Shamed into it
10 February 2007
After my Dutch oven post a few days ago complaining that I’d never gotten around to making a particular bread recipe, my friend Mark posted a reply mentioning that he’d tried it a couple of times. Both shamed and inspired, I set out to make the no-knead bread from the New York Times myself. Tonight, success!
Because I can’t just follow a recipe, I went ahead and made my own adjustments on the very first go. I used whole wheat flour and added a few tablespoons of gluten, brown sugar, flax seeds, and sesame seeds. Turned out pretty well, I must say. Looks nice. Excellent crust. Didn’t rise too much, but not overly dense. Hearty flavor. Much better than anything I ever got out of a bread machine.
Smelled like heaven too. For forty minutes before it came out of the oven, my roommates and assorted guests kept asking “Is your bread done yet? Is it almost done? How many more minutes?”
My favorite comment on the finished product: “It certainly tastes rustic.”
I was so proud, I couldn’t resist posting pictures at my flickr account (tagged “bread”), including the one below.
The beautiful finished loaf.
At YMA MLP: The archived NYT no-knead bread article, recipe, and follow-up comments.
Yes, bravo and well done John. Mine was quite crusty too. I forgot to mention that the crust was quite… crusty.