ounces to use per cup. I thought I read 4oz somewhere, but I can't remember how it was measured (sifted, then scooped, scooped, etc). Well, I'll see how this batch turns out and adjust.

    Thank you!
    -gtgirl


    King Arthur Flour says 4oz for everything, but I've never found that to be true. All flour is different, of course, but for pillsbury and king arthur flour as stored in our house, 5oz generally comes close. We have a pretty humid house, though.


    Cook's Illustrated goes by the following, assuming non-sifted, dip-and-sweep cups

    1 cup of AP flour = 5oz
    1 cup of bread flour = 5.5oz
    1 cup of cake flour = 4oz
  • Post #28 - November 14th, 2006, 11:53 am
    Post #28 - November 14th, 2006, 11:53 am Post #28 - November 14th, 2006, 11:53 am
    i havent tried making this bread yet, but am curious why it requires instant yeast. with such a long rise time, it seems completely unneccessary. i am planning to use regular yeast unless someone has an explanation. thanks
  • Post #29 - November 14th, 2006, 12:57 pm
    Post #29 - November 14th, 2006, 12:57 pm Post #29 - November 14th, 2006, 12:57 pm
    justjoan wrote:i havent tried making this bread yet, but am curious why it requires instant yeast. with such a long rise time, it seems completely unneccessary. i am planning to use regular yeast unless someone has an explanation. thanks


    I doubt it matters. Instant is just easier.
    Ed Fisher
    my chicago food photos

    RIP LTH.
  • Post #30 - November 14th, 2006, 1:32 pm
    Post #30 - November 14th, 2006, 1:32 pm Post #30 - November 14th, 2006, 1:32 pm
    Just pulled my too-wet dough out of the oven about 20 minutes ago, and other than looking more like a flat ciabatta, it turned out pretty well! Tastes great, the crust is wonderful - I think it'd be difficult to screw this bread up! However, I am going to try a 5-oz cup of flour next time, if only for easier clean-up!

    -gtgirl

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