The taste is divine, the crust is delightful, and a slice was delicious enough to have as my dessert this evening; it is a triumphant success! This is my fourth loaf in a recent spate of bread baking, and after a few hiccups, I think the recipe is starting to be perfected. It is a no-knead, long-fermentation bread... after barely combining the usual water/flour/yeast/salt, there is no further effort. The yeast is left to bubble away for days and days in the fridge, slowly but surely lining up a gluten structure and developing in flavor. I bake the loaf inside a dutch oven with the lid on, to imitate a steam-injection oven and hopefully imitate the lovely crusts that professional bakers manage to produce. (Try it yourself! My main source is here.) There are more tweaks to try out: how long should the ferment last? how can I shape the loaf without scalding myself on the pre-heated dutch oven? how much whole wheat flour could be added before it affects texture? But for now, hot damn, I made one fine loaf of bread.
(Note, however, that while no kneading is required, this method seems to get flour everywhere in my kitchen and all over me. I'm in denial until tomorrow!)
Simply because I stumbled across these photos as I was writing this, I thought I could show off a bit more baking from Blenheim Road. Here are a few pics from a bagel-making adventure... now these take a LOT of work. But it is worth it, to get good bagels 3500 miles from New York!
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| The night before, make the dough. After one rise, shape it into rings and let it rise again. |
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| Boil bagels, in water with a bit of malt barley syrup (or honey), to get that classic chewy bagel crust. |
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| Then bake to brown them, and coat in toppings! Maybe I need to make these again soon. |
