No knead bread round two
Two days ago I started my second batch of the no-knead bread.
Based on suggestions that it would rise better in a smaller vessel I baked it in my smaller cast iron dutch oven instead of my enormous, Le Creuset enameled oven. But even baked in my smaller dutch oven it came out sort of flat. It never seemed to rise. After two hours I moved it upstairs to above the wood stove, hoping the heat would give it some incentive, but after a four hour second rise it never even came close.
Last night it spread out. It definitely expanded and took up more space than it did after being shaped, but never puffed up like it should. I started to troubleshoot. Was the yeast active? I mixed a bit with water and sugar and it started to bubble almost immediately? Was it the wrong kind of yeast? According to the original recipe, no, but according to a follow-up article in the NYT, active dry yeast is fine. Did it stay flat because my house is too cold? My house temperature is between 59-60 degrees most of the time, not the recommended 70 degrees, but the follow-up article does suggest that any temperature is fine. I even added more yeast this time in the hopes that it would make a difference.
The only difference between this attempt and the last failed attempt was that the bread, flat as it was, tasted amazing and had a bread like texture instead of being dense and hard like a rock. It’s seriously delicious. It may be flat as a pancake, but at 11 pm, when I finally took it out of the oven after letting it “rise” for an additional 2 hours, we had to stop ourselves from eating the whole thing right then and there.
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Based on the videos there’s nothing wrong with my technique. I have no problems making yeast breads ordinarily, but this one just seems to elude me. Give it a shot and let me know how you make out.
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February 14th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I know it just doesn’t give the same satisfaction, but how do you feel about bread machines? I recommend using it for the kneading and rising part, and then taking the dough out of the machine to bake it in your own oven. For some reason it just comes out better. I’ll have to try this instead and see if it comes out better. My house is usually too hot for us, so maybe the bread will like it!!!
February 15th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
[...] was impressed with how they learned to cook everything on it and even managed to bake bread and a cake. My bread sometimes flops with the best of conditions so seeing food people created with [...]