As one who enjoys crusty bread, and doesn't want to pay $5 a loaf, I've been really enjoying no-knead bread. Mix it up in the morning, fold when I get home, fresh bread for dinner.
But over the summer, it's been going wrong and really frustrating me.
I'm following the original no-knead bread recipe, flour and water by weight, and increased by 1/3 (to 4 cups=573g flour, 2 cups=460g water) because my Dutch oven is large.
The one change is that (just like Jim Lahey in his demonstration videos) I don't bother putting the dough in a greased bowl; I just mix it in one bowl, cover it, and use a spatula to get it out at the end.
The recipe says give it a first rise of 12 hours. But after 12 hours have passed, the dough has fallen in the bowl and is soupy and runny. It sticks to everything and, although it's still edible, doesn't rise well when baked.
I assumed this was due to warmer summer weather accelerating the effect of the yeast, since my kitchen is a lot warmer than the 65–72°F (18–22°C) that recipe calls for: it's around 27°C/81°F. I started cutting back on the time and have had good results with a 6–8 hours first rise.
But that's hugely inconvenient for a weekday. I can't spend 8 hours at work, plus commute and errand time, and get back to the dough in time. Overnight is uncomfortable if I want to relax and/or have sex in bed then sleep for 8 hours, and it leaves me with a second rise that ends when I'm at work.
I just had a batch that I forgot about for a whole day, and it showed the symptoms clearly enough that they're easy to describe.
The top looks okay, nicely bubbly, but has clearly sunk below its peak volume, and underneath is a bubble-free liquid mass. If I dump it out onto a work surface, it oozes everywhere, and I'm not so much folding it as stirring it.
The second rise wrapped in a towel doesn't double in size, and the dough sticks to it, making it hard to dump out into the oven.
Is my diagnosos correct? If so, is there some way to adjust things to slow it down? Putting it in the fridge seems extreme, but I could start with cold water. Even less yeast? (I'm using a jar of active dry yeast kept in the refrigerator.) More salt, less salt?
Or some way to rescue this mess once it's formed? Can I use it as starter, add more fresh flour and water to restart the rise?
I don't really understand what's happening, why dough that holds its shape when first mixed liquefies in the bowl. (Even when the recipe works, I notice that no matter what shape the dough starts in, it develops a flat top and looks "wetter" as it rises.)
It used to be so good, but over the last few months I feel like it's getting worse with practice.
Submitted September 26, 2014 at 08:36AM by cypherpunks http://ift.tt/1svOflV Breadit
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