On the bread

O k. I haven't blogged about bread baking for a long stretch. In the fall of 2010, I performed a web search on no knead bread, and came up with www.breadtopia.com and Jim Lahey & Mark Bittman, of the New York Times Food section, laying out the recipe & technique for the best Artisan bread, baked in a covered Dutch oven instead of on a flat tray. Nice crust and nice, moist, chewy crumb with some biggish holes, but not too big.

Variants include adding dried cranberries or raisins. I coat most loaves now with sesame seeds. I have probably baked ~3 loaves per week since Sept 2010.

Originally Jim called for letting the yeast work the dough for 18 hr and lets the dough proof in loaf form for 2 hr. I let the yeast work the dough for 13-14 hr. The loaf proofs for 70-100 min. and goes into a 450 deg covered dutch oven and bakes for 35 min and then 10 more min with the cover off.

Have bread, have happy.